Sherlynn OngMovie Review: Into the Storm
Director Steven Quale is back at what he does best – another disaster genre movie after working as a 2nd-unit director on Titanic (1997) and directing Final Destination 5 (2011). This time, he deals with a monster tornado in Into The Storm.
An unprecedented number of tornadoes ravage Silverton (a quaint little town in USA) in a single day, leaving residents and people running for their lives, or for others, right towards the tornadoes.
The movie initially bears an uncanny resemblance to Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible, where the natural elements were about the same: a natural disaster (with extra emphasis on the destruction caused), chaos everywhere and a family picking up the pieces.
Into The Storm, however, distinguishes itself by adopting a ‘found-footage’ method (think Cloverfield) in many scenes. 17 year old Donnie Morris (Shawn Kavanaugh) and his younger brother Trey (Nathan Kress) are seen filming a time capsule and introducing viewers to his father Gary (Richard Armitage) and interviewing residents and students of Silverton about where they see themselves 25 years later.
Another ‘found-footage’ includes YouTube star wannabes Donk (Kyle Davis) and Reevis (Jon Reep) filming themselves doing daredevil stunts. The ‘found-footage’ method borders on contrived – the shots are a bit too stable to be considered as authentic, but the essence is still captured in certain shaky shots, especially scenes filmed by Donk and Reevis.
The movie also successfully avoids spiraling into a melodrama by injecting a twist of comedy. This is evident from its cast – producers have roped in various stand-up comedians such as Davis, Reep, and Matt Walsh, who stars as documentary maker Pete.
The movie opens with Donk and Reevis attempting to ride a motorbike over a swimming pool lit on fire, amongst other stunts, riding on the recent surge in success of GoPro cameras. After the tornadoes, Donk and Reevis are seen dangling off trees precariously, making an otherwise morbid scene a little lighter.
Of course, the movie still stays true to its nature focusing on the human drama. Touching scenes such as Gary desperately trying to find Donnie prove that nothing triumphs as much as parental love.
No American movie is complete without its bugle-blowing and chest-beating red and blue patriotism with scenes of the damage caused and a voiceover of the US President on the radio pledging his support to rebuild the cities ravaged by the storms.
Most importantly, an interesting issue arises in the movie – the ethics of journalism and how far one should go to get the perfect shot. This is seen in the conflict between Pete and his crew Daryl (Arlen Escarpeta) and Jacob (Jeremy Sumpter), who are squeamish about having to be caught right in the middle of a tornado, and further reinforced by meteorologist Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies) asking Pete if money is all he looks for after losing one of their crew to a fiery tornado.
The movie is akin to that of a tornado where audiences can be caught up in the action and gripping plot. The cast amazes – they step out of their comfort zone to take up leading roles in a B-grade movie. Armitage does a brilliant job while at it, perfectly encapsulating the inner conflict of a single parent struggling to reach out to his elder son, while maintaining his cool and composure as a school principal.
The Walking Dead star Callies also reinforces this inner struggle between career and parenting very well. Alongside Kavanaugh, Kress, already well known for TV series iCarly, makes his acting debut in movies.
Although the succession of tornadoes gets a little repetitive after a while (4 tornadoes converging towards the protagonists seem a tad dramatic for this writer’s liking), the movie delivers in the human spectacle – the torrential rain and realistic tornadoes sweeping up people, houses and trees capturing how it feels like to be caught right in a tornado. When Pete’s car gets caught in a tornado, the audience is treated to a view of how it’s like to be swept up by a tornado – lots of spinning, and a little odd moment of zen as the car ends up in the eye of the storm (complete with clear skies) before plunging well, back into the chaos.
Photos courtesy of Into The Storm’s official Facebook page.
Rating: 4/5
Release Date: 7 August 2014
Runtime: 89 minutes
Language: English
Censorship Rating: PG13
Genre: Thriller
Director: Steven Quale
Main Actors: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies