Wishing for a better Tomorrow

It's that time again: Another movie about an inevitable future in which millions die as a result of our own stupidity. Minus the bloodthirsty robots, but still hinged on the danger of technology: Cars. Factories. Light bulbs. All greedily burning up the fossil fuels that make our lives easier, and our environment more dangerous--thanks to the good ole greenhouse effect. Captain Planet didn't warn you about global warming? No worries: The Day After Tomorrow's here to act as your personal Planeteer-on-crack.

So watch out EPA; global warming can do more than aggravate tree-huggers and liberals. It can cause super storms that smear gargantuan tidal waves across the streets of Manhattan and wind-whip Hollywood with tornadoes so bad it may never churn out another mediocre disaster flick again. Add a New Ice Age, and you've got the forecast for The Day After Tomorrow. Somewhere in there's an echo of truth about the seriousness of global warming, but the rest got a multi-million dollar stretch from apocalyptically-inclined director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day). He does nail the gasp shots, clichéd as they've become in disaster flicks: drowning the Statue of liberty Deep Impact style, destroying the Hollywood sign to humble his audience. But after giving us the eye candy, Emmerich fails to give us something sweeter: character.

Not only in the sense that his protagonists are one-dimensional, but in that the movie itself lacks personality. The destruction scenes, while visually dead-on, lack any adrenaline sting. Roland Emmerich focuses more on monumental awe than heart-pumping action. He sprinkles in a few close calls, but mostly wastes the potential for the good, old-fashioned dodge, duck, and dive. Instead of thrill, we get expensive CGI. And when Emmerich's done with the special effects, we're left with only semi-interesting characters in a semi-interesting storyline.

We've got Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a paleoclimatologist who's seen the modern Ice Age coming. His work isn't regarded seriously by the American government until the super storms strike Los Angeles and Manhattan, the latter of which is where his genius son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is staying for an academic competition with love interest Laura (Emmy Rossum) and best friend Brian (Arjay Smith). When Manhattan starts to freeze up, Sam, his friends, and a handful of side characters take up residence in the New York Library to outwait the snowstorm. Jack, in a heroic effort, gathers up his arctic gear and begins the icy walk to Manhattan, in order to find his son. (What he'll do when he gets there is unclear; he has no rescue team or store of food supplies.)

So in trying to be epic, The Day After Tomorrow actually does turn into an Odyssey. During his journey, Jack faces the impossible conditions of a neo-arctic North America, while his son fights to keep himself and his friends alive. And just as in Independence Day, gung ho acts of heroism are the dominant form of characterization. While Jack is busy selflessly dragging his unconscious friend to safety from the cold, Sam is taking on a trio of wolves in order to save his damsel from dying. Emmerich wants you to like these guys. He makes Quaid out to be an intellectual-but-athletic Indiana Jones character, and milks Gyllenhaal's dopey hero for all the Tobey Maguire-ishness it's worth. Emmerich's efforts make them likeable, but unoriginal.

Emmerich does get one thing right, however. He stays away from political agenda. Beginning work on the film before Bush was even elected, Emmerich's disaster flick has turned out to be less of a disaster than it could have been, had it joined some Democratic protest. The Day After Tomorrow manages to stay strictly Hollywood, with an unbiased message about pollution. The audience is even treated to a well-intentioned but inevitably corny speech on how pollution is bad.

So the final choice, really, is between The Day After Tomorrow or a couple hours of the Discovery Channel. You decide.

The Day After Tomorrow is rated PG-13 for scenes of immense destruction.