Supercell

Disclosing up front, I've been storm chasing for about 10 years, so this is my perspective.

The film is not perfect by any stretch. It has some actual, authentic storm footage, but it's mixed in with low quality effects and blurry scenes. Many shots are filmed in wide angle and the perspective is all distorted. (Sorry, the photographer in me was cringing)

I digress. The plot had moments of suspense and drama, but it was way too jumpy. Plenty of Easter eggs for storm chasers, but a lot of that will go over the head of the casual viewer.

It would have been nice if they took a little bit of time of clearly outline what a "supercell" actually is. Sure, I know what one is, but it would help the viewer understand better. You see lots of radar clips, but with little to no explanation at all. Dramatic music is also thrown in all over, but it doesn't always fit with the flow of the movie.

Unfortunately, there were also many errors, in terms of meteorology, storm evolution/continuity and with geography. At one point, there are interstate signs visible from the wrong state. Unless you're a storm chaser or travel often across the Plains, it's really hard to follow where they are and what they are talking about much of the time.

Overall, it seems best watched in a group. Go into it accepting that it's not a perfect cinematic masterpiece. It's dramatized for Hollywood. If you can look past some of the flaws, you will probably enjoy it. If you're expecting an award winning film with epic tornado footage, then you'll be disappointed.

I give it a 5/10, trying to not let the storm chaser in me skew my perspective.

The only positive in this movie is that they used real storm footage in the background. The movie itself is excruciatingly boring. And the Star Wars themed music playing louder than anything during every scene became an extreme nuisance. The actual storm footage is the saving grace but you'd still be better off finding storm chase videos on YouTube. You can skip this movie, you really are not missing anything unless you're wanting to listen to out of place music non-stop.

Acting: honestly I got too distracted watching videos on my phone because the film was so boring. I didn't pay enough attention to grade the acting.

Plot: pretty stupid honestly. Son follows in dad's footsteps as a storm chaser, meanwhile mom is chasing him down. You toss back and forth between son and mom and the same music never stops.

Storm scenes: they build up to a point that it seems a good scene is about to come. Just as the storm arrives it switches scenes to another character. You never see direct storm footage.

Like others, I was expecting it to be a newer Twister, but they missed the mark. It was just dull and meandering around. Lots of inconsistencies throughout and barely showing any action.

Like Twister it centered around a parent who had been killed in a storm and was about storm chasing and using a gadget that would do something to help early storm detection (although they never really explain what the heck it does).

That is where the similarities end, the rest of a kid trying to discover more about his dad and doing so by being fairly annoying. There are much better storm movies out there including Into the Storm or even the Hurricane Heist which isn't great, but more entertaining.

With a great cast I was expecting so much more. Title should of been dysfunctional family that try's not to chase storms. Watched the entire movie hoping it would get better, but alas no. The back ground music didn't match what was happening it made it lead into something great was going to happen but nothing. You never get to see any great action scenes everything just leads up to something but falls flat. At one stage I thought the son was a teenager with well below average intelligence as he did some enormously stupid things and his behaviour was like that of a child. Sorry to say but 4 star was very generous and do not recommend this movie at all.

Almost everything about this movie reminded me of adventure movies from the late 70s to early 90s:

• A classical score as if it was E. T.

• Cinematography as if it was Close Encounters of the Third Kind

• Production design as if it was Back To the Future

• Even the characters and the dialogs

It was like a magical nostalgic trip. And while the superficial topic was not really important to me personally, they used it as a vehicle to provide all the above mentioned qualities and to distract from the underlying light family drama.

Will I watch it again? Most probably not because there are many other productions to watch instead, and I would rather watch the original movies from the 80s again. (Hence no 8 points.)

Do I regret it to have seen it? No because I enjoyed the relaxing mood it got me into. (Hence at at least 6 points.)

Would I recommend it to others? Yes if I knew that the person could relate to the nostalgia, I tried to describe in this review. (Hence 7 points.)

But I would not recommend it to people who expect a tornado disaster movie.