Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Review, Universal | Tagged: Twister, Twisters

Twisters Review: The Spectacle of Mother Nature Isn't Enough

Twisters is a tornado movie that doesn't seem to have faith that the tornados are awe-inspiring but also frightening enough on their own.

Twisters wastes far too much of its runtime, establishing villains instead of focusing on the very obvious and more interesting struggle of man against Mother Nature.

When Twister was released in 1996, it was unlike anything anyone had seen before. We had seen storms and weather in movies before, but this film was about getting up close and personal with tornados. What might seem mundane to you about regional weather and environmental events is absolutely mindblowing to someone else. A person living in the South will barely shrug at a category one hurricane, another in the central United States hears tornado warnings and goes about their day, a person on the West Coast brushes off the idea of a controlled burn, and a person in the mountain doesn't flinch when they hear dynamite going off in the winter for avalanche control.

Tornados are a little different from others because they are visual, in a way, like hurricanes, and people have always been fascinated by the things that could kill us. The first film gave people that feeling, and it wasn't surprising that many copycat films followed in the years, trying to capture that sense of wonder again. However, none of them did, and with more and more sequels coming in decades after the fact, it was only a matter of time before Twisters came to be.

In just under two decades since the first film, Twisters, storm chasing has evolved a lot, and the film wastes no time telling you that. We see the new technology being used and how amateurs are out there, making things more complicated for everyone else. There are people with doctorates out there with people who love extreme weather. That is the dynamic we see in the film exploring with Kate and Javi on the academic side, kind of, and Tyler and his crew on the other. One would think that trying to go up against storms that can change instantly would be enough, but apparently, 300MPH winds were not enough of an antagonist for this film. It goes out of its way to set up a villain who is one mustache twirl away from a cartoon character while making some half-assed commentary about how some people in this area are being taken advantage of. It's not explored enough to be meaningful and just drags the entire production down by the end.

The unnecessary drag this creates by the time the two-hour runtime is up makes it clear that this is yet another blockbuster that did not need to be as long as it is. All that villain stuff did not need to be there, and it could have easily been cut 30 minutes to make a much tighter 90-minute film. People are here to see the tornados, and that's why they are showing up to a movie called Twisters. It feels like this film takes too long to get to any of the storms aside from the cold opening. It's an effective opening, in the same way as the opening scene of the original film was effective, but any momentum or sense of horror from that scene is abandoned with a very slow lead-up to seeing some actual storms.

Too many characters are trying to do too much, and the three leads are fighting for their lives to be interesting. Glen Powell is being framed as the new Hollywood star, and he is desperately trying to breathe any life into this film, but Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Romas are giving him nothing back. The dynamic with Powell's little crew is better, but they are all barely in the film, and we don't know them enough to care about whether or not they get hurt while storm chasing.

Once this film called Twisters decides to show us some twisters, there are some good scenes, and they are absolutely things you need to see on a big screen. The theatrical experience enhances not so much the visual aspect of these storms as the sound editing and design that make the booming thunder, the heavy rain, and the high winds feel so real. This is where Dolby Atmos shines and makes all the difference in the world.

However, even when the film decides to get going, there is still nothing as visceral, theatrical, and incredible as that F5 scene from the end of the first movie. We can argue the "a leather belt will keep you anchored in 300MPH wings" thing to death, but that storm felt alive; it roared like a monster or some old god coming to swallow our characters whole, and there wasn't a single moment in Twisters that managed to capture that feeling. It does its damnest to try, and there are some really good attempts, but that scene is unmatched twenty years later, and there is a reason no one has been able to make the lightning strike again.

Twisters is the kind of blockbuster we see a lot in the summer. Some damn good scenes in there take advantage of the theatrical experience and make you want to see it with a crowd. It's hot a hell out there, and we could all take a break with some excellent air conditioner, a giant soda, and enough popcorn to drown in. If you're going into this film thinking it'll match the energy and spectacle of the first film, it just doesn't. Mother nature and global warming making extreme weather events more and more common, combined with everyone and their mother trying to go viral on the internet, is more than enough plot for this film. Everything else doesn't need to be there, and, strangely, the tornado movie doesn't seem to have faith that the tornados are awe-inspiring but also frightening enough on their own.

Twisters

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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6.5/10

Twisters wastes far too much of its runtime, establishing villains instead of focusing on the very obvious and more interesting struggle of man against Mother Nature.

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