Storm review

The quote on the cover calls it “A cross between THE MATRIX and NIGHT WATCH…” Well, if hyperactive and impossible to follow are the two traits they are comparing it to, then I guess they got it right on the money.

On the surface, Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein’s STORM has all the right pieces in all the right places. It is stylistic. It is action-packed. It is dark. It’s in a foreign language. But all these things aren’t enough to mask the incoherent plot and truly disappointing revelation in the film’s climax.

DD, a hard-to-relate-to-asshole-writer, crosses paths with Lova, a fiery-haired lady who has just stolen a small box from some weird guys. He ends up getting involved in the whole affair which somehow leads him into his own memory, in search of something he has forgotten, which is the key to opening the box. Okay… so… What!?!

Nothing is really explained. Who are the bad guys? Who the fuck is Lova and where did she come from (or go to for that matter)? Why does everyone want this box if all it contains (**here comes a spoiler**) is just a memory. All these questions kept me interested until end but afterwards I ended up just feeling annoyed and frustrated. The more I think about it the more I dislike it. Plus, DD, as a character is completely despicable. I can’t sympathize with a guy who for a prank traps his little brother in a mausoleum and just leaves him there while the whole community forms a search party. Or a guy who gets stoned with his high school girlfriend and then rapes her. No past trauma is excuse enough for how this character treats everyone around him and no extravagantly confusing adventure is worth taking part in with a character that is so blatantly unlikeable.

The back of the DVD claims that this mysterious box might hold the answer to human existence and that the future of mankind is at stake. I wish. That sounds like a good movie but sure-as-shit ain’t this movie. All we have here is a small psychological drama that has itself confused with a big action film. The slick veneer of the film is proof that there is talent in the filmmakers, but the lack of involving characters and understandable plot lines proves this to be just another case of style over substance. It looks cool, but at one time, so did Vanilla Ice.

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