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After witnessing a massive chunk of the Antarctic Ice Shelf breaking off, climatologist Jack Hall is very worried. Prolonged global warming has come full circle and is set to cause global cooling. A series of freak weather conditions around the world (heavy snowfall in Delhi and giant hailstones in Tokyo) herald the beginning of a huge storm that will usher in the next Ice Age. He warns the US government, but his advice goes unheeded. Then New York floods, Los Angeles is devastated by tornadoes and the reality of the situation hits home. Especially for Professor Hall whose estranged son Sam is in New York. Jack must get to him before the city freezes over and all hope is lost.
Roland Emmerich is a director who can be relied upon to create great spectacles. He’s good at blowing things up. He’s famous for his rabidly pro-American stance, odd for a man who hails from a small town in Germany. Here he has created another blockbuster with plenty of bang per buck. But as with most of his work I found this film strangely unengaging and emotionally unsatisfying. Sure it’s impressive and oddly gratifying to see American monument after American monument being destroyed by the weather from hell, but the characters all feel two-dimensional and it’s hard to empathise with their plight. It doesn’t help that they don’t seem to care about anyone else – only one of the survivors in the New York Public Library is concerned for the welfare of an unseen member of his family.
Surely they can’t all be orphans.
Although global warming and cooling is an undeniable catastrophe, the weather isn’t a tangible enemy so neither we the audience nor the characters have anything to rail against. The conclusion is inevitable and no trite morals about respecting the earth or paper thin plotlines about the indomitable human spirit can mask that. All of the people in the story seem to be there to run away screaming from and be awestruck by the destructive force of nature. The whole storyline about Professor Hall heading into the frozen north to rescue his estranged son is derivative at best and seeks to underline the cliché that all children just want the love of their fathers. The film is at least half-an-hour too long and we never really face the human tragedy of the situation. Whole countries are wiped out in an instant and are never referred to again. And of course the UK is among the first to go.
Dennis Quaid has been on the fringes of celebrity since the 80s. He’s most famous for being Meg Ryan’s ex-husband. But he’s a solid performer who’s never been out of work and as Jack Hall he puts in a workman-like performance. The problem is that though he bears the weight of being one of the leads well enough, he’s never showy enough to outshine the special effects he’s sharing the screen with. He’s oddly passionless as the scientist who predicts the apocalypse and as such you can understand why the government don’t listen to him. This lack of warmth (if you’ll pardon the pun) extends to his relationships with everyone else; whether it is with his former wife or his distant son, one can’t help but feel he’s only going through the motions. He doesn’t even seem that bothered when one of his oldest friends bites the dust. Every moment we spend with him seems like an eternity slogging through the snow after him. He may be a good everyman actor, but I don’t pay to go to the cinema to see just any man.
Jake Gyllenhaal is a fine young actor who impressed in “Donnie Darko”. He’s already shown that he is capable of carrying a film but here he doesn’t have enough to do. He’s merely there to react to the ever-present special effects. Plus he’s way too old to be playing a high school student – I mean he has five o’clock shadow in every other scene! He does what he can in an underwritten role and manages to be likeable, but his relationship with fellow student Laura never convinces because it’s so perfunctory. A few yearning glances and a quick snog by the fire do not a romance make, especially when the object of his affections is so glacially aloof.
I could spend ages dissecting the performances of all of the other actors in this film, but it would be an exercise in futility as none of them have a great deal of screen time. Ian Holm is dependable as ever as stiff upper-lipped British scientist Terry Rapson, Adrian Lester is wasted as one of his colleagues. Sela Ward and Emmy Rossum are adequate but unspectacular as the Hall boys’ respective love interests. Dash Mihok adds bulk as Quaid’s sidekick Jason Evans and Austin Nichols and Arjay Smith are little more than smart kid stereotypes as Sam’s friends JD and Brian. That’s the problem with all of the characters; they are only there to perform a standardised role in a disaster movie. The CGI is the real star.
Whether you like this film will come down to how much you like special effects and how impressed you are by computer generated images of global destruction. It is obviously where the budget has gone (because God knows it wasn’t spent on the script) and it is really astounding to watch New York flooding then freezing and to see a ship float through Manhattan. It is perversely thrilling to watch as multiple tornadoes rampage through Hollywood. The scale of the whole thing is amazing, but you would have thought they could have paid more attention to detail, by ensuring that, for example, you could see the characters’ breath in the cold air. The temperatures are sub-arctic after all. The CG wolves are also a bit dodgy at times. But for all of the emotional involvement you feel, you might as well be watching the Weather Channel. And the dialogue in the film would probably fit on the back of a cereal box.
So if all you’re after is a brainless action flick with lots of big set pieces, a touch of eye candy and no emotional heft then this is the one for you. However, if you want an emotionally charged story of survival against the odds or a searing diatribe on the environmental and human cost of our wasteful society, buy a book or watch a documentary. Best watched with brain in neutral and mouth stuffed with popcorn. Alternatively you could play “spot the plot hole”, for instance if the students are so bright, why do they start burning all the books in the library instead of chopping up the big wooden tables and torching them? Just a thought…
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1945 - Drama - Director: David Lean - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
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Production Year: 1999 - Drama - Director: Dick Maas - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, Francesca Brown
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Advantages: Looks fantastic, Decent soundtrack, easily enjoyable for the weather effects Disadvantages: The story line is so bland and one dimensional, You couldnt care less about the characters
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Jun 14th, 2004
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