The opening credits sequence was entirely too long. Sometimes in films the opening credits are accompanied by some sort of special effect or something interesting to keep the audience engaged. While I understand that the opening credits are not necessarily the most important part of the film (even though they can sometimes help to set up the story early on) and that they most likely will not ruin a film, I have found that a boring intro, like the one in this film, can sometimes cause the audience to lose a tiny bit of interest in the film. What was particularly boring about this opening sequence was the fact that we saw nothing but an aerial view of the Larsen Ice Shelf (which, as incredible as that is, is a terribly boring thing to stare at for three consecutive minutes). I think the story in this film is exceptional--with a few minor things that were added to simply add effect (such as the wolves escaping into the city). With films like this, apocalypse-type films, there are always some oddly coincidental things that happen throughout the film, so, this was something I was able to look past in this film. The visuals in this film are absolutely captivating. The rain and the snow as well as the tornadoes and the tsunamis looked incredibly real. Nothing looked under or overdone, but, simply, spot on. Even with the storms meant to be far larger than anything we’ve seen before, nothing looked cartoonistic. The only thing that was an issue in regard to the graphics was the wolves again (I started to sense, over the course of the film, that the wolves may have been a bit of an afterthought and were not given as much attention as they should have). Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors in Hollywood and I thought that this film was a perfect example of how talented he is. He would have only been approximately twenty-three years old at the time of filming, and while he had plenty of opportunity to act prior to this film, this was very different from anything else that he had been casted in before. Along with Gyllenhaal, Rossum, Nichols and Smith were all fantastic in this film. Each of their characters brought something different to the film and I thought that each of the actors worked well with one another and created a very enjoyable dynamic. I thought that Dennis Quaid’s Jack Hall was an enjoyable character, however, I am glad that his role wasn’t substantial. Not giving this particular character too much screen time was a very smart move by director and writer Roland Emmerich. This isn’t a film that I could watch over and over again, however, I think it would be hard to turn down a viewing of it. Aside from the issue of the opening credits, and the pesky wolves, I thought this film was incredibly well done.
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