I am hugely critical of overdone special effects, but the weather disasters in this film were breathtakingly genuine-looking. This is perhaps the finest use of special effects that I have ever seen. I would recommend the movie on this alone.

(Don't read further if you don't want the plot spoiled)
The one flaw, was straining plot credibility past the breaking point.
The movie did overreach itself in expecting the viewer to buy into the father travelling from Washington DC to NY City primarily on foot, during a climatic natural disaster, and that half the United States could be evacuated anywhere in a short time and during these conditions.
These were poorly excuted and simply unbelievable.

Having said that, the rest of the movie is so well done, that I did not care, and highly recommend it.

13 of 15 found the following review helpful:

GOOD MESSAGE AND FX, MARRED BY LUDICROUS CLICHES  Jun 06, 2004
By Shashank Tripathi
The movie is clearly a popcorn thriller with apocalyptic intentions and some neat special fx to show for itself, which unfortunately are terribly frittered away because the film doesn't quite seem to be able to make up its mind -- should it have been a special fx entertainer, or should the characters have had depth?

Either/or would have been fine, but the Day After Tomorrow ends up being a cold mesh of predictable yet doozy disasters and empty characters/plot.

The message is noble. Save mother earth, prevent global warming. But it is drummed in too stridently with vacuous science (such events would take years, not days to transpire) and countless empty scenes thrown in (most scenes with the president of US, who got killed for the most moronic of reasons; a street beggar and his dog who add zilch to the film; a rich fratboy and his brother stuck in Philadelphia, about whom nothing happens; the whole thing about Dennis Quaid's wife and the child she is supposedly saving in a hospital; references to the third world; etc etc).

Then there are zillions of cliches to deal with. The minor character who sacrifices himself; the character who puts his/her life in grave danger for most inane of reasons; the ignorant authority figure who dismisses the intelligent warnings and puts dozens/hundreds/millions of lives at risk; etc etc. All here to comprehensively irk.

Political correctness savants were busy too. As you may expect, all races are factored in: the NASA representative amidst all this mayhem is a Japanese woman; a friend of Dennis Quaid's son is an African American; an important conference is held in New Delhi; you get the picture.

As though that were not enough, the plot gets suicidal with some obviously ludicrous elements, not the least of which is a couple of men floundering from Philadelphia to NYC in 24 hours, on foot, in metres and metres of murderous snow.

Some fx are cool, I admit, but nothing I have not seen in some form or the other before....hurricanes (Twister), frozen worlds (A.I.), airplane turbulence (Turbulence, Passenger 57), big wave floods (The Core) etc.

Overall, a watchable popcorn flick but the net result is rather pale and baleful in comparison to other movies from this genre. Especially when you think back about it.

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