Review: Weather Wars – Storm War (2011)

Directed by: Todor Chapkanov | 91 minutes | action, thriller, science fiction | Actors: Jason London, Wes Brown, Erin Cahill, Stacy Keach, Stanton Barrett, Jesse de Luna, Miles Doleac, Robert Grimm, Gary Grubbs, Indigo, Nick Jones Jr. Lauren Michele, Ritchie Montgomery, Lance E. Nichols, Heather Robbins

The ability to influence the weather; many people do not see any ill effects. Sun every day, no more rain and an Elfstedentocht every year, it sounds too good to be true for many. That this possibility, if it ends up in the hands of the wrong person, can have disastrous consequences, as shown in the film “Weather Wars”. Because when crazy scientist Marcus (Stacey Keach) uses the ability to influence the weather against humanity, all hell breaks out. Marcus was previously a climate expert working for the US government. However, his project to check the weather had to be scrapped due to budget cuts, something Marcus was never able to deal with. After being put on hold by the government, he continued to develop this technology on his own and vowed, with the help of the weather, to take revenge on those responsible for his dismissal. . The only people who can stop him are David (Jason London) and Jacob (Wes Brown), his two sons, and his former assistant Samantha (Erin Cahill).

Unfortunately, “Weather Wars” has become nothing more than just another science fiction film, in which the world is threatened with destruction. Within this genre, in which it is difficult enough to be distinctive, the film makes few attempts to stand out. After the evil Marcus manages to get revenge on the first two people on his list, all that’s left is Senator Aldrich (Lance E. Nichols). The problem is that Aldrich is in direct contact with the White House and is therefore not a simple victim. However, Marcus is not deterred by this and the entire population must bow to his quest for revenge.
In terms of story, “Weather Wars” is often just a strange sequence of events. After Marcus has destroyed some of Washington’s most famous buildings (including the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial) with the help of lightning strikes and tornadoes, he easily manages to stay out of the hands of the police and FBI. The fact that he just manages to penetrate heavily guarded buildings is also not credible. The FBI in “Weather Wars” shows little decisiveness anyway and seems to agree that their country is threatened with destruction. The fact that the fate of the whole world lies in the hands of three people in the early twenties age group is also rather strange, a little more decisiveness and presence of the American government would have been possible, if only for credibility. The extreme weather effects themselves are not portrayed very convincingly, and the many lightning strikes and other weather conditions are not frightening and rarely impress.

What remains is a film that actually has little to offer. The characters of the main characters are quite superficial, the two brothers are opposites and you don’t really know anything about Samantha’s character. You will rarely sympathize with the characters and the father-son relationship that is worked out later in the film feels like an open door, which actually applies to the entire film. The genre of “disaster movies” has produced enough mediocre films over the years and “Weather Wars” is more than happy to join this troupe. Perhaps it is not even so much that the film does everything very badly, the final result is simply very lackluster and no more than an obligatory song and that is just as painful.