Into the Storm

Overview

When Jurassic Park opened in 1993, Steven Spielberg presented us with dinosaurs of such terrifying and spectacular realism, they've not been bested in the more than two decades since. So too the giant, wreathing CGI tornados of 1996's Twister, upon which Spielberg acted as executive producer. Special effects have come a long way since then, and one unfortunate corollary has been the proliferation of movies based on them rather than bolstered by them. 

Consider the latest offering: Into The Storm — another 'nature attacks humans' film where the only twist is it wasn't directed by Roland Emmerich. Here, a series of twisters are on a collision course with a small American town, imperilling not only its inhabitants but also the storm chasers determined to film from within the eye of the tornado. Some kids get stuck in a mill, more get trapped in their school and… that's it. There's the plot. Storm come. Storm big. Storm destroy. 

Most annoying of all, this is another addition to the found footage genre of film — an entirely unnecessary device that's almost always ignored as soon it becomes too difficult to explain how or why someone was filming every single moment (in this case, a dramatic shot of 747s swirling around inside a giant tornado was not, presumably, filmed by a pigeon with a Go-Pro).

Found footage also has a knack for making even decent actors look rubbish, as is the case here with Richard Armitage, aka The Hobbit's Thorin Oakenshield. His dialogue, whether scripted or improvised, seems horrifically forced throughout, representing a sort of poor-man's Frank Underwood narration. 

There is one drawcard here, and it's the weather. The menacing skies are spectacular and the force of the winds is well captured in the action sequences, yet it's nothing we'd not already seen all the way back in 1996. So, if it's a twister film you desire, save your money and revisit the only one actually worthy of the name.