Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

things about this movie that make it one of my favorites.
1. CGI effects rule.
2. watching americans illegally crossing into mexico for salvation.
3. no colors, just humans.
4. the father and son sub plot.
5. watching mother earth destroy those who hurt her.
6. the ocean is powerful, powerfilled, and mean.
7. a humans ability to realize, calculate, determine, and overcome.

this movie is greatly exciting food for thought because it is one of the few environmentalist action films in its directly political -pay-heed-to-global-climate-change message. also it dramatizes quite well the awesome power of nature; though the real message is, i think less optimistic than you suggest; the ability of humans to overcome is probably weaker than its needs to be for human survival to endure: eventually civilization crumbles into ruin before the cataclysmic strength of nature's chaos. that;s the true message i got from it.

the father-son plot was a cheesy cliche, like much of the movie.

agreed, the scene of americans trying to cross the border to mexico is a classic gem.