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Into the Storm (Facebook)
What's it about:
In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.
What we thought:
One of my guilty pleasures is watching those horrible late night disaster movies where the CGI’s bad quality is overshadowed by the terrible acting and plot. You get some sense of pleasure in seeing the bad actors getting squished by falling blocks of ice, sharks or whatever new horror some maniacal director comes up with.
Into The Storm looks like it might fall into that category, but surprisingly, as far as disaster movies go, this wasn’t too bad. About a million degrees better than disaster hallmarks The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, money was spent into bringing you the biggest, most badass tornadoes to wreak destruction and mayhem on a small American town. You can’t help but feel like you are in the storm, especially on a big screen, and the CGI is good enough that you don’t cringe for the creators (looking at you Sharknado).
As for the plot, the producers knew what they were making and who they were making it for. If you go see a disaster movie, you don’t expect a plotline to rival Shakespeare. Still, Into The Storm had a plausible enough one that wasn’t too ridiculous, except of course you have the cliché troubled father and son relationship, but after the father saves the son from certain death all is well. Even though the lead characters end up saving the townspeople, it is done in a way more realistic scenario where it basically involves warning people. As in real life, you can’t press a magic button that will change the course of the tornadoes and save the town. The town is destroyed and for a country that has in recent years been subjected to horrific weather disasters, it drives home the destruction Mother Earth can wreak, and there isn’t much we can do. As in the movie, all you can do is rebuild, not only houses but also relationships.
There were some known faces in the film, such as Sarah Wayne Callies (the most satisfying death from The Walking Dead) Richard Armitage (beardless Thorin from The Hobbit) and a grown-up Nathan Kress (the best friend from iCarly, but with more muscles). The tweens-now-teens that watched Kress on Nickelodeon would probably swarm just to watch him, and The Walking Dead fans probably hope that a tornado destroys the most annoying character from the series. I didn’t even realise Armitage was in the movie until I saw the credits, but it sucks for an actor when people only know you by your facial hair.
Generally I have special disdain for ‘found-footage’ movies, but it wasn’t too intolerable in the movie, as it had a good combo of shaky cam and normal filming to keep it feeling like you are on a boat. In the form of the town’s idiots, the film also makes fun of the idea that you can get famous on YouTube for doing stupid stunts, but unfortunately doesn’t follow through completely with the lesson.
An enjoyable movie, Into The Storm is a good movie date to get your date to hold your hand but not too scary to scar them. For all the ridiculous scenes and plot holes though, which you expect from a decent disaster movie, you can’t help but feel that movie does have some truth in it, as seen in US, Haiti, Japan and anywhere else where nature took a nasty turn (hell, even SA has been getting earthquakes). A superstorm could very well be heading our way and then the line between movie and reality becomes blurred.
In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.
What we thought:
One of my guilty pleasures is watching those horrible late night disaster movies where the CGI’s bad quality is overshadowed by the terrible acting and plot. You get some sense of pleasure in seeing the bad actors getting squished by falling blocks of ice, sharks or whatever new horror some maniacal director comes up with.
Into The Storm looks like it might fall into that category, but surprisingly, as far as disaster movies go, this wasn’t too bad. About a million degrees better than disaster hallmarks The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, money was spent into bringing you the biggest, most badass tornadoes to wreak destruction and mayhem on a small American town. You can’t help but feel like you are in the storm, especially on a big screen, and the CGI is good enough that you don’t cringe for the creators (looking at you Sharknado).
As for the plot, the producers knew what they were making and who they were making it for. If you go see a disaster movie, you don’t expect a plotline to rival Shakespeare. Still, Into The Storm had a plausible enough one that wasn’t too ridiculous, except of course you have the cliché troubled father and son relationship, but after the father saves the son from certain death all is well. Even though the lead characters end up saving the townspeople, it is done in a way more realistic scenario where it basically involves warning people. As in real life, you can’t press a magic button that will change the course of the tornadoes and save the town. The town is destroyed and for a country that has in recent years been subjected to horrific weather disasters, it drives home the destruction Mother Earth can wreak, and there isn’t much we can do. As in the movie, all you can do is rebuild, not only houses but also relationships.
There were some known faces in the film, such as Sarah Wayne Callies (the most satisfying death from The Walking Dead) Richard Armitage (beardless Thorin from The Hobbit) and a grown-up Nathan Kress (the best friend from iCarly, but with more muscles). The tweens-now-teens that watched Kress on Nickelodeon would probably swarm just to watch him, and The Walking Dead fans probably hope that a tornado destroys the most annoying character from the series. I didn’t even realise Armitage was in the movie until I saw the credits, but it sucks for an actor when people only know you by your facial hair.
Generally I have special disdain for ‘found-footage’ movies, but it wasn’t too intolerable in the movie, as it had a good combo of shaky cam and normal filming to keep it feeling like you are on a boat. In the form of the town’s idiots, the film also makes fun of the idea that you can get famous on YouTube for doing stupid stunts, but unfortunately doesn’t follow through completely with the lesson.
An enjoyable movie, Into The Storm is a good movie date to get your date to hold your hand but not too scary to scar them. For all the ridiculous scenes and plot holes though, which you expect from a decent disaster movie, you can’t help but feel that movie does have some truth in it, as seen in US, Haiti, Japan and anywhere else where nature took a nasty turn (hell, even SA has been getting earthquakes). A superstorm could very well be heading our way and then the line between movie and reality becomes blurred.
