From the moment this movie opened I could tell it was going to be a struggle to get through. The opening title looked lazily slapped on by the editor and was borderline readable as it was white text on a white background. After a scene where the two girls play with a frog, a weather service report can be heard in the background that was definitely not done by the NWS. Then out of nowhere, despite relatively light skies, no rain, and what looks like a generally good day outside, a manageably weak tornado touches down. This thing looks mainly like a dust devil that you would see on the playground in elementary school, yet it sucks up a tractor. After one of the kids goes back to the woods to retrieve a lost stuffed animal, somehow the tornado quadruples in size. It "tears" through the woods, despite the trees remaining stagnant. Apparently one of the most destructive forces of nature produced no wind on that day. What I assume is our main character's mother then disappears into the tornado in a quite, yet entirely unintentional, comedic fashion. This is the first eight minutes of the movie. We are in for a long haul. It cuts to several downed trees and two very lucky survivors. One, a child, hid in a sewer pipe and somehow survived, while another, a man, miraculously survived with no cover whatsoever. Their house is completely destroyed, and conveniently strown about as if it had been pushed over and not ripped apart by the violent winds of a tornado. Even more amazingly, the other child, who was in the house when it was destroyed, survived without a scratch.
We jump to 25 years later, where one of the girls has since grown up to become a meteorologist. Two random guys with earpieces give the audience some random data jargon and speak about an upcoming hurricane. Liz, one of the girls from the opening scenes, invented some new technology to predict upcoming weather. Liz and her daughter return to their previously destroyed home where grandpa and Ellie await. Ellie appears to have such bad PTSD from the tornado that she forgot how to speak; she is a real Boo Radley type.. The family work through their problems awkwardly until we cut back to the two men from earlier. They say that Hurricane Matilda has been dissipating over Kansas and that their system predicted the storm's path with 94% accuracy, which isn't enough for Matt, the boss. If a hurricane is dissipating over Kansas, that storm must have been supremely strong. Kansas is far too inland to be worried about a hurricane. Even the strongest storms would only give Kansas rain, thunderstorms, and possible flooding at worst. Back at the house, Liz and dad have an argument on the treatment Ellie needs. They disagree, and dad goes to the barn. Matt then calls Liz as he has learned that he is the new keynote speaker at an event in Minnesota, the same one that Liz is hosting. The two must be divorced or something. Some bad CGI beacons then appear from the ground that indicate that a new storm is on the way. Matt then gets awkwardly asked out by his "teammate" on the weather project. He agrees. Later we find Ellie staring at the same door she saw her mother get engulfed by the tornado, she is afraid to go near it. We go back to the lab, where they find that two storms, hurricanes, are converging on the US simultaneously, and will meet somewhere in tornado alley.
A large section of uneventful family drama ensures before we get back to the real action. Liz and Matt set up the last weather beacon and are told that several tornadoes are in the area. Again, these tornadoes must be pretty lazy, as no trees are moving. Tornadoes are supposed to sound like trains coming, but apparently one just snuck up on the two. No rain, no thunder, no lightning, but a tornado is present. Liz is then warned that a storm is heading to the farm as well. Ellie frantically looks around the house as the storm approaches. She faces her fears amid a flashback, and finally leaves the house. Ellie tracks down Becky, and yells for the first time ever, in front of blue skies might I add. Ellie and Becky break for the bathtub in the old house and are engulfed by the still silent twister. We see all the characters in there various, yet equally inept safe spots. All survive somehow. All throughout, several scenes have blue skies in the background, and the lighting clearly shows that it is sunny out. We cut back to the lab, where they announce that the hurricanes have stopped. I guess they had better things to do. All buildings survive, no trees are uprooted, nothing overturned. Everything is back to normal, including Liz and Matt's relationship. They just decide to get back together after a couple lines of dialogue.
This movie suffers from bad acting, editing, CGI, understanding of weather, and even filming. Often times the cameraman must have forgotten his/her stabilizer because several times the shot was noticeably shaking. Blue skies were also seen throughout supposed violent storms. No rain or wind is ever seen throughout the movie. No one fact checked any of the science, or the basic filmmaking for that matter. It seems hastily slapped together as storylines were outright dropped. The date between Matt and his coworker never happened and they never gave that subplot any closure. The background plot of "legislation being needed" just kind of happened. Oh, and the hurricanes never combined as suggested, and they seemed to only produce one tornado along with conveniently no rain. It is a terrible movie with laughably bad effects. If you and your friends are looking for a movie to laugh at how bad it is, this is your perfect candidate. Anyone with any experience in weather, geography, and filmmaking will have an especially fun time roasting Storm in the Heartland alive.
It gets two stars just for the scene where the mom gets sucked up into the tornado.
It gets two stars just for the scene where the mom gets sucked up into the tornado.