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Mother Nature strikes back

The spinoffs of global warming pounce suddenly in The Day After Tomorrow, and once again cinematic humans must cope with the fallout of defying scientific law.

Director Roland Emmerich could fool Mother Nature with the special effects in The Day After Tomorrow: Softball-size hail becomes deadly missiles in Tokyo, tornadoes link together to give Los Angeles an extreme makeover, and New York City becomes the city that sleeps as a new Ice Age approaches.

Perhaps it's a good thing Tampa hasn't become the "next great city."

Yet, The Day After Tomorrow isn't as cartoonish as Emmerich's previous blockbuster, Independence Day, or as sloppily conceived as his take on Godzilla. A talented cast of actors squeezes every ounce of authenticity possible from elemental characters. The science of Emmerich's film already is being disputed by some experts and brandished as an ecology sword by others. But there is an assurance to the scientific explanations that makes the movie work, even if on an implausible level.

Emmerich and co-screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff aren't as concerned with human nature in the face of such calamities. The Day After Tomorrow is full of the emotional shortcuts and dialogue cliches that weakened the disaster movie genre as quickly as it was spawned. Everyone is noble and brave. No stores are looted. Nobody even raises their voices in frustration as the world as we know it ends.

The predominant issues to be settled are standard: an estranged father and son reunited, some romantic fences mended and a few personal loyalties affirmed. It's easy to hope for everyone to survive because the dramatic possibilities are so limited. Even the guys who initially appear to be villains turn out to be all right.

Speaking on behalf of environmental concerns is "paleo-climatologist" Dr. Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), who had predicted that global warming would cause a shift in the North Atlantic current that controls the Northern Hemisphere's climate. Jack just didn't expect it to happen this soon. A meteorological event that should require centuries occurs in a matter of weeks.

Jack would be stuck watching the Weather Channel like everyone else except he has something to prove to his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who's trapped in New York with his brain bowl teammates.

The first hour of The Day After Tomorrow is well-paced action as the storms blow through. Emmerich and Nachmanoff reverse the natural order of disaster flicks, which is: talk first, run later. After the catastrophes, the personalities begin developing to a degree, and the screenplay dangles some amusing or sobering what-if propositions. Evacuating North American survivors to the south results in a clever twist on illegal immigration, and its solution is a smart example of diplomacy in vain.

Quaid gives a solid performance for a popcorn movie, never too super in his heroism and never losing sight of the unlikelihood he'll survive. He handles the scientific jargon well, a key element in keeping The Day After Tomorrow from being laughed at for the wrong reasons. Gyllenhaal brings a bit of independent film intimacy to his role. Ian Holm, Sela Ward and Jay O. Sanders each get their points across with class, despite having a single nobility to play.

The Day After Tomorrow is just about as smart as anyone can expect a disaster movie to be these days, not necessarily for its facts but for its bombastic fiction. The global warming debate is being revived and both sides of the fence look a bit silly for placing so much importance on a summer movie. Then again, that's what some people said about those 1950s sci-fi thrillers that preached against atomic energy.

Grade: B-plus

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Ian Holm, Dash Mihok, Sela Ward, Glenn Plummer, Jay O. Sanders, Kenneth Welsh, Perry King

Screenplay: Roland Emmerich, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Rating: PG-13; natural disaster violence

Running time: 124 min.