The premise of The Day After Tomorrow is a simple one – the polar ice caps melt, causing the oceans temperature to drop considerably, in turn causing nasty storms (and other weather phenomenon) and bringing the world into a new Ice Age.

Amidst all this, a climatologist travels to New York, which is gripped in the middle of the worst storm of all time, to rescue his son. Disaster ensues as a tidal wave, then an Ice Age hit NY, and a series of tornadoes hits LA.

This is stereotypical disaster movie fare, for the most part. All the real mind-blowing action, and special effects, takes place in the first hour, with the aforementioned tornadoes and floods all taking place before the 60 minute mark.

In the second hour the movie changes its tone considerably, becoming a survival piece and looking at how people are survivng and what they are doing to get to their loved ones.

The acting is patchy, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Sela Ward providing the only real standout acting moments.

However, this is fitting, as the main star here is the CGI weather effects, and I think the actors did a good job by taking a backseat to these.

I went with a group of 11 people, and I was only person who thought it was more than just “okay”. In my opinion, The Day After Tomorrow is a great disaster movie, with a difference.

I loved the open ending, I also liked the way the story kept escalating.

Unlike director Roland Emmerich’s previous films (“Godzilla” and “Independence Day”) the US doesn’t save the day, so the movie really takes a look at how we, as a civilisation, would deal with a new Ice Age hitting earth as we are right this minute.

However, I did discover that maybe I’m just a fan of large-scale action adventure movies. Based on my own opinion, I give The Day After Tomorrow a 8 out of 10 – however, based on my companions’ opinions, it gets a 6 out of 10.