I saw The Day After Tomorrow the day before yesterday with two friends. I was shocked to find out that the ticket price has considerably been raised. I guess inflation is everywhere now.
Enough economics.
The movie was entertaining though the effects of global warming were exaggerated. Then again, the director himself has said that this movie is for entertainment, not for some meteorology class. But the best thing is, I now understand how the movie serves as a really good conduit for the green cause. Before I watched the movie, I thought the movie is just some other movie that runs parallel with the green’s concerns. I was wrong as it was more than that.
The reason why The Day After Tomorrow is useful in creating awareness among the masses is how Professor Jack Hall – played by Dennis Quaid – describes that global warming could trigger a colder climate in a fictional UNFCCC (that, err, for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the one responsible for meetings of the Parties related to the Kyoto Protocol in the real world) in a snowing New Delhi. This is an irony that has been well-manipulated by the grays to discredit the greens on matters of global warming. In a larger sense, the movie tries to link global warming with a wider problem of accelerated climate change, one of the few things that the grays are trying to disprove.
All other parts of the movie are pure exaggeration. Nevertheless, the movie does provide as glimpse of what humanity will have to endure even when the effects of global warming occur in a very gradual manner. Currently, the frequency and the amplitude of natural disasters related to the climate have been going up but none are as devastating as in the movie of course. Jeremy Legett’s The Carbon War has also implied that we are seeing an increasing thread of climate related natural disasters’ severity.
Another noteworthy scene in the movie, of the most ironic thing considering the current era of Pax-Americana, is the American refugee camps. However, this picture might not be far away and actors will not be the Americans, but the citizens of the Pacific islanders and others small island-nations all around the world. These small pacific island-nations to my knowledge are currently lobbying the Australian government to accept any refugee related to the rising of the sea level. The global warming refugee scene is real as far as these poor islanders are concerned. The Australian government has been only unhelpful in recent negotiations.
All in all, the movie is informative and entertaining if you know to how to filter the information. There are some good jokes too. The special effect is gorgeous. Good for vanity, one of the lead actors, Jake Gyllenhaal, playing as Sam Hall, Jack Hall’s son, wear a Michigan shirt in a scene. This is probably a testimony of Ann Arbor’s political greenness.
Unfortunately, the worst part of the movie is where the word, “To Manchester United” is heard. Thank God by the end of the movie, Old Trafford would probably be under more than 15 meters of snow.
You should go watch the movie. You won’t be disappointed. I dare say it is better than the Matrix’s two pathetic sequels.
And after watching the movie, you should realize, first and foremost, the moral is we need to act now rather than later.
