Into the Storm

The found footage, natural disaster movie nobody asked for

This movie centers around two brothers, Donnie and Trey (Max Deacon and Nathan Kress) in high school who's father Gary (Richard Armitage) is the vice principal. It also encompasses a group of storm chasers led by Pete (Matt Walsh) a movie personality and Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies) a meteorologist. The two groups intersect when the biggest tornado in recorded history touches down in the family's town. Donnie has found himself trapped in a flooding hole with Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey) the girl he has a crush on and it is up to his father and the storm chasers to go save them.

This movie didn't really have a good start for me. I'm not very fond of natural disaster films since I lived in Florida during a time where six or more hurricanes hit us and it really never effected the community (due to constant hurricane parties making light of the situation). I don't know how this movie will appeal to those who have been in natural disasters where effects ruined their livelihood; but, this movie seems to be directly centered towards the victims of Hurricane Sandy and Katrina. I am also not too fond of found footage films. The only one I have seen that I actually liked was "Chronicle," everything else just seemed lazy. The story here was a mixture between "Twister" and "The Day After Tomorrow" except somehow more preachy and patriotic. Yes, we all know that Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina were devastating and nobody can make light of those circumstances, but this just beat you over the head with pity party bullshit. There is always a difference between a movie that is trying to pay homage to victims of some tragic event, for no other reason then they wanted to tell the story artistically (like "Flight 93" or "Munich"), and a movie looking for a quick buck because people feel bad and want to see it. Of course you wouldn't know the overlaying message from watching the trailers; but, when they hit you over the head with it in the theaters it seems like a cheap shot. It is no surprise that this movie had a horrible story line, plot, and characterization, it is kind of expected from a genre like this. The only positive thing I can say is that they seemed to perfectly describe dumb rednecks that are looking for their five minutes of fame on YouTube. They also did well with how video dependent our society seems to have become. Everything else in this movie was either done before or done badly.

Another positive thing I can say about this has to be the visuals. They weren't perfect by any means, but did a good job at portraying the beauty and the horror of nature. The thing that seemed to bring it down was the lingering damage shots. They seemed to want to concentrate more on the destruction left behind during a storm rather than the storm itself, which brings me back to my overly preachy argument. Aside from all of that it was your basic found footage annoying camera angles and overly shaking camera. The weird thing is that for being a movie about storms they didn't seem to know how storms actually worked. There seemed like there were so many times a person should have been grabbed up by a tornado that didn't happen. So many times that seemed like they were trying to enhance the drama more than actually make a good movie that made sense. 

The real travesty here is that a fair amount of these actor are professionals and aren't too new to the big screen; but, you would never known that given their performance. Richard Armitage was in "The Hobbit" series and one would think that with a movie like that on your resume you would be good at conveying different levels of emotion. Instead, we are given this one note smoldering "bad ass" of a vice principal that seems more suited to a military role than a civilian one. Sarah Wayne Callies was the most redeemable actor on this list, but she was still not conveying the amount of emotion I would have expected from her days on "The Walking Dead." Matt Walsh did what he does by playing a douche-bag, but the redemption arc fell flat. The young actor with the most experience Nathan Kress seemed to forget everything he ever learned about this craft by over selling it. I felt bad for Max Deacon and Alycia Carey since this was their first role on the big screen and they had to spend it trying to sell the audience on the fact that they were really scared of drowning. 

There is a reason I hadn't heard from the natural disaster movie circuit for a while, and that is because these movies are either boring or stupid. This movie managed to be both. If I want to see glamour shots of a city devastated by weather or of CGI weather; I would either Google real pictures or rent one of the other dozen of movies out their with the same amount of CGI. This type of movie needs to die, and stay dead. We are not going to see a lot of money from them, and we are not going to see anything ground breaking or new. These films are the lowest form of entertainment next to watching YouTube videos of someone getting hurt for views. Which is weird since they portrayed those same people in this movie. 

Final Verdict: Don't do it While it isn't the worst movie I have seen this year by a long shot, it certainly isn't worth your time or money. If you want to see this movie just go ahead and rent one of the other dozens of Natural Disaster movies out there.