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The Day After Tomorrow

In two days from now?

Some ask why I expect more from summer popcorn movies. The answer is simple- so that they can be more entertaining the way most of them used to be and, from the studio’s POV, so that they can make more money.

Objective / Stakes

This movie started well and had the potential to be fun and relevant, but it fell apart in Act 2. Dennis Quaid risked his life to travel to NY to save his son. Problem was, the son was out of imminent danger once he got there! And the storm had ended! And it’s not like Quaid brought food and supplies with him…and the choppers and real rescue teams are seen right after…

As for Jake Gyllenhaal, it was also weak that his objective was temporary survival. That worked for the first half of the story, but then the midway point should have been acting on a plan to escape to true safety.

Compare this to 2012 and the flawz are more pronounced. There, John Cussack rescued his family from imminent danger and then acted on a plan to save them for good. That made all the difference in the world and made the movie fun to watch.

Non-official video from movie.

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