$23 million Went Into The Storm. Was It Worth It?

Yes, I saw Godzilla like I said I would. And yes, I probably SHOULD do a review on that. Now with that said, let's talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a bit.

Yeah, remember when after Nickelodeon bought the property, Michael Bay announced he was gonna bring us Ninja Turtles through his Platinum Dunes label, the decision that pissed a lot of fans and even non-fans off because, y'know, Michael Bay? And while I stand by the cold hard fact that this was directed by Jonathan Liebesman (yes, the Battle LA/Wrath of the Titans/Darkness Falls/Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning guy) and only produced by Bay, I will admit from what I heard, it could've been a hell of a lot worse. It had its moments of wit and charm, but it's still plagued by stereotypical action scenes, a waste of good talent and, of course, the CGI that turned the beloved martial arts reptiles into Shrek without the ogre ears. Oh, and it's rated PG-13.

But I didn't buy my first cinema pizza for that, ironically; I got my first cinema pizza for Final Destination 5 director and James Cameron protege Steven Quale's Into the Storm, the latest found footage and disaster movie to come to theaters, thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Village Roadshow Pictures... and Todd Garner.
I have to admit, when I saw the initial Tomatometer of this film, I went, "What?" I couldn't believe that this was getting a worse start with critics than the film I opted against going that came out the same day. It seemed like nobody liked any of the film except the tornadoes. Hell, a lot of critics thought the TORNADOES were the stars of the film! And yeah, they ARE the best part of the movie.

I say "best part" instead of "stars" because unlike Godzilla where I accepted that there wasn't as much of the monsters as I hoped and was thus satisfied with what I got (even getting more than one would want me to expect), I found there was actually LESS tornado action than what I got. Just a typical story about people finding their loved ones and storm chasers trying to hunt twisters.

Speaking of typical stories about people finding their loved ones and storm chasers trying to hunt twisters, the film's story begins when four random teenagers are killed by a tornado thanks to Screwup McMoron in what I have to admit is a pretty well-crafted opening that sets the tone and threatening nature of the spiraling vortexes. But it switches to the filming of a time capsule by siblings Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (iCarly's Nathan Kress), sons of Silverton's high school principal Gary Morris, played by Richard Armitage. That's right. Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit is in a found-footage movie about killer tornadoes! I'll get to THAT one later. And if you thought this was just going to be these kids filming a time capsule... you'd be wrong.

We also have the storm chasers lead by Pete (Matt Walsh, aka Mark Wahlberg's boss in Ted) and consulted by meteorologist Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies from The Walking Dead, which I don't watch that often like many other people). They're looking to find a tornado or two to film for what I assume is their TV series on Discovery Channel, but haven't had very much luck this season. But things change for better and worse when the cyclones come waltzing their way to Silverton wreck havoc upon the houses and citizens. And honestly, this is the best story this film conjures up. It features people doing a legitimate job and passion, it shows the what could work about the characters if they were the focus, like Allison having a daughter she's never visited in three months due to work, Pete wanting to get the perfect shot of a tornado's eye and the crew's comradery and friendship as they do what they do. ARE they the focus of the movie, however? No.

As soon as the tornadoes arrive, they suck some students to their doom after graduation (ironic, isn't it?) and lock Donnie and his crush (Alycia Debnam-Carey) in the abandoned paper mill by piling debris over them until they're drowned by a flood by rain. Now Gary, Trey and the storm chasers must team up to get to the paper mill and save Donnie from his demise, all while an army of tornadoes unleashes its windy hell upon the town.

...

Oh, and there's two YouTube hillbillies that show up and tell their story for like, what, 5 minutes?

The big problem with this movie seems pretty obvious and... yeah, it is: There's too much story and yet too little story going on at the same time. If they had done at least one of these three simple stories or done them as an anthology thing, the film probably would've had a better chance. The storm chasers have the best development and chemistry in the whole thing, the idea of trying to do a time capsule IN THE MIDDLE OF A FRICKIN' TORNADO INVASION is actually really clever, and though the hillbillies are something I'd rather see on World's Dumbest or YouTube, I'd admire a film about idiots trying to get into a tornado for YouTube to see so they can be stars forever for being a bit different from the crap we have today (Let's Be Cops, anybody?). But again, if you wanted to tell all these stories, why not do it as an anthology? I saw the running time of this was 89 minutes, and that was NOT gonna be a lot of screentime for these things to develop properly.

Acting-wise, I think it's okay. It's nice to see Richard Armitage get his own starring role as he's playing Thorin in the last Hobbit movie this Christmas, and iCarly's Nathan Kress does play a bigger role than the main-on-end credits indicate and does a fine job, and the brother, his crush, the storm chasers and hillbillies are very well-acted and get me invested in their performances. Everyone else, however, I couldn't give too much of a smoof about. Now the casting is where it falls apart, because found-footage movies are usually around unknowns that can get their jump-start into big features by doing something like Chronicle to enter the big pictures like Dane DeHaan with The Amazng Spider-Man 2. Here, we know these people from television and even movies, so really, the gimmick of believing these characters are real doesn't work because we've seen a lot of these guys before. Plus, being a movie about multiple characters filming everything, the characters don't get as much screentime as they'd need to be very memorable, and the acting can get pretty hokey at times.

And that's where the writing suffers, as I've stated a lot in this review: too much at once. This film should've stuck with at least one of these three stories the whole way through or, if Quale and writer John Swetnam DID want to do all these stories, done it as an anthology film that takes place in the same timeline. Whichever of these would've been chosen, Into the Storm might have had a much better chance than it has now that it's come out, with a LOT of bashing on it when the reviews that weren't tweets came in.

But the story and characters of the movie are one thing (okay, TWO big things) about this film. How are the technical and production qualities?

Well, I can say the film is shot very nicely, the color palette and cinematography look very clean and slick for being held by the characters, and there's a fantastic score by composer Brian Tyler... all of which is ironically what this found-footage film did NOT need.

Keep in mind, this is the first found-footage film I've seen in theaters, but it did NOT feel like a proper found-footage movie. If this were directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) or at least in the vein of Barry Levinson's The Bay (which is a GREAT found footage movie, by the way), there would've been a lot of advantage he could've taken with this, like multiple dips in quality as the film cut to different cameras and angles of the chaos, and even some massive intentional issues with the audio depending on which camera's being used. The GoPro thing was almost kinda smart, but it's used very little in this feature, and the quality is always nice and crisp, even when it shouldn't be. And the score? Really? I mean, it's great and all, but did there really need to be an orchestral score in the middle of this?

But I will give it this: The visual effects in this movie are very well-crafted. Even after Rhythm & Hues left the project due to bankruptcy (and wasn't given final credit, sadly), Method Studios, Hydraulx, Digital Domain, MPC and Scanline manage to find a way to give the tornadoes their own personalities, and they all do a great job of destroying the place and being a threat, when they actually ARE there, and DO shine through the real actors of the film. I'll confess, however, that DEVO the flaming twister was pretty dissapointing, especially considering how Korey Coleman described the flamenado eviscerating this one dude and hurling him into another town. Trust me, it just burned him and ate him into the sky.

...

And there was much rejoicing. (Yay.)

And finally, the BEST part of the movie was the climax where Tornadozilla comes in and obliterates the town as the town tries to escape, taking an entire airport into the sky to do a magical yet destructively haunting dance of death and destruction. And near the end of this climax, I won't spoil what this shot it, but it's one that's so beautiful and majestic that it'll make the concept of going into the storm all worth it... even if it IS a bit implausible.

Bottom line: I gotta admit. When I finally saw this movie, it was much different than how I thought I should feel about it. The acting is alright and the storm chasers are a lot of fun to watch, when it's about them, the effects are nicely created, and the ending is heartwarming and exciting, but the technicalities of the production come from how clean they are and how they feel too much like a movie and not actual found footage, the characters aren't given proper time to shine, and the story and writing are all over the place. If you just want to see tornadoes destroy stuff and hurl the occasional idiot around for fun, you'll probably like it fine. Everybody else? I can see what you're talking about when you said this film was clumsily scripted and didn't match the quality needed for a found footage movie typically found these days.

5/10

Wow. I didn't once mention Twister OR Sharknado in this review.