Why So Blu?

Super Storm (Blu-ray Review)

Super Storm, formerly known as Mega Cyclone, is yet another exploitative Saturday night SyFy Channel movie.  These usually feature vaguely familiar faces, over the top concepts and some good unintentional and sometimes “in on the joke, too” laughs.  There’s an audience for these.  Likely those making the choice to watch it are well aware of what they’re in store for.  Those fooled by a cool box or just perusing to be curious are usually left ticked.  Either way, as long as there’s an audience, you keep turning them out.  Luckily, I’m of the type that every now and then one of these movies can hit the spot if I’m looking for some goofy fun.

Film 

In the small town of Heartfield, Megan MacGregor and Will Newmar’s high school science project is getting them far more than an A.  Their science project unleashes a storm that is out of the realm of Earth.  These types of storms are only found outside of our planet, notably on Jupiter.  The storm rips its way destroying New York, Boston and Washington, setting its eyes on Heartfield.  It’s unpredictable, inescapable and incredible destructive.  Is there a way to stop it before it wipes out the Earth?

Yes, we have a ridiculous concept.  This movie tries its best to be better than others like it and does succeed in some areas.  It tries its best to try and make its young cast The Breakfast Club meets a disaster movie, but when it comes down to it, it really doesn’t care too much for those who are going to die anyway.  On the downside, sometimes these movies are tongue in cheek realizing what they are, but this one wants to sell you serious all the way.

The best part of the film is that some of its set pieces and scenes featuring the storm attacking are actually pretty cool.  It’s got some solid practical effect work with destruction and explosions.  Many of these scenes surprisingly are very unpredictable and may actually catch you off guard where the storm strikes.  There’s actually some talent potential here in this department considering what they have to work with.

All in all, like always, you know what you’re in for.  This is one of the better ones thanks to some of the action scenes.  I did find it funny the familiarity that this film had.  I swear the farm they went to was the same farm used for the Kent residence on Smallville.  And then there was a stretch of highway with a car pileup that the location and actual cars and their placement looked a lot like the one encountered in Collision Earth.  These are all shot in Canada, so I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility.

Video 

Super Storm spins in your living room with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoding.  A good crisp picture fills the 1.85:1 frame for most of the films duration.  However, there are some areas where its kind of lacking in comparison to the rest of the film.  Detail is very good for the most part, but at times it appears soft.  There are many scenes containing heavy fog that doesn’t help the image either.  Overall, it’s good, the effects are very clear and the image provides good bold colors and intricate facial detail.  The film is set during a dingy day and it does its best with what its given.

Audio 

The wind and thunder crackling in your surround with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track.  This track is really just serviceable at best.  It’s front heavy and delivers a clear presentation of the special effects.  There needed to be more thump from the sub, but other than that its fine.  Sometimes the dialogue kind of washes in with the score and effects, but these instances aren’t dominant.  It’s a solid enough track deserving of the film its being provided for.

Extras 

Super Storm comes with no extras.

Summary 

Anchor Bay delivers a good presentation of another SyFy Channel movie.  The film itself is exactly what you’d expect from one of these movies.  It lands on the better side of them as its effect work is actually entertaining for what it is.  If you like storms, destruction and some blood this might suit your fancy.  If it’s one of those lazy days where you’re just sitting around and this comes on, you could do far worse.