Into the Storm

Starring: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Max Deacon, Nathan Kress
Directed by: Steven Quale
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of tornado chasers and civilians try to survive a deadly tornado outbreak.

Review:

Tim: I'm a big fan of weather-related movies and I desperately wish they'd make more of them. I especially love the idea of sitting in a theater, seeing a giant deadly tornado up on the screen. What could be more exciting than one of nature's most powerful storms being on the multiplex? I loved Twister and was really looking forward to Into the Storm. Unfortunately, this is a cheaply made film that never shakes the feeling that it was made for TV. I wanted to like this movie, but there was no way I could.

I do want to start with a positive- even without the ideal budget, this film managed to create some incredible visual moments. The storms look impressive and I got caught up in the visuals. The flamenado was a highlight, but just seeing these massive storms wreck havoc across the countryside is great fun (from the safety of my couch, of course). The best part of the film is that the special effects do a fairly good job of bringing these incredible storms to life. I liked that part of the movie quite a bit.

Movies need to be about more than special effects and that's where this movie falls down. The casting department really made some mistakes with its stars. Richard Armitage might do decent work in The Hobbit movies, but without his beard and long hair, he's a fairly uncharismatic actor. I didn't believe his performance for a second and I had no connection with his character. It felt like he was an actor in a Saturday morning TV matinee, not a Hollywood film. Armitage was really disappointing. If I only had this film as evidence, I'd say he was a terrible actor. I'm not sure what happened here. I was familiar with Sarah Wayne Callies from her work on "The Walking Dead" and she was at least decent. She might have given the best performance of the entire cast, which isn't saying much. It felt like she was acting on a low budget TV series, not a movie. Her character was paper thin and again, I didn't care for her in the least. Matt Walsh gives Callies a run for her money, but he's a bit too over-the-top. His performance was too on-the-nose and needed more restraint. He did have a few of the better scenes of the film and was fun to watch, even if he didn't deliver a great performance.

Part of what hampered the cast was the script. It featured cliched characters and utterly disastrous dialogue. I laughed and rolled my eyes throughout the film. I never believed any of the human interactions in the least. They weren't compelling or realistic. That really killed me because with better actors and better dialogue, this could have been a very good movie (and throw in better direction. So I'm really saying a completely different movie would have been preferred). If you're going to make an exciting tornado movie, you have to do better than this. It felt like everyone involved with this movie said- "Hey, all people care about is cool special effects. Let's pour all our money into those, and don't even bother with the cast or the dialogue. No one's going to care about those." Except that yes, people do care. This movie had potential and it was squandered.

Into the Storm isn't a terrible movie (I feel like I say this a lot, and it's never positive). It does offer some impressive special effects and a few thrilling moments. However, there's no heart or soul to this movie. The characters are cardboard caricatures and offer nothing to the audience. I really wanted to like this movie, but I just left it feeling bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Twister, Hard Rain