The Day After Tomorrow

Before you start groaning in unison at the thought of another gung-ho 'all balls, no brains' affair, TDAT marks a return to form by Emmerich.

The Day After Tomorrow is the latest disaster movie brought to us by action flick extraordinaire Roland Emmerich, the director responsible for bringing us Independence Day and Godzilla. But before you start groaning in unison at the thought of another gung-ho 'all balls, no brains' affair, TDAT marks a return to form by Emmerich. Under his stewardship films such as Stargate and Universal Soldier managed to illicit probably the last good performances out of action stars such as Kurt Russell and Jean Claude Van Damme. As modern technology developed Emmerich was afforded the opportunity to make extravagant films choc-o-bloc full of dazzling special effects sequences. Unfortunately he seemed more preoccupied with performing the biggest explosions ever on screen rather than supplying us with great entertainment. The Day After Tomorrow marks a complete turnaround as the subject matter is far more intelligent and the contrast in style to his previous efforts is epitomised by Dennis Quaid's role as the middle-aged action hero.

Have you ever dropped a piece of litter on the floor knowing full well that you are directly contributing to the steady decay of the environment? Perhaps you are concerned about the failure of the Kyoto Agreement and the likely effects on the Ozone? The Day After Tomorrow plays upon those fears and is a worst case scenario about the after effects of years of pollution across the globe. Dennis Quaid plays a climatologist, Jack Hall, who has a theory on the possible environmental damage that is likely to be caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. His fears fall on deaf ears and despite his protestations the only person that will listen is fellow scientist Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) who is equally concerned about the future of the earth. Whilst we are gradually introduced to the cast, the terrible effects of the forthcoming natural disaster begin to creep into the background. Before you know it, the movie swings into full scale catastrophe mode and it becomes a case of 'Save as many as you can' rather than 'Save the day'. What ensues is a man's quest to save his son and the world's struggle to cope with the greatest threat to humanity since the Ice Age.

TDAT is a much more palatable version of Roland Emmerich's disaster movies; it is both far more engaging and thoughtful than efforts such as Independence Day. As usual the director plays upon our natural fears, this time in the form of the horror stories forecast by groups such as Greenpeace, but the tone of the film is far more inviting than his other testosterone fuelled offerings. It is fantastic to see a somewhat level headed action movie than something that is solely concerned with showcasing the latest special effects that CGI has been able to bring to the big screen. The concepts of polar ice cap melting and greenhouse gases are introduced to us well and for the most part the film is quite believable. It would be great to see this movie having a positive effect by encouraging people to recycle and pay more mind to the environment, but at least it is likely to put pollution back in the limelight so that it can garner the attention it deserves. Dennis Quaid and Ian Holm add a sincerity to The Day After Tomorrow that pays dividends from the point of view of its scientific approach, they portray the almost futile attempts of environmentalists trying to give politicians a wake-up call with dignity. It all makes TDAT more realistic so that people will sit back in their chairs and get into the movie rather than simply wait for the first big special effect to hit the screen.

The best features of this film are the CGI and action sequences which are a complete turnaround from the spectacles in Emmerich's other movies. Instead of simply making a film full of spots, the director incorporates each sequence into the storyline so that it becomes part of the greater jigsaw. The viewer comes away from the movie judging it as a whole rather than simply concentrating on the one scene. This is a marked improvement over Independence Day which everyone remembers for the White House explosion, instead the storyline, characters and sequences all gel together to give a much more complete film. Each special effect isn't such a spectacle either so the director doesn't make it such a case of trying to top the previous sequence. What is even more impressive is that despite being heavily laden with CGI Emmerich presents The Day After Tomorrow in such a fashion that the effects are entirely more believable, as a result TDAT is a tremendous success as a disaster movie due to the realism involved. Combined with a theoretically possible storyline the viewer can leave the cinema thinking such a Doomsday possibility could be just around the corner. If that isn't a sign of a good disaster movie I don't know what is!

Despite all the film's good points there are unfortunately some faults with The Day After Tomorrow, these are mostly to do with the influences of Roland Emmerich's previous efforts. It seems that the director had spent so much time creating such elaborate displays that he forgot about managing his actors and getting the simple human emotions across. There are still tendencies of the gung-ho attitude that hung around Independence Day like a pair of soiled underwear stifling about, common sense flies out the window at times and the actors don't convey why they would actually do some of the crazy stunts they get up to. Dennis Quaid is most disappointing in this respect; despite stealing the mantle of middle aged action star from Bruce Willis he is far less impressive here than in his stellar performance in Any Given Sunday. The actor's delivery is somewhat forced at times but he has to make up for the weaker portion of the script on the human side of things, instead of coming off as sincere at points he just looks plain stupid.

In the face of my misgivings about Quaid's performance, the casting is probably the best evidence of Emmerich's new level headed approach. There is a great depth to the quality of actors employed and the movie marks the mainstream breakthrough of Jake Gyllenhaal after his tremendous performance in Donnie Darko. This highlights the ambition of the movie to take a more serious tone instead of the comic nature exhibited by Will Smith in Independence Day. With the exception of the father/son relationship running between Quaid and Gyllenhall, the rest of the cast capture the mood of the disaster flick and give a performance similar to that of a crowd at a funeral. They catch the tone well and are occasionally let down when the script digresses and tries to go into some hero psycho-babble, despite the tangent the cast holds it together and give a competent performance.

Piaras Kelly
Editor, Kikizo Movies