The Day After Tomorrow

With much reluctance and suspicion that this would just be a worthless end-of-the-world type movie (remembering Deep Impact), I decided to watch this movie anyhow. It turned out to be better than I thought. The super visual effects are awesome: multiple tornado's ravaging Los Angeles, blizzards in New Delhi, rock-sized hails storming Tokyo, tsunami devouring Manhattan, which later on became entirely buried under ice as a modern ice age came suddenly within a matter of hours.

As unbelievable as these happenings may seem, the exaggeration really hits home the message of how global warming could destroy our world. Dennis Quaid plays a foremost climatologist predicting the disruption of the North Atlantic Ocean Current which would lead to the onset of a new ice age. What strikes me as a nice little satire is the part where a global climate conference takes place and the guy playing the Vice President of the United States actually resembles Dick Chaney! I take it as a parody of what actually happened during previous global climate conferences and the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. Bush and his gang blatantly defied international pressure and refused to cooperate with the majority of industrialized nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. So for me this scene in the movie justly reflects the reality. What is chilling (sorry about the pun) is that the effects of a messed up climate pattern can already be felt today. At least I can feel it in this part of the world. What about you?

The movie has a rather simplistic plot (worth probably 2.5 stars), which is less convincing and well thought-out than the visual effects themselves. But with the view of such awesome effects, the plot can comfortably step aside and the movie is still able to maintain a sense of credibility. At least it really sent a chill down my spine. And I hope that this movie can be a wake-up call for those (policy makers in particular) who don't take global warming seriously.