Most critics land in the middle, and the agreement is almost total about where the film succeeds: the tornado sequences. Nearly every review credits the effects work as the reason to watch, with several finding the storm set pieces thrilling enough to carry the whole thing, and De Bont’s handling of the action is praised more than once. A later reassessment from Slant adds that the 4K release’s Atmos sound mix makes the storms land harder still.
The reservations are just as uniform. The plot connecting the storms is called plodding, tedious or laboured, the dialogue awkward, the characters thin, and the romantic subplot finds few defenders; Radio Times notes the leads lack chemistry. The spread is narrow, with most scores clustered in the sixties and seventies, and only one outlier: Time Out dismisses the film as predictable and clichéd, conceding only the effects. Even the admirers, then, are admiring the same thing the dissenter does.