So I'm sitting here, not watching the blow-your-snow-load blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, contemplating the state of the modern action film. One cannot deny the fact that Day After strays from the common path littered with flaming cars and massive weapons. But are these fights with nature really a step forward for our blockbuster audiences?
Movies like The Perfect Storm, Whiteout, Twister and the upcoming 2012 appear to promise a "higher brow" viewing experience for adrenaline seeking audiences. They seemingly create a cultural outlet for contemporary issues, like global warming, that allow for us to both "enjoy" the movie and feel like we're taking a stand against something (by apparently indulging in the horrors of the impossible). By combating our own desire to see the latest Vin Diesel movie, in favor for the compassionate words of Dennis Quaid, we seem to have fought the cause; stepped into the "message" film, something greater than the "happily ever after." But we haven't. These films that supposedly sit somewhere between the causation film and the contemporary blockbuster actually follow our shallowest of genre conventions.
These films substitute guns for wind, cars for hurricanes, and fire for well... fire. We are viewing a convoluted rehashing of the car chase glossed over with blustery winds and the declaration of national emergencies. Our villain is substituted with a faceless cause that we still eagerly oppose with fascist gumption. The bad are still bad and the good are still good. Rather, I'd argue these films continue to blatantly support the nationalistic messages of the super hero genre. We unite against our common enemy (communism?) yet again. We have merely continued the violent cycle of Cold War sentiment. But instead of "Reds" and "Commies" we're just confused with who we hate; it seems our nationalistic common enemy is the world we live in.
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