Beyond the often stunning visuals, I found most of the movie boring, worried it wasn't going to end until at least the day after tomorrow.
I also thought it was interesting in "The Day After Tomorrow" that everyone everywhere in the movie watches Fox News. What a coincidence from Twentieth Century Fox Pictures. But, hey, if you're going to indulge in product placement, it might as well be your own product.
The melodrama builds to soap-opera proportions as the plot unfolds. When a pack of wolves escaped from the New York City zoo and began to roam the streets, I lost interest entirely. What next, I thought, a kitchen sink falling on somebody's head?
Poor Quaid; it's bad enough his scientist character has almost no personality to begin with, but then he gets lost somewhere in the middle of the picture while Gyllenhaal's character takes over for a spell. However, never fear; Quaid returns to the plot for some climactic heroics. I had completely lost interest in any of the characters by this time.
The movie ends on an uplifting, but corny and sentimental note. You DID see "ID4," didn't you? What did you expect? Honestly, "The Day After Tomorrow" makes "Twister" look like a classic.
Video:
The picture is presented in a widescreen anamorphic ratio measuring about 2.13:1 across a standard television, but if ever a picture cried out for a high-definition transfer, this one does. Object delineation and detail are, in fact, only average for a good DVD, with the added problem of faces appearing rather bright, glassy, and reddish. Then, there's some faint grain and some minor line fluctuation, too, noticeable mostly in Venetian blinds and the like. I'm being picky here, but I expected better. Overall, the image is quite dark, probably an intentional characteristic of the original print.
Audio:
The audio is available on the disc in both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround. In DD 5.1 it sounds great, no doubt the second-best thing (next to the special effects) this movie has got going for it. There is terrific separation from all five-point-one channels. The bass is extremely deep and will have the house rocking. And, needless to say, the dynamics are exceptionally strong to go along with the bass and shake the rafters. There aren't a lot of high frequencies on the soundtrack, but there are plenty of wind gusts and helicopter flyovers to keep any audio buff occupied.
Extras:
The two primary extras on the disc are both audio commentaries. The first commentary is by director Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon; the second is by writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, cinematographer Ueli Steiger, editor David Brenner, and production designer Barry Chusid. In addition, there are a pair of brief deleted scenes and a featurette called "Audio Anatomy." This latter item is an interactive sound demo of one of the helicopter scenes, isolating the various audio tracks that went into composing it. You can click on any one of over half a dozen separate tracks or hear them in the final, composite mix. Lastly, there is a DVD-ROM link to over an hour of exclusive "making-of" footage that I did not access; thirty-two scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English and Spanish subtitles.
The DVD keep case is enclosed in a cardboard slipcase with a 3-D holographic picture on the cover. It's similar to the holographic picture that was included with the "Independence Day" DVD, and looking at it is at least as entertaining as watching the movie itself.
Parting Shots:
If a filmmaker is going to do a movie about the end of the world, one would expect the filmmaker to go after two things: the catastrophe, with its attendant anticipation and excitement, and the reactions of people facing the catastrophe. Emmerich, however, prefers to ignore both of these elements and go after special effects alone. The catastrophe happens so quickly, the audience hasn't a chance to worry about it; it's already on us before we know it. And the characters are so stereotyped, we can tell from the first ten minutes which ones are going to live and which ones are going to die. Beyond the often stunning visuals, I found most of the movie boring, worried it wasn't going to end until at least the day after tomorrow.
The melodrama builds to soap-opera proportions as the plot unfolds. When a pack of wolves escaped from the New York City zoo and began to roam the streets, I lost interest entirely. What next, I thought, a kitchen sink falling on somebody's head?
Poor Quaid; it's bad enough his scientist character has almost no personality to begin with, but then he gets lost somewhere in the middle of the picture while Gyllenhaal's character takes over for a spell. However, never fear; Quaid returns to the plot for some climactic heroics. I had completely lost interest in any of the characters by this time.
The movie ends on an uplifting, but corny and sentimental note. You DID see "ID4," didn't you? What did you expect? Honestly, "The Day After Tomorrow" makes "Twister" look like a classic.
Video:
The picture is presented in a widescreen anamorphic ratio measuring about 2.13:1 across a standard television, but if ever a picture cried out for a high-definition transfer, this one does. Object delineation and detail are, in fact, only average for a good DVD, with the added problem of faces appearing rather bright, glassy, and reddish. Then, there's some faint grain and some minor line fluctuation, too, noticeable mostly in Venetian blinds and the like. I'm being picky here, but I expected better. Overall, the image is quite dark, probably an intentional characteristic of the original print.
Audio:
The audio is available on the disc in both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround. In DD 5.1 it sounds great, no doubt the second-best thing (next to the special effects) this movie has got going for it. There is terrific separation from all five-point-one channels. The bass is extremely deep and will have the house rocking. And, needless to say, the dynamics are exceptionally strong to go along with the bass and shake the rafters. There aren't a lot of high frequencies on the soundtrack, but there are plenty of wind gusts and helicopter flyovers to keep any audio buff occupied.
Extras:
The two primary extras on the disc are both audio commentaries. The first commentary is by director Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon; the second is by writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, cinematographer Ueli Steiger, editor David Brenner, and production designer Barry Chusid. In addition, there are a pair of brief deleted scenes and a featurette called "Audio Anatomy." This latter item is an interactive sound demo of one of the helicopter scenes, isolating the various audio tracks that went into composing it. You can click on any one of over half a dozen separate tracks or hear them in the final, composite mix. Lastly, there is a DVD-ROM link to over an hour of exclusive "making-of" footage that I did not access; thirty-two scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English and Spanish subtitles.
The DVD keep case is enclosed in a cardboard slipcase with a 3-D holographic picture on the cover. It's similar to the holographic picture that was included with the "Independence Day" DVD, and looking at it is at least as entertaining as watching the movie itself.
Parting Shots:
If a filmmaker is going to do a movie about the end of the world, one would expect the filmmaker to go after two things: the catastrophe, with its attendant anticipation and excitement, and the reactions of people facing the catastrophe. Emmerich, however, prefers to ignore both of these elements and go after special effects alone. The catastrophe happens so quickly, the audience hasn't a chance to worry about it; it's already on us before we know it. And the characters are so stereotyped, we can tell from the first ten minutes which ones are going to live and which ones are going to die. Beyond the often stunning visuals, I found most of the movie boring, worried it wasn't going to end until at least the day after tomorrow.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]12462[/release]