Prepare yourself for a summer blockbuster with morals. The Day After Tomorrow, opening globally on 28th May, may come from the oft-derided stable of Roland 'Independence Day' Emmerich, but y'know what, I'm on his side. The Day After Tomorrow could have brains.
It's the story of weather gone bad. Faced with the abrupt onset of a second ice age, paleoclimatologist (let's all say that together, children) Dennis Quaid has to figure out a way of saving the planet, at the same time as tracking down his son in New York. Oceans rise, snow falls, and the Statue Of Liberty gets as flattened as the White House did in Independence Day. All because no one took any notice of environmentalists' warnings. Wonder if George Bush will be at the premiere?
"IMPORTANT SOCIO-POLITICAL POINTS"
Now, I've only seen 23 minutes of FX and music-free footage of The Day After Tomorrow. I know things could change. But whereas Jurassic Park's stark warnings about cloning were wrapped in an obviously sci-fi tale of dinosaur high jinks, and Minority Report's new bad future felt coldly remote, The Day After Tomorrow keeps things down to earth and immediate. We all know that the environment is fighting back as we speak (check those recent pics of snow blizzards in Athens for proof). There are moments in The Day After Tomorrow that could almost be documentary.
Believe it or not, I think that Roland Emmerich has always been making important socio-political points behind his popcorn veneer. And yes, I'll even stretch that statement to Godzilla. Scratch beneath the surface of the explosions and bizarre ever-changing size of the green beast, and there's some interesting points about America's bull-in-a-china-shop attitude to crisis control and intolerance of other cultures.
It's often quite funny, too. In other hands, Mel Gibson's slaying of nasty Brits in Emmerich's The Patriot, or even that presidential speech from Bill Pullman in Independence Day, would be deadly serious. In the hands of Stuttgart-born Emmerich, I can't help but feel there's a tongue-in-cheek grin every time he turns on the American cheese. Check the tornado destruction of LA's legendary Hollywood sign in The Day After Tomorrow for Emmerich's real attitude towards US movie product.
OK, to say The Day After Tomorrow is a 'green' or 'ethical' film may be a bit far fetched. I'm sure that the no doubt massive profits from the flick won't be ploughed into Greenpeace research. But just as Independence Day brought the debate about Area 51 and government UFO cover-ups into the public arena, if The Day After Tomorrow even makes a few people change their minds, it will have done a whole lot more than most holiday time no-brainers. It does, incidentally, look rollicking good fun as well.
