Supercell: Sturmjäger

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.

There's not really much to it but high school melodrama.

Most of the time I can't hear what the kid's saying and the rest of the time it's obnoxious characters yelling at each other while making stupid decisions and pointless statements.

None of the characters are remotely likable and they all drift from scene to scene without any momentum or clear plot development.

Some of the green screen effects are very poor, and in one particular scene you can see a bank of star shaped LED light strips which are supposed to be lightning and it's reflecting off every object in the scene to the point of distraction.

It's amateurish through and through.

Give it a miss, go watch some 4k Tornado videos on YouTube.

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.

Here's The 4K Lowedown on "Supercell" (PG-13 - 2023 - Blu) Genre: Thriller/Disaster

My Score: 6.6 Cast=7 Acting=5 Plot=7 Ending=7 Story=7 Intense=7 Pace=6 Suspense=7 Disaster=8 Epic=5

A teenage boy runs away to follow his fathers footsteps as a legendary storm chaser despite his mother's wishes.

"Rule number one...always make sure you got at least a half a tank of gas." This is a low rent version of Twister, but they showed real tornado footage from a storm chaser and put it on a green screen. I loved the homage to Bill Paxton in the easter eggs and there were a couple good scenes, but you have to be a sucker for disaster movies to make this worth a watch. I am that sucker...I enjoyed the movie. RIP Anne Heche.