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 experience 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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