INTO THE STORM

Copyright 2014 New Line Cinema

Best Quote from Audience Member:

"Well, that was nightmare-fueled."

The Story:

A storm ransacks a town with tornadoes, fire-nadoes, multi-nadoes, and plane-nadoes.

Meanwhile, we watch a motherless family, a single mother, a jerk documentary maker, and a high school darling as they battle to stay alive.

I mean, there's not much else to it.

For Writers:

There's an old saying: Either do it first, or do it best.

This film does neither.

It was done first in the 1990's. I remember, because I was obsessed with tornadoes back then. Mostly, because I lived in Tornado Alley and this had caused me to develop a phobia. In order to battle this phobia, I battled tornado movies like they were slasher films.

Twister did it first. Night of the Twisters did it best.

Into the Storm teeter-totters between being Sharknado and Titanic. The Sharknado moments are laughable, with stinted dialogue and absolutely ridiculous Bay-esque effects that make you wonder if you are actually wearing ScyFy. Not Sci-Fi, mind you. ScyFy.

However, there are these brilliant moments where you forget you're watching a stupid movie, and maybe --- just maybe --- you're watching something that matters in the world.

If you are dragged to this movie, get your notepads ready for the scene where the oldest son and the girlfriend are giving their final messages to the camera. It's heartfelt and it means everything when it comes to writing. Oldest son talks about his brother and how important that brother is. It's a beautiful character moment.

The rest of it? I mean, the planes go up into the twister and crash into each other. Another tornado sweeps up some fire and rages around until it catches someone on fire and sucks them up. All of these are cool moments. And I just didn't care enough.

And forget about the dramaturgy. Funnel clouds are called wall clouds, tornado sirens were represented by the A-Bomb sirens, and we won't even get into why a small town in Southwest America has an international airport.

Plane-nado!

For Girls:

And this is where it gets real sketchy.

There are three girl characters in this movie. The first is a high school girlfriend who is pretty and sweet and smart and totally fodder for the main character.

The second is a single mom who is trying to get home to her daughter but falls in love with the main family's widowed father.

And the third is the dead mom.

While the single mom's story is interesting, it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to see more of her, and less of her getting saved by the dude characters.

When it comes to POCs, there were two. The first was a camera man. He didn't die. He just stayed behind.

The second was the mean principal who wouldn't let people leave the shelter, even when the F5 is barreling closer. 

For Who?

This one is a good popcorn film if you need to get to the movies and just see something. If you are terrified of tornadoes or really like watching tornadoes, you're gonna love it.

The Rating:

THE MOVIE ITSELF: Yeah, just no. For a theatrical release, this thing wasn't ready. I feel like one writer had talent, another writer was confused as to proper expectations, the special effects team was on board, and the actors were highly underpaid and just didn't care. Good lord, at least it's short.  C

ENJOYMENT FACTOR: I wouldn't watch this one again. There were some cool scenes, but there are cool scenes in good movies. C

VERDICT: If you want a good movie with rounded-out characters, I'd just go see Ninja Turtles at at least be entertained while you're disappointed. C