Into the Storm (2014)

“Sir, I’ve studied storms all my life and this is the biggest storm that has ever been!” Yes, this is an actual, serious line from Into the Storm… No, I don’t really know what to think of it either. Is it hilarious? I certainly think so. Is it so stupid it makes your head hurt from how hard your eyes just rolled? Absolutely it is. Is it awesome? I’m not sure how to answer that one, but one thing I do know is that from this one quotation, you can infer everything you need to know about this motion picture, for better or worse.

Into the Storm is yet another cheaply-made horror/action flick, this time from our friends over at New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers, and yet another in a long line of misguided found-footage films. Why this movie was turned into a found-footage project is beyond me as it seems like even the director and/or cinematographer aren’t really thrilled about the idea themselves. Although the film starts out like many other found-footage films (some annoying character you don’t care about is doing some really “amateur” filming on their home digital cam of other characters you don’t care about) it quickly departs from this, but more on that later.

Into the Storm is a very simple movie; if you love the idea of seeing a relatively small town getting torn to shreds then this movie was made for you. However, if the idea of seeing the world’s largest (fake) storm on screen doesn’t excite you, you’re most likely better off skipping this one altogether.

On a positive note, the tornadoes are pretty impressive and the action is appropriately intense for any action junkies looking to get their fix, however, there’s no real substance to this story no matter how hard the movie tries to make us care. Honestly, I think this is partially to blame on the over-abundance of characters in the movie, there’s simply too many people to keep track off in this one, and not enough reason to want to (and not nearly enough people die in the storm either).

The premise to this film is as simple as it gets and the characters are just so utterly forgettable (Lori from Walking Dead is in this, for some reason) that I’m just going to focus on the bafflingly inconstant camera work in this one. From the very beginning we’re introduced to this movie as a found-footage style picture, and of course all of the normal inconsistencies that typically plague this genre follow (why is there professional lighting in the living room? How are we getting cinema-grade quality from a Panasonic handheld? Who films people talking about such boring stuff? Etc.) but Into the Storm goes a step further once the storm hits. It seems as if the filmmakers are barely even trying to suspend disbelief on this one (cameras still work after being drowned in water? Ok then) several times there are shots and angles that range from impractical to impossible; in one instance, both a camera man and his camera are sucked into a fiery tornado and we see all of this footage. How? Was it found later in a grassy field? Was he live-streaming from his camera? (I don’t think so and it was never mentioned if he was) Perhaps the storm nicely returned it later. This isn’t the only instance of something like this happening, but it’s probably the most noticeable one. At a certain point, I just had to stop pretending this was any sort of “found-footage” and chalk it up as the film’s “style” just to prevent myself from being so distracted by the implausibility of it all.

Once the giant storm itself hits, that’s when things really get crazy (and people still manage to keep a firm grip on their cameras). This twister is unlike anything you’ve ever seen (because it’s like the biggest thing ever, remember?) it looks like at least a dozen large tornadoes put together, probably more and it certainly seems menacing in nature. So where do our brave heroes hide from the most biggest storm there ever was? (Minor Spoilers) A storm drain. That’s right the biggest storm of the century (which by the way tore apart the entire school and storm shelter) couldn’t even take out a simple storm drain (End of Minor Spoilers).

Of course, once it’s all over everyone learns a valuable lesson (even the school jock who appears at the beginning and then at the end and leaves us wondering why he even appeared at all) which is that family is important and storms are super dangerous, but awesome.

One final note: this storm hits the entire town completely unawares (they’re having a high school graduation when it hits for crying out loud) and my one question is this: how in the world does the “biggest storm that has ever been” just drop out of the sky without one single meteorologist even issuing so much as a tornado warning? The film attempts to explain this away by implying that the storm is just really tricky, but I have to believe in this day and age the town would at least be expecting more than a little rain. Then again, perhaps I’m just thinking this over too much, obviously more than the filmmakers ever did.

-Ryan Maples

Rating: 4.5

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106361/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Europa Report (2013)

Europa Report is definitely not your average found-footage film. A fictional story about an international voyage to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa Report is about scientists’ search for life outside of Earth, and how said voyage goes (predictably) horribly wrong. On its face this sounds a lot like Paranormal in space, but the pacing and cinematography serve to set this one apart.

It’s hard to know what to think of this film; the use of all the cameras on board of the vessel to present the whole story is very well done, and not nearly as distracting as many other found-footage movies of the past; also, the movie effectively makes you believe the crew is really in space and if you’re into astronomy there’s a lot for you to like in this one, but the fact remains, this movie is really slow.

The movie breaks up the footage of the crew with interview from scientists back on the ground, who tediously explain the mission and its purpose to us, which is honestly something I could have done without. It seems as if this is only done to try and foreshadow a horrible end for the astronauts on Europa, and also in part to stretch the length of the film, (it runs at a tight ninety minutes) but honestly it messes with the flow of the film and makes the whole movie less tense.

Another problem with the film is the wooden acting by all of the astronauts throughout. There are no recognizable American film stars in this one, but a few foreign actors that I recognized, such as Michael Nyqvist so it’s not as if these actors are inexperienced. However, I found it strange that for the most part the astronauts remain emotionless and cold through several, shall we say, emotional situations (no details in interest of spoilers) I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it didn’t cause me to sympathize with the characters any more (if anything I sympathized less).

It’s hard to say much about the end without giving the whole movie away, but suffice it to say that most of the action takes place in the last twenty minutes. I definitely respect this movie for not going the jump-scare route that most found-footage horror movies tend to go (I’m looking at you Paranormal Activity 7), however, what does happen isn’t particularly exciting. In fact, a lot of what happens seems to be the consequences of questionable decisions made by the astronauts. In addition, I have to say I don’t understand the mentality of the crew; it’s clear that they are willing to risk their lives, despite the fact that many of them have families, all for the sake of proving that there is life elsewhere in the universe. Of course, I’m in full support of space exploration, and finding evidence of alien life would be ground-breaking, but I have to think my survival and my love for my family would have to come first, but I guess that must be why I’m not a scientist.

Europa Report is a confusing movie for me, I honestly can’t tell if I like it or not. On the one hand, the space footage is breath-taking and the idea behind the mission is original and refreshing; on the other hand, this movie simply lacks a heart and soul and fails to make me care about any of the characters. This is a shame because there is a real good film under the surface here. Really all Europa Report needs to make it a really good movie is a little less data and little more humanity. Of course if you’re obsessed with tales of space exploration this one is definitely up your alley, otherwise it has little else to offer.

-Ryan Maples

Rating: 6.75

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2051879/