Tornado Alley

On an unusually rainy May day here in San Diego, we recently took some friends visiting from Pennsylvania to the impressive Reuben H. Fleet Space Center's domed IMAX theater to see Tornado Alley. The admission was a steep $14.95 per person, but included all of the exhibits in the museum -- which, frankly, I could have done without. The museum is definitely of interest to school kids, or parents with kids -- all fine, of course, but it would have been nice if there were a "film only" price for those of us only interested in seeing the movie.

Once we waited for what seemed an incredibly long time for them to empty the theater from the previous showing (although the place was not crowded), we finally got seated. While I found the film interesting, and appreciated the "behind the scenes" look at what the tornado chasers do, I have to say that the overall impression was that the end credits started rolling just when the action seemed to get going. I realize this is a documentary and not Hollywood's version of tornado chasing, but for all the build-up, there were just a few seconds of actually being surrounded and inside a tornado, and then boom -- film over.

Don't get me wrong -- if you are a science lover, or have kids and love those kind of exhibits and museums, this is a great thing to do. But for four adults, I'd have to say we felt a little short-changed.

I'm a big fan of the Storm Chasers series. And I watched Sean struggle through the series trying to chase down his perfect shots for this documentary. What Sean should have done is handed that fancy camera to Reed Timmons and let Reed get the footage for him.

Sean has one of those irritatingly annoying personalities that just makes you want to duct tape his mouth shut, so it just makes it hard to watch this. I kept finding myself hoping a tornado would turn the TIV into an ugly metal taco. Watch episode 2 of season 3 of Storm Chasers and you will see what I mean.

Still, it is some good storm footage. It just could have been so much better if Sean directed and let Reed take the lead for him hunting down the storms. This could have been so much better. Shows like this I can watch multiple times, but not this one.

Just saw this movie at the San Diego Science center IMAX dome and boy was I disappointed. Instead of seeing massive twisters and fully utilizing the giant dome of the theater, it was like watching an episode of storm chasers on a large screen. Mind-grindingly boring. 99% of the film is watching cars being driven from A to B and hearing stupid radio transmissions using storm-chaser lingo. Paxton should patent his voice as a sleeping aid. I was so disappointed that I asked for my money back.

This movie should not be put on the large screen and tickets should not be $16. It is as dry as sawdust.

The film was incredible and you can't disregard the passion and the hard work and the sweat and tears he worked so hard to make on this film he spent his life doing this and wanted everything to be perfect for us you have to admire and respect the hard work he put into this if you watch storm chasers you'd understand so put that in consideration. I loved the film it had great shots of the most awesome weather conditions you can get it on Amazon just search tornado alley imax and it's a three movie/show thing and his movie is in it. So please consider giving him a higher review because not only was this movie inspiring to me and wanted me to get back in the field of meteorology it had the most awesome shots of weather and made me love Sean even more.

I saw this as a kid and loved it, unfortunately there is no dvd version, this needs to be shown to the world again because this is one Chase you don't want to miss