Rating of
2.5/4
The Visuals are an F5, the Rest is an F1 Letdown
Chris Kavan - wrote on 08/14/14
Into the Storm is like Twister on steroids - it's a lot bigger, but also a lot dumber. If it's weather-related action you crave - this has it all - tornadoes galore - taking out schools, houses, car dealerships - even an airport. You get multiple vortexes, a huge miles-long beast and even a fire-nado - and if that's what you want, you're in for a treat. However, beyond the action there isn't a lot of meat left on the bone - cliched character and situations, along with a meager at-best plot mean it's not going to win any awards - but when it delivers a rush - it delivers it big time.
Into the Storm is presented in an almost found-footage kind of way. The movie centers around the mid-sized town of Silverton - a group of storm chasers, Team Titus - is having a bad year, and funding is about to run out and unless they can get a tornado on film, they are done for. Leader Pete (Matt Walsh) is all about getting the footage, and seems to care little about anything else. His harried crew includes the schooled meteorologist Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies) as well as a trio of cameramen - Daryl, Jacob and Lucas (Arlen Escarpeta, Jeremy Sumpter and Lee Whittaker). On a hunch, Allison suggests they head for Silverton, where she suspects the biggest storms might hit. Though Pete has his doubts, he reluctantly takes her advice and heads out in his nigh-impenetrable beast of vehicle.
Meanwhile, the local highschool is preparing for graduation - Vice Principal Gary (Richard Armitage) is stressed out. His two sons Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress) are in charge of not only filming the ceremony, but also the video time capsules - to be relived 25 years later. Donnie is having a lot of friction with his father. Once at school the junior manages enough courage to strike up a conversation with Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey), a girl he has a major crush on - and he ditches the ceremony in order to help her film an environmental project at a local abandoned factory she needs by the end of day.
Besides this core group, we also witness the travails of would-be YouTube celebrities "Donk" (Kyle Davis) and Reevis (Jon Reep). Redneck to the bone - they're about as smart as a box of rocks and go wild when the storms are announced.
While there is quite a bit of setup to our main characters - each one is paper thin. You have the distant father, the a-hole boss, the smartaleck brother, the shy one, the cute girl - I mean, these are as generic as you can get - and no one can really escape the is trap. Walsh does the best job of working his part out - and Kress is good as the spitfire brother - but everyone else just kind of fades into the background.
But Into the Storm isn't a movie you go into expecting deep characters - you want awesome action, and, at least in this aspect, the film delivers. When the tornadoes show up - things look excellent. Compare this to Twister and you can see just how far the VFX have come - while each scene of destruction has its own kind of horrible beauty - there are a few scenes that truly stand out. First, the fire-tornado - that scene alone is worth watching for - fire is hard to get right in special effects, but man, did that look awesome. It also leads to one of the (few) on-screen deaths that are shown (though with the devastation, one has to imagine the loss of life has to be significant compared to what is shown).
The other is the finale featuring the world's biggest tornado - watch it going through the airport was like a ballet of monstrous proportions as airplanes are picked up and twirled through the air (amongst other massive debris). Is it a bit over-the-top? Probably - but, man, it's also not too far off. Believe me, I live in tornado country and have seen what Mother Nature can do - and it's not pretty. The movie may have upped the amperage a bit - but I have seen whole towns wiped off the map from these type of storms.
That's just it, though, Into the Storm gives up the spectacle, but it doesn't give us the story. Even the sappy tacked-on end feels like a cop out. Visually, the film is a monster - huge in scope and amazing to behold - it's just too bad that it can't find the heart in either the characters or story - both of which feel like an afterthought.
