Review: ‘Firenado’ fails to start a blaze

The very notion of a tornado on fire is silly. On name alone, you half expect a campy, ridiculous romp as the characters dart away from certain death to save themselves, to save humanity—and have a little fun while doing it. But Firenado takes itself way too seriously for that to happen. Its somber tone is a baffling creative choice, owed largely to Tom Jolliffe’s script, and co-directors Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey make the most of such an adventurous conceit. With low budget features, shoddy CGI and wooden acting can be forgiven; what can’t be forgiven is a film that ambitiously engages with contrasting genres and fails to deliver on either. Firenado is disaster flick by nature, but a heist/home invasion subplot derails the entire thing.

The film opens with Anna (Sian Altman), a young woman writing a resignation letter for her internship with Dr. Devlin (Toby Wynn-Davies). She’s visibly distraught, a moment that sets up the emotional through line for her character (don’t worry, it does come back around for the film’s final moment). Altman gives Anna apparent vulnerability that later morphs into untamed strength. For a film that flounders from the outset, Anna is the anchor. She keeps you hooked when you probably shouldn’t be.

When she meets up with a group of researchers and meteorologists, which includes Helena (Nicola Wright), another character that gives the film some weight, they set off in search of a tornado, Twister-style. Delvin wants to record his findings after sending a drone into the eye of the cyclone, hoping to discover he can actually control the storm’s direction and intensity. Naturally, things don’t quite go as planned. In fact, they set off a ravaging, five-level twister that bulldozes everything in its path. Feeling guilty for their actions, the group tries to warn everyone who lives within the twister’s path—an idea that at least gives the characters something to do, a mission to obsess over.

Meanwhile, a subplot centered around a kingpin and his henchmen who mount a heist to steal bags of money from a rich guy named Pierce Moore (Daniel Godfrey) is distracting. It’s a predictable storyline, and it’s limp at best. It seems the filmmakers wanted to make two movies in one, and unfortunately, neither lives up to their potential. When the two storylines collide, Firenado becomes a tangled mess that even dilutes Altman’s otherwise strong performance, relegating her to a side character meant to be ogled and objectified. A few shocking moments never feel earned, and it’s too bad.

There’s a great film buried in here somewhere. What could have been had Altman and Wright been the sole focus of the story, as the film’s best, most magnetic performers. And tragically all potential gets dragged down by convoluted, unnecessary storylines. Firenado might have worked better had the creatives leaned into its campy promise, relying on the absurdity of the concept, rather than the straight-laced and serious. Unfortunately, the film fails to ignite any sort of blaze.

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