Setting a new standard for incoherent science, Dark Storm is a baffling mess that is so completely ridiculous, you have to wonder how it made it all the way through to production. Stephen Baldwin stars as a scientist heading up one of those oh-so-popular “secret government experiments” that apparently aren’t that secret if movies are any indication, and we all know TV doesn’t lie. Anyway, there’s some world destruction, nasty special effects, and ridiculous plot twists before this one mercifully ends.
The movie revolves around dark matter, which is so poorly explained by the script, the audience will have a tough time wondering how this all works. What you need to know is that it produces storms that can disintegrate any object it’s aimed at, and if left uncontrolled, the world would not be a place to buy real estate. Through the government experiments playing with the stuff, Stephen Baldwin’s character is infused with this matter, becoming a ridiculous-looking super hero type that can control it.
The story feels as if it’s making things up as it goes. The dark matter seems to randomly choose targets when it’s out of control, with no real sense as to why. There is plenty of lightning and thunder along with some smoke, and that is what sub-atomic particles known as dark matter look like in case you’re paying attention. A few mildly interesting destruction sequences fail to convey the threat thanks to the expected low budget effects.
Basic scenes of military personnel fighting to keep the secrets, well, secret end up being uninteresting action sequences that paint our military as incompetent, or the soldiers assigned to guard this project were kicked out of boot camp long before proper training could be completed. Stephen Baldwin races to the rescue in an attempt to save the world from full on disaster, using his newly received super powers that manage to activate at precisely the right moments.
A predictable ending could have come from any super hero movie; only this one is amazingly anti-climatic given the build up. The final showdown between hero and villain is brief, and doesn’t necessarily follow the rules set earlier. Shouldn’t the dark matter dissolve anyone exposed to it like it did multiple times in the film? Apparently, villains can inhale it like crack and they become all powerful.
Along with the ridiculous scenario used to set up the story, there’s nothing here worth watching. Disaster movies are numerous, and if seeing the planet being taken down by scientific phenomena is what you’re looking for, keep moving. There’s nothing to see here that you won’t find elsewhere.
Matt Paprocki is the reviews editor for Digital Press, a classic video game website which he called home after his fanzine (Gaming Source) published its final issue. The deep game collection which spans nearly 30 systems and 2,000 games line his walls for reasearch purposes. Really. He has also begun writing freelance for the Toledo Free Press.
