"Tornado Alley" Movie Trailer Review

"Tornado Alley"

Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Matt Schimkowitz

Okay, two things about the trailer for "Tornado Alley." First, this isn't the sequel to the also poorly titled SyFy channel original "Atomic Twister." Second, “Tornado Alley” is something of a documentary remake of Jan De Bont's 1995 Helen Hunt vehicle "Twister" -- and, yes, they even got that film's co-star, Bill Paxton, to narrate.

So, are these necessarily bad things? Well, in the case of "Atomic Twister," no. A sequel to such brilliance is not only unnecessary, but also illogical. After one nuclear twister, why would anyone build another nuclear power plant in a high tornado traffic zone?

The second raises some interesting points, though. At face value, the basic premise for "Tornado Alley" mirrors "Twister" to a T: A group of thrill seeking meteorologists study cyclones by getting up close and personal with them. However, where "Twister" features a scene where Helen Hunt proves a leather belt and pipe to be stronger than a tornado called "The Finger of God," "Tornado Alley" hopes to show the reality of this field of study.

The tornado chasing rogues of "Twister" appear throughout the trailer for "Tornado Alley," and their high-pursuit chase of the meteorological phenomenon drives the action of the story. This team hunts down the tornado in their tanks and plans to drop a three-foot piece of machinery in its path. When the tornado picks up the mechanism, the team will receive a readout of the tornado's interior.

But the real stars of "Tornado Alley" are the tornadoes. As they tear across the Midwest, the trailer characterizes them as ominous agents of terror, looking to mow down anything in their way. They are the antagonists, which provide the characters with a goal and a threat.

"Tornado Alley" is an action movie come to life, putting the ideas of Hollywood into practice like an extended--and highly uncontrolled--episode of "Mythbusters." To me, that certainly seems far more interesting than the potential remake it could have been.

View the trailer below. Thoughts?