The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Review

The Day After Tomorrow is overlooked by, well, pretty much everyone. Yeah, it's no masterpiece or not even a great film, but it gets a lot right. And that's surprising for Roland Emmerich. First of all, the story is perfect. Until a certain point. And the cast is chosen well, and the decision to make it more of a adventure-thriller instead of an explosive action-blockbuster was smart. And the effects are top-notch and look realistic. Unfortunately, it wastes all its' great potential. The setup- the first 60 to 90 minutes are near perfect. You have the audience realize how severe the storm is, we're introduced to the characters, and the movie starts. But soon, far too much focus is put on other sub-plots and we really don't care about the mother. When Sam dropped the phone, the story should have been focused only on him. The second mistake was the short climax. It seems the storm ends right after it starts. There's not enough struggling. Add a good hour to this film filled with many more problems, and it would be a thousand times better. The final mistake was the clichéd ending. You can't be a masterpiece is you steal the same lame ending from every other disaster. Make it darker. Make it sad. Make some deaths happen. Nice try, but we need a remake.
Movie Rating: B