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Storm trackers, thrill-seekers, and everyday townspeople document an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes touching down in the town of Silverton.
I have to admit, “Into the Storm” is the one movie I had been anticipating all summer long. I first saw the preview for the film a few months ago and it immediately took me back to the summer of 1996 when Jan de Bont’s “Twister” was released, along with the first “Mission: Impossible” and Schwarzenegger’s “Eraser”, a year when sequels did not dominate the box-office. “Into the Storm” is a popcorn movie, plain and simple. It’s what summer movies are meant to be about, pure escapism accompanied by some truly jaw-dropping special effects. We have all seen on TV, the carnage and sheer destruction left behind in the wake of a tornado and director Steven Quale does a commendable job blending fiction and actual real-life footage and does so cautiously and tastefully.
As the movie begins, we are introduced to siblings Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress), they are getting ready to graduate high school and their father Gary (Richard Armitage), who just happens to be the school vice-principal, is distracted as the local weather station is predicting a huge storm front which could affect the day’s proceedings. Donnie and Trey have been assigned by their father, the responsibility of recording the ceremony and interviewing students and teachers for the school’s video time capsule. When Donnie has the opportunity to help fellow student and longtime crush Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey) with her final video project, at Trey’s behest, he leaves with her and Trey takes over the recording duties.
Naturally, their father is none too pleased but he has bigger things to worry about when the tornado sirens go off and he and the rest of the faculty have to move quickly to protect the students inside the school safe zone. While Donnie and Kaitlyn are filming at an old abandoned paper mill, the storm traps them beneath some rubble and after the tornado grazes the school and moves towards the center of town, Gary receives a distressing voicemail from Donnie, letting him know they are trapped with no way out and that water is quickly filling up the space where they are confined. Now Gary and Trey must race against the clock and mother nature to try and reach the other side of town before it’s too late.
The movie successfully incorporates people’s use of cell phone cameras plus security footage from the different buildings seen throughout the film and thankfully, it never succumbs to the much dreaded and feared ‘shaky-cam’, where the camera shakes and convulses ad nauseum. Of course, a tornado movie wouldn’t be complete without the quintessential group of storm-chasers and much like the film’s predecessor, the 1996 blockbuster “Twister”, here, we have a rag-tag band of storm trackers who just happen to be producing a documentary about the ultimate storm and will do absolutely anything to get the perfect shot. Richard Armitage, who looks so different from his Thorin Oakenshield character in “The Hobbit” movies, exudes charm and charisma and makes for a good action hero.
Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Lori Grimes on “The Walking Dead”, is one of the aforementioned storm chasers and her and Richard Armitage play well off each other and are perfectly suited together as both of their characters are single parents, both trying to reach their children. Director Steven Quale, who started out as a second assistant director on both “Titanic” and “Avatar”, directed his first feature film with “Final Destination 5”, a movie which tied up that series’ storyline very satisfactorily and with “Into the Storm”, he proves, much like his mentor James Cameron, that he’s more than capable of helming a big-budget spectacle, full of breathtaking and astonishing special effects while interlaced with the appropriate character development that we have come to expect from a big-budget summer movie.
In theaters August 8th
