Storm

I just got home from the world premiere of this movie, and this is the first time I have seen a Swedish action movie with sci-fi elements that does not come off as quaint or just outright bad. This is a very smart movie that, while all you see is not fully explained, the right things are, and it manages to weave different parts of the story together quite nicely.

There is realism and depth (and pain!) in the psychological side of the movie, and I particularly like how the characters evolve over time - the storytelling technique works very well.

I also like Jonas Karlsson's acting - his character could easily have become cliché or cheesy (there is something with Swedish that just isn't as cool as English, when doing this type of movie), but he avoids these traps and pulls it off with class. In general the acting, in its genre, is better than most Swedish movies that try to be this cool. Because Storm is cool.

I heard this movie being put forward as a "Swedish Matrix", and while the two movies differ quite a lot, and the Matrix obviously had a much bigger budget, the comparison is not completely unwarranted since they both tell parallel stories in clever ways and play with our perception of what a normal life is. Storm tells its tale on a much more personal scale, and it does it excellently.

First of all the actors. Sasha Becker, who I have never seen before, does an excellent job. He holds the movie together nicely and goes through a variety of moods flawlessly. Now for the rest of the cast... Jonas Karlsson, an actor who I normally respect, is horribly cast for this movie and the role as the "bad guy". With or without a scar (hah) by his right eye. Eva Röse is not only poorly casted in her role but does a terrible job, overacting every single line she does.

Another major problem with this movie is that it tries to much. It's like they added comic-book / matrix / fight club / anime / computer game references and scenes in the end just to be the flavor of the month and it totally destroys this movie! If all of that was removed and the tempo was actually slower the movie would benefit greatly. I mean come on,.. jumping over laser scenes and random running with ninjas hunting you in the midst of a otherwise good movie. Granted, the script steals a hell of a lot of influences (ripping of?) from other movies (butterfly effect / hell raiser / matrix etc) but it's core is good. Sadly this is like watching 3 movies in one with only one being good and them pulling different ways and you almost feel like jamming a fork into your leg every time you see a scene that apparently "has to be there" with no intent but to show that the movie is hip.

Cudos has to go to the art department and the Cinematography guy in charge Linus Sandgren cause *that* work is totally flawless. I left with a bitter taste of what this movie could have been LIKE and what a waste of talent of the cinematography and lead actor it had been.

Swedish film is subject to a completely different scale of judgment when I sit down to write a review. When i review a Hollywood movie my demands are much higher. And why? Simply because Hollywood has so much more invested in each film they release. The budget-constraints on a Swedish film probably doesn't even reach the catering-budget on a regular action-movie in Tinseltown.

"Storm" has become quite successful in Swedish theaters since it was released, it has also gained some admiration from critics. So of course i was curious, having passed on the opportunity to see the movie at the Stockholm Film Festival back in November of 2005. So, did it live up to the hype? Is the Swedish thriller of the year? Well, both yes and no.

Sometimes when i watch a movie i can like it more or less purely based on the ambition rather than the result. "Storm" is a bit like that. While i didn't enjoy the movie as much as i had hoped, i did enjoy the ambitions the film-makers obviously had. There are editing, shooting and effects here never before seen in a Swedish movie. While the rather modest budget shows in some more effects-laden sequences, the movie still looks good most of the time.

What surprised me the most is the lack of action. When they promoted the film it seemed like it would be an action-movie. There would be athletic women in leather and high kicking. And there was, for a total of ten minutes throughout. The other 100 minutes is more of a drama, a movie about finding happiness and dealing with things instead of repressing them. Sound boring? Not as bad as you might think, in my book it's more about expectations. A big part of the reason why this works as well as it does is the acting. Eric Ericson as the main character "DD" is solid throughout, and Jonas Karlsson is in my opinion one of the best Swedish actors today which he shows here in a role far from what he usually does. Eva Röse also does well, both when it comes to dialog and high kicks.

In short, sure this is cheesy at times, overblown and rather pretentious. But still: there was at least the ambition to do something different! And that is what Swedish movies need, they have to get the opportunity to miss the target a couple of times. At least now things feel like they are moving forward. So while "Storm" is only half a success it's still important and I can see why so many people enjoy it. If the development goes on like this I suspect there will soon be a movie that I can enjoy as much.

And also a wonderful beginning, a real quick start. It keeps you yearning and waiting for is about to come. Unfortunately the high adrenaline dries off quickly, but most certainly after half the movie is over.

And it's a shame, because this movie has really good ideas and explores many of them thoroughly. But that is also one of it's faults. By exploring too many things, it get's mixed up into to many things, so in the end you're too confused to follow any plot or characters. It's very dark and moody, but that doesn't help much, if it's also genre hopping just to try to fit any- and everything in it's story!

Don't get me wrong. This is an important film (for Sweden especially as it's so rare to see a Swedish sci-fi that actually lives up to it's title) and the visual style takes influences from a bunch of ground-braking classics; OldBoy, Fight Club, Se7en, The Terminator, 28 Days Later and many more (though these references feel more like homages rather than bad rip-offs and so it just goes to show that the film was made by people who really just like movies in general).

Anyway, on with the show. The film follows DD - a hip guy hanging with all the right people and living the trendy life of a Stockholm-journalist - who suddenly has his path crossed by Lova, who seems more like a superhero than an actual Swedish girl (and yeah, I know what Swedish girls look like in general). She disappears as fast as she arrived and DD goes home to his bachelor pad.

Later on she shows up at his door, giving him an address to visit if things start to go bad. And eventually, they do (of course). When trying to find Lova again he comes across a strange box and is forced to flee the scene of a shoot-out. Now, on the run from the cops, and also from the people originally chasing Lova, he must figure out the secret of the box and manage to open it before it's to late.

This was an interesting plot to say the least and I really enjoyed the work that these directors did in the past. Unfortunetely, the wonderful visual styles used here don't quite make up for the fact that the story ends up with too many loose ends.

It could have been a brilliant film but, in the end, the final answer to what's happened during this hour-and-a-half (or whatever) just leave a whirlwind of new questions stirred up in the backwaters of the credits.

Sorry guys, I really wanted this to work as something more than just eye-candy :(