Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead

by Mike McGranaghan

Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead begins with a lengthy introductory sequence setting up a backstory. We’re told about the Great Flood that decimated the world, except for a small pocket of islands. Among them is a fortified city called Argos where people can be safe from a perpetual storm that prevents anyone from leaving the immediate area. In order to be granted access to Argos, contestants must participate in a yearly boat-racing event known as Storm Riding.

That’s an okay premise for an action-fantasy, I suppose. The problem is that instead of telling an actual story after that set-up, this astoundingly boring movie keeps explaining.

The endless exposition is odd, given how formulaic the elements are. There’s a sinister leader, Tarus (Gilles Geary), who secretly controls the weather to keep everyone else in line. Also present is the requisite “Chosen One” - in this case, Neb (Marco Ilsø), a young man who sees visions of fabled figure Hammerhead powering through the storm. Does this mean he could do it too? Perhaps. He has a longtime female friend named Maia (Sofie Boussnina) he’s in love with. Neb and Maia hatch a plan to win the Storm Riding race, and Neb’s grandfather Dida (James Corso) offers training.

It’s not a huge deal that the characters are archetypes; it is a huge deal that they’re dull. Not a single one of them has a shred of personality, Neb most notably. When the hero is utterly bland, there’s no way a film can succeed. Tarus is no better. He dresses in black and speaks in a creepy voice, yet gives off no genuinely evil vibes. Neb and Tarus couldn’t be less interesting if they were a mop and a toothbrush, and the actors portraying them make minimal effort to turn them into anything more than cardboard cutouts.

The rest of Storm Rider is no more interesting. It plays like Waterworld fan fiction written by a 12-year-old. The film tries desperately to engage in epic world-building yet falls into the trap of becoming so focused on that task that it forgets to tell a story. Entirely too much time is spent establishing characters and lands, legends and myths, rules and laws. You can tell the makers envision a series of sequels; they’re putting all the pieces in place. Those pieces are hackneyed and intended to pay off in future movies. That makes watching this movie laborious.

If there’s anything positive to be said, it’s that the boat racing scenes are executed nicely. Or, they are at the beginning, at least. By the end, those races become repetitive. Still, they look convincing despite an obvious need to utilize CGI for the wilder crashes and collisions. If the races were put into an actual context where there were stakes and we had characters to care about, this would have been a half-decent picture.

Poor acting, a clunky screenplay, and an overabundance of exposition keep Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead from achieving the grand scale adventure directors Domagoj Mazuran and Zoran Lisinac aspire to. The film is lifeless on the screen, making 105 minutes feel infinitely longer.

---