Into The Storm

This review may contain spoilers!

Into The Storm is a disaster film done right, still loaded with stereotypes, but at least it's a decent movie. I would give Into The Storm a 6.5/10.

This film had some wonderful visual effects; the danger of this storm felt very real and was incredibly convincing. I also found that I really enjoyed how this film was shot, despite my gripes on loose lost footage continuity, the film itself was shot in a great and appealing way. I also liked the fact that the plot wasn't about some hyper storm that no one predicted that would destroy the world; this storm was a large tornado set in an area plagued by tornadoes and the destruction took place in one city which was all relatively realistic.

Richard Armitage, who played Gary, was a strong leading figure in the film and played a good father figure. Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Allison, was one of the smartest characters in the film, and had a great aspect of her character in the sub plot about being separated from her child. Nathan Kress, who played Trey, showed a lot of promise as a young actor in this film; he was comedic but also very helpless which fit into his character very nicely. Jeremy Sumpter, who played Jacob, did a great job of portraying a character out of his depths and his death scene was one of the best in the film. Kyle Davis and Jon Reep, who played Donk and Reevis respectfully, were fantastic comedic relief and didn't undermine the plot of the film but rather heightened it at exactly the right moment.

It was Matt Walsh, who played Pete, that really impressed me. His arrogance and constant drive to achieve his life's work was vehement but felt real. Which made his development to saving everyone at the end of the film that much more noble a sacrifice. This was character development at it's best.

This film was apparently a 'found footage' shot movie and yet there were some blazing continuity errors and it was hard to believe that there was a constant camera presence in every scene which really pulled me out of the film. The movie itself was also still resolutely loaded with stereotype and that really bugged me that the disaster film couldn't escape the boundaries of this after so many years.

Max Deacon, who played Donnie, did a terrible job and felt like an actor from twilight because he was that stiff and wooden in his performance. Alycia Debnam-Carey, who played Kaitlyn, was confined to a stereotypical romance role and never worked to give it more depth than just that. Arlen Escarpeta, who played Daryl, had very little screen presence and I didn't realise when his character actually left the rest of the main cast. Lee Whittaker, who played Lucas, was essentially a tripod as he had no character to him at all; he was basically there so that there was an extra camera to film with.