I try not to go to see any movie with any particular expectations, but I was disappointed that this one wasn’t better.
Some people have already mentioned Minnesota, but did anyone else stay until the credits were over. An aide rushes up to the vice-president/president to tell him that 80% of the population of Canada survived. (Unfortunately, living on the East coast, I wouldn’t have been one of them.)
When the Hollywood sign was torn up by the tornado I said, “No! It cost Alice Cooper almost $28,000 to save that sign. That second “O” belongs to him!” :eek:
For some reason, I knew they were just teasing a rivalry between Jake “Spider-Man Understudy” Gyllenhaal and that other guy. And when the guy told Jake to tell the girl how her felt about her, I immediately said, “He’s gay.” 
The dying child sub-plot was superfluous, but I also thought the wolves (aside from being bad effects) were also unneccessary. I found that the three boys’ race to the ship and back was tense enough without the wolves (who should have been snacking on the dead corpses of the people who left the library anyway.)
The most memorable moment in the film, for me, came courtesy of my father. When nerd-boy found the penicillin on the boat, we only got a brief look at the bottle. But it was enough to elicit a guffaw from my father, who pointed out that the liquid in the bottle was totally unfrozen. Similarly, at one point, when Jake was trying to trap the wolves, he had only one glove, yet had no problems when he placed his naked hand on the metal ship.
I would have preferred it if they had actually had to amputate the girl’s leg. (Which, in turn, could have served as food. :evil smilie: Did the dog have a name in the film? If not, I would have called him ED. “Emergency Dinner”.) Of course, based on the rest of the film, I assume the studio wanted to show as little human casualties as possible - which, IMO, is one of the main reasons this film fails as a decent disaster film.
The only characters I really liked were the father and Ian Holm’s character. I like Dennis Quaid and, as someone else mentioned, also think he’d make a good Indiana Jones. He looks a lot like a slightly younger Harrison Ford, IMO. And I felt more sympathy for Ian Holm’s character, despite his limited role, than anyone else. Just the look on his face when he realized what was going to happen, and the scene where he was looking at his grandson’s drawing… 
I liked the homeless man and his dog. Someone mentioned expecting to see one of the wolves freeze in mid-air leap. I also expected something like that, but not as dramatic. And I actually thought the homeless man’s dog might suffer a similar fate. Of course, it’s a Hollywood rule that the pet always survives, no matter what. [see Sylvester Stallone’s Daylight] At least we got to see that pilot freeze as he was exiting the crashed helicopter.
All in all, I enjoyed watching the film, despite being underwhelmed. I could have written a better script, but I suspect many Dopers could have done so. The effects were great (aside from the superfluous wolves), and none of the actors, while nothing special (aside from Ian Holm), didn’t stick out as “bad” and detract from my enjoyment of the film. The ending speech by the new president was awfully preachy though.
Personally, I like both disaster films and post-apocalyptic films. However, I’d love to see a film which deals mainly with the immediate aftermath of a disaster or apocalyptic event. The first preview for The Day After Tomorrow looked like it would be more about people surviving post-storm. The second preview, however, was just the opposite - showing the people trying to weather the storm. Previews suck!
Anyhoo…