'Into the Storm' Review

Into The Storm Review:

Decent Destruction

BY IAN TAN

Directed by Steven Quale, who acted as assistant director on James Cameron’s Avatar (Oh hey, this sounds promising!) and director behind Final Destination 5 (I take that back), Into The Storm follows three groups of characters – a father in search of his lost son, a documentary crew on a tornado lookout, and two amateur dare-devil YouTubers – all in the midst of an onslaught of multiple tornados surfacing their town of Silverton. But hey, were human characters ever the main attraction of disaster films such as this one? No, although a little character development does help. We’re mainly here for the tornados and large scale disaster sequences, aren't we? With that in mind, does Into The Storm deliver?

Well, sort of.

First off, the characters in this film are a more grounded, relatable bunch compared to those of the Roland Emmerich camp of disaster films (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) and do help set up the film nicely, allowing for some neat everyday conversations and humour. Richard Armitage gives a commendable but easily forgettable performance as Gary Morris, father of high school teenagers Trey and Donnie, played by Nathan Kress (Freddie of Nickelodeon’s iCarly) and Max Deacon respectively, both of whom give fine and likable performances. However, as the film progresses and as the stakes get higher, drama and character development take a back seat in favour of large scale CGI disaster set pieces, which ultimately made me less engaged in what was happening as the script, penned by John Swetnam, gives little substance to the film’s characters after the midway point of the film, ultimately making me less interested in them and the perils they faced. Every character story and development in this movie feels undercooked. Couple that with two annoying characters (the dare-devil YouTuber amateurs I mentioned earlier) on par with the Racism Twins of Transformers 2 and we get a pretty looking movie with some pretty weak (and stupid) characters. Seriously, this movie could have done without those two idiots and no one would complain.

On the other hand, Into The Storm does have some pretty neat, and different disaster action sequences that are as thrilling as they are intense. Shots of a tornado catching fire and turning into a swirl of fiery destruction and two airplanes smashing into each other are real highlights. Unfortunately, other scenes such as one involving graduates tossing their grad hats into the air for them to simply be blown away by strong currents of air are executed with less skill and never fully reach the sense of cinematic spectacle it tries to achieve.

One other aspect of the film I did like was the use of handheld “documentary-style” filmmaking, which, to Quale’s credit, makes good use of its nearly-micro budget of USD 50 million for a more immersive and realistic looking film. Also, the film’s incorporation of Dolby Atmos benefits the film during its big, loud disaster sequences. Cars fly in front and over your head while tornados and wind are made all the more scary and enveloping with the additional speakers and use of pan through arrays (more on that in my Dolby Atmos article next week). As a result, audience immersion is boosted, putting us smack in the middle of the chaos. There were people in my theater screaming and jumping out of their seats every time a tornado started wreaking havoc or when trees starting getting rooted up from the ground and flung in front of characters.  It was quite the ride, I must say.

Overall, Into The Storm is slightly-above-average B-movie fare, sporting some neat visual effects and sound design, but lacking enough substance and the sense of “epicness” that most disaster themed movies have become synonymous with. It’s an “okay” time at the cinema, but there are better, more cinematically inclined films out there that would provide more bang for your buck.

Final rating

6.7 out of 10 stars – A decent time killer.