Caçador de Tormentas

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.

If after seeing the poster and reading the synopsis you thought that this was probably a (very) low budget version of Twister, you were right. It's sufficient if you must kill some time and there's nothing else at hand, but you certainly won't choose it for a re-watch any time soon. The story is thinner than thin, the acting is mediocre if I want to be generous, the special effects are hardly there. The script is not annoyingly bad, mostly because it's a soulless copy of other similar movies. Not much to remember, it's a movie as light as a feather. One dimensional characters do exactly what you expect them to do, and then the movie ends.

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.

This was Anne Heche's last film before her tragic death in a car accident, so what a great pity for her it couldn't have been better.

Alec Baldwin plays Alec Baldwin, what happened to him - he used to be such a Leading Man, think Hunt for Red October and even 3rd Rock from the Sun and ... this. I guess he needs to feed all those kids that he can't seem to stop producing. Someone should tell him about birth control.

However, the guy who played the kid was the absolute worst thing about this movie. Supposedly highly intelligent, he just looked and acted like a dumb idiot all the way through. Such bad casting.

I liked Skeet Ulrich though even though I hardly recognised him.

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.