Day After Tomorrow, The (DVD)

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Audio:
As before, 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 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 theatrical release of "The Day After Tomorrow" did very well, and apparently the single-disc edition of the DVD did equally well. We would expect, therefore, a special edition to follow, especially as the film has so many CGI effects to explore in accompanying featurettes.

The two primary extras on the first disc remain the same, and they are both audio commentaries. The first one 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. I listened to maybe a half an hour of these commentaries, flipping back and forth between the two, and I didn't find either of them particularly entertaining. They are, however, informative, which I suppose is one of the main ideas. Then, there are four "Fox Flix" trailers for other Fox movies: "Independence Day," "Master and Commander," "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and "X2: X-Men United." Oddly, only the "ID4" trailer is in widescreen. Now why would Fox include fullscreen trailers on a "Collector's Edition" DVD set? Lastly, there are thirty-two scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English and Spanish subtitles.

The bonus features on disc two are divided into five main categories. The first is "Pre-Production." It includes a four-minute segment on "Previsualization," where we see how the movie was done up beforehand in low-res computer graphics and storyboards. Then there's a seven-minute segment on a "Pre-Production Meeting," where everybody who was anybody on the film met in a big room and discussed the filmmaking strategies to come. After that are storyboard and concept art galleries, filled with a multitude of drawings and paintings.

The second category is "Production," where we find a single item, a forty-eight minute documentary titled "Two Kings and a Scribe: A Filmmaking Conversation." I found it intriguing for a couple of minutes but could not make it through to the end.

The third category is "Post Production." Here we find a thirty-one minute feature, "Pushing the Envelope," which for me was the most fun because it was about the film's visual effects and how they were created. After that is "Scoring," ten minutes on the music for the film; followed by a leftover from the first DVD release, "Audio Anatomy: The Final Mix Interactive Demo," a sound demonstration of one of the helicopter scenes, isolating the various audio tracks that went into composing it. You can click on any of over half a dozen separate tracks or hear them in the final, composite mix. The last items in the "Post Production" category are ten deleted scenes, in widescreen, with optional audio commentary by Emmerich and Gordon.

The fourth category is called "The Science," and it contains a single item, the lengthy documentary "The Force of Destiny: The Science and Politics of Climate Change." It's in fullscreen and includes interviews with various scientists, environmentalists, and politicians on the subject of global warming and climate change. Needless to say, it is highly skewed toward the need to do something quickly about the changes our planet is facing, and it generally condemns governments for protecting the big businesses responsible for any impending disaster.

The final category is "Trailers and TV Spots," wherein we find teasers and trailers for "The Day After Tomorrow," "Alien Quadrilogy," "Alien Vs. Predator," and "Man on Fire." Some are in widescreen for theatrical release; some are in fullscreen for TV use.

The two discs are housed in a slim-line DVD keep case, further enclosed in a cardboard slipcover with a glossy, metallic picture on the cover. I kind of missed the holographic image that was included with the single-disc edition, though. Oh, well.

Parting Shots:
If a filmmaker is going to do a movie about the end of the world, one would expect said 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 tedious, worrying that it wasn't going to end until at least the day after tomorrow.

For the connoisseur of such things, the Collector's Edition should make "The Day After Tomorrow" even better. For me, the sheer quantity of additional material was impressive, but the content was mostly more tedium.

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