Writers: Roland Emmerich/Harald Kloser
Director: Roland Emmerich
The movie, starring the great John Cusack, takes a few liberties in particle physics to explain the end of the world scenario. The premise is that neutrino particles, which are being constantly fired off from the sun yet are so small they pass through our planet with no effect, have somehow mutated and became microwaves which, over the course of three years following a pattern of strong sun bursts, superheat the earth's core causing "surface crust displacement" and creating earthquakes, volcanoes and tidal waves.
The special effects are fantastic, showing the epic destruction of the world in great realism. The story is cute, dealing with divorces, children and what not. There are some bits that seem a bit ridiculous, like the afformentioned particle mutation, but it's really not that bad. It does, however, lack in emotion, even though you can tell they definitely tried to tug at your heart strings a bit.
The movies only real downfall is the gratuitous use of near-death experiences where the main characters seem to always just graze death throughout the entire movie. I know, it doesn't sound like a bad thing, until you've seen it more times than you have digits on your hands and feet.
Honestly, though, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money at theater ticket prices to see this. Just wait until either it's out on DVD and you have netflix, or if a friend of yours happens to get their hands on a copy, and watch it when you've got nothing else to do, or if you really enjoy watching John Cusack almost die about 100 times, with some crazy vehicular stunts. Good, but not great.
-Jeff Schmidt