Impressions of "The Day After Tomorrow"
I watched The Day After Tomorrow yesterday. It was better than I expected but still fairly ordinary and done-before in many respects. One thing to say in its defence is that the events have a meaning, they don't just happen like other armageddon films. Armageddon, Volcano, Twister... All natural events that just occur for no good reason but to make an allegedly exciting film where people yell at each other a lot about what's happening and how to deal with it and to "get out there".
Twister might have a slight 'don't go chasing trouble' moral, but The Day After Tomorrow, while having a a bit of the above as well, has a very obvious message and one that is presented fairly well. Greenhouse gasses, climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and global warming are addressed fairly powerfully.
On that note, the movie is fairly slow in places and obviously meant to induce suspense or admiration. We start off meeting everyone's family in an obvious attempt to make us feel for them. "Aww, that character has a wife and a newborn", "The main character has a son" (as they always do for a cheap motivational tactic), "He has a dog", "They're in love." Just kill them already so we can get to the point of this obvious manipulation of the audience. It doesn't always happen that way but it's a transparent attempt to have us connect to the characters early on.
The characters in the film are not entirely pointless and strung along by the usual cliche. That being said there is the necessary government official that doesn't listen until it's far too late but some of the characters have the intellect to stay behind and not venture into the storm that will obviously kill them. Some are just lucky because the script demands it. On the other hand, not all cliches are kept which impressed me. I noticed that there's a competing student we meet and the immediate impression if you've ever watched a drama show like The OC is that he's arrogant, has a chip on his shoulder, feels superior and will not be nice to the main kid, actively making his life unpleasant. Totally wrong. I was really surprised to see that they made friends a short time after their meeting.
There are the occasional bouts of machoism and horrible heroism such as when we're going out to quite probable death, and the friends step forward and say "I'm going too." "Me too". GAG! Perhaps I'm just jealous of people having such good friends but I decided to add. "I won't. I'll be staying here and not dying."
There are events that are there to clearly to add danger and excitement and a reason to venture outside, the motivations of the characters, especially given the unusual circumstances of the film, are believable almost all of the time. They also led me to looking closely at them and wondering how I'd handle the situations (see "I'll be staying and not dying").
Related to that, along with a character, I also felt the compunction to find medicine to help a sick person despite there being the risk of freezing instantly (but then I don't actually have that risk in my chair in front of the screen) but other events, such as trying SO hard to keep people from going to their death when they're determined to do so and not listen, I did not relate to. "Fine, but you will die." Would be all I'd say and then sit down. The characters are usually believable, when you get down to it.
A big part of the film, that contributes to the slowness, focuses on reality. People have their lives and something cataclysmic happens because of humanity's greed and irresponsibility. This counteracts the 'things added for danger' being totally convoluted. A girl gets ill after cutting herself trying to help a woman and it gets infected. I could see myself climbing over something and cutting myself. On the other hand, if I started getting an infection I wouldn't hide it.
However, having wolves escape from the zoo because of the impending climate change and then conveniently show up later to chase me through a ship that's drifted into the city is a bit of stretch.
Twister might have a slight 'don't go chasing trouble' moral, but The Day After Tomorrow, while having a a bit of the above as well, has a very obvious message and one that is presented fairly well. Greenhouse gasses, climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and global warming are addressed fairly powerfully.
On that note, the movie is fairly slow in places and obviously meant to induce suspense or admiration. We start off meeting everyone's family in an obvious attempt to make us feel for them. "Aww, that character has a wife and a newborn", "The main character has a son" (as they always do for a cheap motivational tactic), "He has a dog", "They're in love." Just kill them already so we can get to the point of this obvious manipulation of the audience. It doesn't always happen that way but it's a transparent attempt to have us connect to the characters early on.
The characters in the film are not entirely pointless and strung along by the usual cliche. That being said there is the necessary government official that doesn't listen until it's far too late but some of the characters have the intellect to stay behind and not venture into the storm that will obviously kill them. Some are just lucky because the script demands it. On the other hand, not all cliches are kept which impressed me. I noticed that there's a competing student we meet and the immediate impression if you've ever watched a drama show like The OC is that he's arrogant, has a chip on his shoulder, feels superior and will not be nice to the main kid, actively making his life unpleasant. Totally wrong. I was really surprised to see that they made friends a short time after their meeting.
There are the occasional bouts of machoism and horrible heroism such as when we're going out to quite probable death, and the friends step forward and say "I'm going too." "Me too". GAG! Perhaps I'm just jealous of people having such good friends but I decided to add. "I won't. I'll be staying here and not dying."
There are events that are there to clearly to add danger and excitement and a reason to venture outside, the motivations of the characters, especially given the unusual circumstances of the film, are believable almost all of the time. They also led me to looking closely at them and wondering how I'd handle the situations (see "I'll be staying and not dying").
Related to that, along with a character, I also felt the compunction to find medicine to help a sick person despite there being the risk of freezing instantly (but then I don't actually have that risk in my chair in front of the screen) but other events, such as trying SO hard to keep people from going to their death when they're determined to do so and not listen, I did not relate to. "Fine, but you will die." Would be all I'd say and then sit down. The characters are usually believable, when you get down to it.
A big part of the film, that contributes to the slowness, focuses on reality. People have their lives and something cataclysmic happens because of humanity's greed and irresponsibility. This counteracts the 'things added for danger' being totally convoluted. A girl gets ill after cutting herself trying to help a woman and it gets infected. I could see myself climbing over something and cutting myself. On the other hand, if I started getting an infection I wouldn't hide it.
However, having wolves escape from the zoo because of the impending climate change and then conveniently show up later to chase me through a ship that's drifted into the city is a bit of stretch.