Task 37 – “Tornado Alley” Movie Review

(37) Watch 26 Movies (8/26)

Movie: Tornado Alley

Rating: 3-Stars

Tornado Alley is currently playing at the Museum of Science's Mugar Omni IMAX Dome Theater. Dan and I decided to check it out and enjoy a beautiful sunny afternoon in the city. It was also an opportunity to use our Groupon tickets for the Mugar. This giant-screen adventure-film features a group of scientists and daredevil storm chasers. They chase a cast of swirling black tornadoes that leave swaths of destruction in their wakes in hopes of being able to better understand them.

It opens to the sound of driving rain and the solemn voice of Bill Paxton  saying "There is a place with more storms than anywhere on Earth." Then the title, "Tornado Alley," flashes across the screen above a scene of homes and businesses crumbled like doll houses. Tornado alley is a swath of North America between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains where three-quarters of the world's tornadoes occur.

It was filmed over eight years, most of the movie occurs in the tornado-prone states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
 

This movie is more a scientific exploration documentary then major motion picture action movie like the Hollywood blockbuster Twister in which Bill Paxton stared. The film has the same general ideas as Twister. Both followed a team of scientists trying to learn more about storms by capturing as much data as they can. It also features two teams one more disciplined and one more Wildman.
 

The disciplined storm chaser is Karen Kosiba who along with her team of researchers and scientists is part of a crew called VORTEX 2. They number over 100 with weather researchers from around the world. The VORTEX 2 team was looking more for elusive data than thrills like Wildman Casey and his crew who race after and into tornados in a seven-ton Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV-2) that looks like an armored car customized by Mad Max. The TIV-2 is equipped with a 92-pound IMAX camera inherited from his father and fitted into the TIV-2 like a cannon in a tank's turret.
 

The movie follows each team as they move a fleet of Doppler on Wheels radar trucks and pod teams in position to capture as much information about the storms as they can.
 

Tornado Alley doesn’t have a plot beyond the science and focused more on the downtime and the vehicles then on the action and what makes tornados an example of Mother Nature’s ultimate power. There was also an opportunity to dramatize a stylistic clash between scientists and thrill seekers but "Tornado Alley" doesn't capitalize on that drama and instead focuses on the science of chasing storms.

Dan and I both commented that we would have liked to learn more about the storms then on the people chasing them and as a result we were left with a feeling of having missed something and that the actual real dangers of "Tornado Alley" are less photogenic than portrayed in Hollywood movies.