I actually enjoyed this movie a lot. I mainly went to see it for the special effects, which are amazing. Of course a lot is far-fetched, esp. when the cracks in the earth appear to purposefully 'chase' the main protagonist (played by John Cusack) and his family as they're driving/flying away. It looks like a more manic version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. But the movie, at about 2.75 hours long, never seems to drag or get boring.

I liked this director's effort far better than his previous works (Independence Day and, I think, The Day After Tomorrow). Not perfect, but for a movie which covers events of such a magnitude, IMO it's made about as well as anybody could hope to make it.

On a side note, the guy who plays the young Tibetan Buddhist monk, I believe is the same guy who played the young Wu Tang student in David Carradine's movie, The Kung Fu Killer.