Review : 'Into the Storm'

Even the storm chasers in the movie couldn’t rationalize the kind of tornado movement that occurred in “Into the Storm,” but that really wasn’t the point to the action/disaster movie that focused on its special effects.
And for a movie of this size, the special effects were impressive.
That alone can’t carry a movie, and there isn’t much else “Into the Storm” offers — though it at least doesn’t resemble SyFy disaster movies, courtesy of a cast that tries to keep it classy despite most of their lines involving yelling or screaming each others’ names. However, the special effects allows the movie to set itself apart from “Twister,” of which undoubtedly everyone will think while watching the movie or trailer.
Though it ends with the same kind of massive storm seen in the 1996 flick with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, the movie adds some other details, including a fire storm, multiple tornados in one area and a look above and through the eye of the storm. Add in an inexplicably large airport for that town, as well as a tractor-trailer terminal, and you have quite a bit more with which to tangle than a flying cow.
It’s all a little surprising considering this movie didn’t settle on its title for a long time, and was delayed until its Aug. 8 opening. The movie doesn’t have a large, notable cast — Sarah Wayne Callies is most notable from her role in “The Walking Dead” and I was primarily interested in seeing Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield from “The Hobbit” movies). It’s also considered a “found footage” film, though the footage in this is primarily handled by characters who are considered professional or amateur/professional videographers, so you don’t get quite as much shaky-cam footage compared to other similar movies.
Considering all of this, expectations were pretty low going into the theater, which may make the special effects more impressive to me.
The rest of the movie, however, pans out basically like you thought it would. The storms are the focus of the movie, and the characters more or less take a back seat to all of that. There are some instances where the movie does a good job conveying the emotion (two teenagers with a camera deliver a goodbye message to their parents), and there are other instances where you have to fight the urge to roll your eyes (basically the entire ending scene featuring American flags and survivors on camera embarrassingly talking up the movie and its message).
It’s not necessarily a good movie, and there’s a fair bit of letting the movie get away with doing unrealistic things. But, if you take it as a mindless action movie with a few too many tornadoes, it won’t really disappoint you.