The Day After Tomorrow

I'm surprised that I've only seen the film today, which was quite big for its time. Of the actors, I liked Dennis Quaid and the young Jake Gyllenhaal. The disaster scenes are decently gripping and gritty, and the scene with the aggressive wolves is great. I had fun. 80%. (2017-10-04)

Turning off your brain and not looking for any meaning to it is the way to approach what Emmerich presents in his two-hour disaster vision of the coarsest grain. Although it might irritate climatologists, why get upset when he serves us a picture of thousands of Americans begging to enter Mexico? At that moment, it is necessary to have a hearty laugh and lightly acknowledge that there is no more American American than this defector German, who spends high budgets like the biggest snob and yet unabashedly winks at the audience, almost begging them to enjoy the ride with him. Serving up a few remarkable special effects sequences pleasantly elevates the dose of patriotism, which could knock down an elephant, and it's necessary to handle it with an eye roll and a loud chuckle. The perfect sabotage of Hollywood! (2004-06-16)

The first half of The Day After Tomorrow is pleasing but in no way surprising. We’ve already seen everything in the trailer. And the second half is just boredom stacked on top of boredom. It’s not Roland Emmerich’s dumbest sci-fi movie, but it is his least entertaining. Whereas Stargate and Independence Day were the sincere playthings of an admitted man-child, The Day After Tomorrow is a drama with pretensions of being serious by a mediocre filmmaker trying to do great things. (2004-05-26)

My beloved Roland "Americ" Emmerich is back, and I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. Unfortunately, The Day After Tomorrow is not as beautifully stupid as Godzilla or Independence Day, nor does it have the true spirit of capitalist realism; it's just an average product from the disaster film factory. The brisk first half of the film is held together by great tricks and dynamic editing, but in the second half the director takes over control and proves once again that when he has to shoot with actors without the support of digital technology, there are some gaps in his work. The main faces are bland, the dialogues are half-assed (see the one about Nietzsche, which is supposed to indicate how much a more educated American viewer knows about the legend of world philosophy), this time pathos tries to avoid the national aspects – strangely quite successfully – but still has the gift of inadvertently entertaining (Who is it? – MY DAD :o))). Technically, it works well, it's nice to look at, but the impression is killed by the protracted and considerably dull second half of the film. All they had to do was add a little exaggeration and cut down the evident ecological moralizing... and The Day After Tomorrow might even have been a slightly above-average piece of eye candy. The way it is, it looks nice and amounts to average nothing with BIG effects. (2004-06-02)

On a second viewing, it's just a little bit better. Roland Emmerich toned it down with pathos, he doesn't always hit the mark, but he can win over the audience. The climate action boasts fantastic visual effects and thrilling action sequences. Unfortunately, there isn't as much of it as in his previous films, and especially the second half can bring a feeling of boredom, mainly due to a weak screenplay and a flood of clichés that unpleasantly stick to the very likeable heroes. (2004-09-10)