Greetings readers! Another Sunday evening has come along and this signals the ending of another weekend that went by WAY too fast! But…it seems this way always, so what’s new. LOL Anyway, it has been a FUN weekend and of course included film viewing at the local theater. So, without any further commentary on why I really do not want to return to work tomorrow, I give you……”Into The Storm”.
Directed by Steven Quale in only his second major directorial effort after 2011’s “Final Destination 5“, “Into The Storm” finds us in the town and surrounding vicinity of Silverton, Oklahoma and starts things out with a rather effectively shocking series of moments involving four high school students on a stretch of country road outside the town. In the wake of this event, we are then introduced to the myriad of characters that this tale will follow, including Donnie (Max Deacon), a high school student doing video “time capsules” for his class project along with his younger brother Trey (Nathan Kress), and their father Gary (Richard Armitage) who is the Vice Principal at Silverton High, whom actually appears to have been the ultimate instigator behind the videos his sons are doing. We next meet a group of down-on-their-luck storm chasers, with their leader Pete (Matt Walsh), driver/videographer Daryl (Arlen Escarpeta), his friend and also videographer Jacob (Jeremy Sumpter), and weather data specialist Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies). Having not had any recent luck, the initial indications that storms are coming has got Pete and his crew in town, even though OTHER factors would seem to show the storms hitting elsewhere, much to Pete’s annoyance. And then there are the local slightly older and just plain nutty duo of Donk (Kyle Davis) and Reevis (Jon Reep), who seem to fancy themselves “daredevils” and often are known for simply trying stupid stunts in their backyard area much less considering themselves “storm chasers” in their own minds. We can finally add Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey), a high school junior with whom Donnie has been apparently obsessing over for most of his school career, much to the amusement of Trey. So as we see a little into the lives of all of these individuals, a massive and unprecedented series of harsh storms erupt through Silverton, and total chaos ensues with tornadoes of every sort and size wrecking havoc on the town and its inhabitants, affecting each aforementioned group of people in different ways, but ultimately drawing them together. And as short as this synopsis may seem to you, we would actually already be getting into that wonderful realm of spoilers if I said any more about the plot details…..and so ends this initial storyline portion of the review.
If you recall back in 1997, two films came out within a month or so of each other, “Dante’s Peak” and “Volcano“. The former was the more “cerebral” of the two, as I felt it had more overall storyline to it and was executed as such while the latter was more the simple excuse to just watch a massive volcano appear in the middle of L.A. and start burning everything up. “Into The Storm” for me, overall, was the “Volcano” of tornado films, with 1996’s “Twister” as the more “intelligent” of the two. Now, with that said, “Storm” actually HAD more genuinely serious moments than I personally expected, and the tone and intensity of the storm scenes themselves did surprise me a bit as well. Visually, it was just as engaging as “Twister” was back when, even though we all know elements (if not ALL) of reality needs to be suspended in many moments. The characters are “real” enough that I could see them being your average citizens stuck in extraordinary and dangerous situations, but let’s face it, we are honestly just wanting to watch the force of nature that is a tornado tear into things on screen. Though again, I found myself engaged WITH the characters more than I would have thought, sometimes even realizing in general how truly terrifying it WOULD be to get caught in the middle of storms this intense. It’s Summer Movie material without question, and THAT is ultimately what we’re wanting to see anyway from a film of this nature. A good chunk of it was filmed in that “first person” method, i.e.: “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield“, but at least the camera work during those sequences was not as haphazard or shaky as often they tend to be, which for me was a big plus. And that point of view action involving the tornadoes was very intense in itself, which again, I didn’t necessarily expect out of this project. There were plenty of moments where the peril was presented in a very genuine way, and the goofy antics stuck in there with Donk and Reevis added some comedy. But, as a whole, the film is what Summer film viewing is all about…something you don’t have to think about, is basic in its execution, and simply FUN to watch on a big screen.
As always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
