As storm season intensifies, the paths of former storm chaser Kate Carter and reckless social-media superstar Tyler Owens collide when terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed. The pair...
Ok, hot take: I just watched the original “Twister”…..and I don’t really like it. Yes, it’s a feeble excuse for action but there’s hardly any suspense, the plot barely progresses and every character is annoying in their own way.
Take two-thirds of what I just said and reverse it for “Twisters”.
These disaster movies are mostly known for showing a rapid cavalcade of rampage and destruction of massive property while gawking and yelling at the central characters for the litany of stupid decisions you’ll know they make; how else would they drag these films out past 2 hours? And make no mistake, Twisters isn’t any different. That’s two major things it has in line with its corny predecessor: its structure and model feels very akin to a 90’s blockbuster and the story is a firm, distant second in terms of action priorities. But unlike the 1996 original, this story…..actually kinda works. Sure, it’s not entirely able to properly balance its emotional stakes (after all, this films attempts to reverse engineer its more serious stakes don’t exactly click the same way when the narrative feels a wee bit superfluous in how its events transpire) but It only wishes to please its audience with laidback popcorn entertainment and never becomes too bogged down with deep themes or complicated exposition.
You can really tell how much this film tries to be something more than it actually is, and more often than not, they do work. Between whole towns losing their homes, lives and livelihoods thanks to highly unpredictable weather, it not only implies the worsening of climate crisis but also people from every which background who try to profit off that increased liability, and asking who else has to suffer from it. There’s somewhat of an apocalyptic element to it that hits close to home; pondering this question of plausibility, fighting something that can’t be fixed and futility that comes with it. Do you see what I mean? It’s not perfect at all but actual effort is placed into not only developing that but also the characters beyond one-dimensional archetypes placed in the path of danger for the sake of thrills despite them still being cliches.
It’s been years since I’ve seen anything from Lee Issac Chung after Minari but boy, do I remember how well he handles sensitivity. Following his own upbringing in rural Arkansa, you can see how his genuine care and gentle precision for environmentalism shapes the avenues the film inevitably ventures towards but it’s a shame to watch him play it safe with everything else in only his second directorial outing. You get bits and pieces of a stable project centered around community and even though you kinda tell it’s a Lee Issac Chung project, you wouldn’t be a wrong for thinking otherwise.
Technically speaking, everything else felt like a honest to god fine-tuning of whatever worked with its predecessor just with a few modern patches and updates.
A much better job is done capturing the vistas and vastness of the Oklahoma heartland than before even if that consistency doesn’t always stay. For every cluttered set piece, the production design makes sure to illustrate both the scenic beauty and desolate loneliness through composition in the American Midwest on top of it being filmed at 35mm film, allowing the CG and special effects to blend in better as opposed to digital (although the CG isn’t entirely foolproof either). The cinematography is both atmospheric and more visually alluring with quick but sufficient editing to boot, its costumes actually make good use of color symbolism to pick apart where every character stands and they got a lot of bangers in this country soundtrack. Very easy on the ears depending on your taste but pairing those back to back with an utterly generic score from Benjamin Wallfisch feels like a double edged sword.
So much technobabble is spewed about here that you can choose to blindly take faith in but thank god the actors nearly throw out their backs to sell it. Glen Powell, once again, proves to be a one hell of charisma magnet while Daisy Edgar-Jones tries her hardest to match up and everyone else is clearly having a blast.
Plus, the dialogue flows a lot more naturally between everyone and while the main characters take a while to grow on you, they do eventually earn your cheering for them in stark contrast to the characters from the original which never did for me.
Best way to describe this is silly but earnest. It definitely beats the original in my eyes, in terms of being more fun while actually trying to say something meaningful within its confines. Say it with me now: if you feel it, CHASE IT.
