Monday, 16 December 2024

Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung, 2024)

A group of storm chasers attempt to track twisters with a new form of technology.


Is it 1996 all over again?



Twister is a totally fine movie.

 

Helen Hunt, and her character’s motivation, give the 1996 picture a pathos that Twisters cannot quite match.


And while the CG might seem a little dated, the film has a focus on special effects that increases the sense of stakes. The physical effects, sets and location work to give the movie a verisimilitude that the spare use of CGI cannot.


The story is almost too simple, but the characters are clearly defined and the scope is just big enough. We get a couple of different locations but we spend time in them. The film does not get lost in trying to show viewer twisters destroying cities.


There is a sense of awe and respect for twisters as unique and terrifying natural forces.


I had not watched it in years, maybe decades.


I remember watching it on video around the time Titanic came out, and being doubly traumatised by the boat sinking and Helen Hunt’s dad getting sucked away.


Going into Twisters, I had no idea how much of a legacy sequel this movie was going to be.


What is oddly refreshing about it is that it feels more like a traditional sequel.


It does not share any cast members or story threads, but it is a rough facsimile of the original film: a central character gets a tragic backstory and an arc, there is the rival team of storm chasers, and there is a final test to prove both the durability of the technology (and the central couple’s romance).


The cast are fun - I loved seeing Sasha Lane and Katy O’Brian as a part of Glen Powell’s crew.


None of the set-pieces are that tense. I had a good time but had a hard time remembering any of it.


The best compliment I can give the sequel is that it recognises and takes the right lessons from its predecessor.


The scale stays relatively the same. The cast is more diverse and also smaller the first movie featured way more supporting players than I could follow).


It was also nice to see a blockbuster about ordinary people. It is shocking to think about how rare that is nowadays.


It is too early to judge (the film was a decent hit in the States but did little business overseas) but hopefully Twisters is a sign that audiences are interested in seeing films like this.


I am agnostic on a Twister 3, but with the decline of the superhero genre over the last couple years, perhaps we will see more large-scale genre movies about ordinary people dealing with extreme but (relatively) real-world obstacles. 


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