- Starring
- Glen Powell, Katy O'Brian, Daisy Edgar-Jones
- Director
- Lee Isaac Chung
- Rating
- Not Yet Rated
- Genre
- Action, Adventure, Thriller
- Release date
- July 19, 2024
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
In 1996, Twister stormed theaters, directed by Jan de Bont and starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. Its special effects conjured twisters (aka tornadoes) with awe-inspiring realism, leaving 90’s audiences breathless. The film went on to earn over $500 million ($1.03 billion adjusted for inflation) at the global box office, cementing its status as a legendary popcorn flick.
Twisters
After experiencing a brush with death, one-time storm chaser Kate Cooper will have to face the deadly storms that killed her friends if she hopes to overcome her crisis of confidence and develop a way to stop future twisters from taking any more lives.
Twisters Review
1996’s Twister was far from high-concept cinema, but it knew what it was and maximized what it had to offer to its fullest. Although billed as a “standalone sequel” to the original, Twisters is best described as a remake or reboot, as it is unrelated to the original except for a handful of Easter eggs. Like many other reboots, Twisters is comparatively weak sauce to that of its papa.
Even though there is no denying that Twisters’ special effects are significantly superior to that of the original, and those who see it in IMAX or XD will be viscerally rocked by the chaos of its digital storms, the fact of the matter is that this sequel/reboot/remake relies far too heavily on its technical superiority to carry the film.
The original filmmakers clearly demonstrated their understanding of the material by peopling their story with fun, if two-dimensional, characters and building a rudimentary but thematically identifiable narrative around the film’s action. Audiences had those for whom to root and root against and the film even managed to sprinkle in some emotional ambiguity with the love triangle between Bill Paxton’s, Helen Hunt’s, and Jami Gertz’s characters. In short, audiences were given a reason to care.
While those responsible for Twisters attempt to do the same, only Glen Powell’s perpetual wry smile gives any semblance of being an even marginally realized character. The rest of the cast are bland, interchangeable, and forgettable. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays the lead, Kate, who is an amalgam of Paxton’s “human barometer,” who has an almost 6th sense about the storms, and Helen Hunt’s character, who was singularly driven by an early tornado-related tragedy.
Jones gives a serviceable performance but is hampered by a paper-thin plot and a major character arc that is seemingly overcome after a good night’s sleep until it unnaturally pops back up 45 minutes later for some artificial second-act conflict. Of course, in true modern Hollywood fashion, that conflict is easily and almost immediately overcome after a bit of conversation.
The lack of conflict is arguably the Twisters’ greatest downfall. The original gave us a love triangle, two disparate teams competing for the same goal, and a single overriding goal driven by tragedy for which to cheer. While these were separate elements, each served to build up the others. This new film gives us overzealous YouTubers chasing the same storms as the protagonist but for clicks, and treats the scenes in which both are doing their thing as though one is in the way of the other. In reality, the giant storms are big enough for both of them, and neither is in the other’s way at all, giving the characters’ early animosity toward one an unnecessary and artificial flavor.
Although both films require truckloads of convenience, contrivance, and fuzzy physics to exist, You could almost believe that the events of the original were possible. Twisters takes it to a whole new level with Powell’s character’s truck, a truck driven into the heart of several tornadoes without getting even a pit in the windshield.
A modified RAM dually, it is virtually impervious to the finger-of-God-power of the film’s storms thanks to some one-inch steel reinforcement and a pair of hydraulic augers. These augers burrow two feet into the earth, anchoring the truck against winds that rip foundations from the ground. It’s a silly idea, but one that audiences could perhaps suspend their disbelief for if the rest of the film were any fun.
Unfortunately, even Twisters’ action, while technically sophisticated and realistic, is largely unimpressive thanks to a combination of the aforementioned lack of emotional connection to the various story elements and equally egregious pacing. What story there is flows at a glacial pace only to be interrupted by the occasional world-ending storm, which often feels like it is over before it begins.
Having not seen the original Twister since it came out in theaters (saw it at a drive-in), I streamed it last night on Max just to see if I was unfairly comparing this new iteration against the nostalgic warm and fuzzies. I am not. Do yourself a favor and save money on theater tickets and popcorn, get some dollar-store snacks, crank up the big screen, and rewatch the original.
WOKE ELEMENTS
Lip[stick] Service
- The film tries to play the “boys are easily fooled by pretty girls” cliché for about half a second, to the point that a song playing in the background says as much.
- I didn’t ding it much because the boy in question was never fooled, not even once.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
8 comments
Sweet Deals
July 16, 2024 at 12:01 am
Homophone alert again.
“Wry” smile. Rye is a type of bread.
The Original John Doe
July 16, 2024 at 6:03 pm
To James Carrick,
I am making this long post to complement you and your site for adding the ability for the audience to rate movies based on our perceived wokeness of the film. But let me start from the beginning.
I have made multiple very critical posts on this site regarding movies that this site has deemed “worth it” but were also “partially woke” which in my personal opinion drives in the face of “worth it OR woke” which implies they are mutually exclusive. I had also mentioned that the website notwokeshows allows the audience to submit proof of wokeness and then they list it as woke with the reasons for wokeness below. Which allows a viewer to decide if they agree or not.
However, we live in the United States of America where we all have the right to free speech and the right to have different opinions. In light of the recent attempted assassination of Trump last Saturday this could not be more important.
So by adding the ability of the audience to rank the wokeness of the film you allow this site to become a healthy discussion of a film’s wokeness were we are not always going to agree. But the people now have a voice. So bravo on adding that feature.
I would suggest the following as an improvement to this site. Now that readers can rank a movie based on wokeness it would be nice to improve the “WOKE ELEMENTS” portion at the end of every review. I would suggest dividing it into two portions. The first would be your list of woke elements. And the second would be a list of woke elements that the viewing public could add. I think all that would be required would be if someone mentioned a woke element that you “missed” or disagreed with then you can add it at the bottom under a section “woke elements by viewers” or something like that.
Anyway, I actually hope you attract more advertising revenue or find a way to increase your profit from this site without having to have it closed off to membership. But I do not know if that was done just to make money or to protect this site from leftists in the same way Townhall and Redstate now require membership to post.
Keep up the good work.
The Original John Doe
[email protected]
July 21, 2024 at 7:15 am
Here are the woke elements as I saw them.
1. A guy chasing a woman for no apparent reason other than the plot needs him to. Example: She treats him poorly by taking the pizza he gives her then shuts the door in his face. The guy just continues to pursue her why?
Acting like a witch for no reason is not a charming characteristic that makes guys coming back for more, and if it was, than we should stop promoting it as a society. Not realistic at all..
2. They made the Female Main Character the Hero. Gone are the days of men being able to be men. Gone are the heroes and role models for little boys, learning to save and protect the most vulnerable in our society; women and children. Now women are the heroes and men are turned from Alpha Males to little Betas. Their masculinity being drained from them before your eyes. The Male character started off strong and masculine, but then he was chasing a girl, who treated him horribly, for no reason, and he chased her, for no reason, other than the plot needed him to. Then throughout the remainder of the movie you watched as all masculinity was slowly drained from him to allow the Main Female Character to become the Hero.
Matt
July 22, 2024 at 3:09 pm
I wouldn’t say this one was woke but good god there’s some diverse casting here. I guess Hollywood is afraid now of going too white or something. Outside of the two leads, all the storm chasers seem to be minorities. It just felt weird to me.
Geek Buzz
July 24, 2024 at 8:49 am
You folks need to get on the same page on what ‘woke’ is. Last summer, bro flake sh*t their pants over the female lead in the latest indy jones movie because she was ‘woke.’ In Twisters, the female lead is cut from the same cloth. I mean, you have people in the comments section here who can’t agree on what’s woke and what isn’t. The only reason incels aren’t sh*tting their pants over it is that it made so much money so quickly, then knew their bumper sticker slogan ‘go woke, go broke’ would be laughably wrong.
Dan
July 29, 2024 at 6:47 am
Gotta love the buzzwords these leftists keep using that I don’t think they know what they are saying. Just like the “from the river to the sea” protestors, when asked why they are doing it they never have a clue. When asked what river and what sea, they smile and look for help from their friends. This response from Lefty Geek is likened to those kiddies on college campuses, only because they wanted their 2 seconds of fame on tiktok.
Bob
July 25, 2024 at 8:29 am
I was told by a couple sources on the internet that the new movie, “Twisters” was not woke. I was told that it was pretty good. The wife, and I were fans of the original move, “Twister” so we went to see it. We were disappointed by the last third of the movie. This review does have spoilers. If you want to avoid them, you can stop reading now since I’ve divulged that the movie was woke to a degree that ruined the film for us.
For everyone who cares to read on, and encounter spoilers, please continue. The first two thirds of the movie were building to something. The main female character was learning how to get over her past. The lead male character was becoming more than a seemingly self-centered adrenaline junky. He was beginning to care for the female lead. They portrayed the male lead as a former bull rider, and meteorology student. He chases tornados for youtube followers, or something to that effect. The land developing bad guy’s reason for employing the antagonist’s character’s efforts was very convoluted. The female lead was a weak character, and the actress had no onscreen spark. She seemed two dimensional. Her character was swaying back, and forth between the horror of her past experience with tornados, and her desire to help people by finding a way to stop tornados. The male lead gets interested in her, and immediately goes from adrenaline junky cowboy manly man to simp in one visit to her single mom’s farm. For the rest of the movie, he is neutered. At the end there is a gigantic tornado that is going to destroy a town. The people are taking shelter in a movie theater. The man and woman are looking out the door at the tornado. He turns his back to her for a second, and she runs out to his truck, drives into the tornado. He stands in the door yelling after her. The other people try telling him to help them with the people in the theater to move them to the back. He is frozen in shock for a moment then goes to help them while boss girl drives into the center of the tornado, and uses her plan to turn it off. It works. She saves everyone just in the nick of time before her love interest, and friends are sucked up into the tornado.
It would have made so much more sense, if at the moment they were at the door looking at the tornado, he turns to her and says, “This is it! Your plan is the only way we can save these people. We have to do it.” She looks shaken, and frightened, but his bravery helps her be brave. She looks at him, and nods. They both run for the truck, and kill the tornado together, while helping eachother, and saving all the people. The end could have been more romantic as well. We were very disappointed in the feminism that corrupted this movie.
The other offense was the implication of climate change being the problem even though it wasn’t directly, specifically cited. There wasn’t any nudity. There was some profanity. The acting was meh. They guy who played the lead needs some masculine lead character rolls where he can be the toxic avenger we are all waiting for. He did a good job in, “Maverick.” We were hoping for more with this movie.
Gail Finke
July 26, 2024 at 12:46 pm
I just saw Twister for the first time last week. It’s insane, but boy does the cast sell it. Their 100 % earnestness makes it lots of fun, though completely ridiculous. If this cast doesnt’ do the same, then that’s very sad.