-Written by Kyle Bain.
In a sequel, or reboot (it’s never really clear) to the 1996, box-office hit Twister, Twisters (I know, the name’s so original) follows two groups of storm chasers with their own agendas. Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) hopes to develop a technology capable of stopping tornadoes in their tracks, while Tyler (Glen Powell) seemingly hopes to develop fame from his cowboy-esque endeavors. As their paths cross, new technologies are brought into the fold and new alliances formed. Will Kate be successful, and is this even a good film?
Twisters is a movie about tornadoes, duh! And I was told that there isn’t much that you can do with a film about the subject matter. I disagree, and I think it’s unfair to believe that Twisters did the best that it could considering its content. In ‘96 a film was released that took the world by storm (pun fully intended), and it manipulated a script that followed storm chasers into something emotionally relevant and tactfully executed (now, it’s been some time since I’ve seen Twister, but I fully remember it being a film warranted of its often high praise).
Twisters isn’t a rip off, but it certainly hopes to gain legitimacy as a sequel/reboot to the aforementioned film. It doesn’t, and it shouldn’t. There is so much wrong with this film, so much so that I’m not entirely sure where to start.
I’m going to start, however, with something simple: the soundtrack. The songs are lovely–and, honestly, I plan to seek out the songs from the film to listen to in my leisure–but they don’t fit within the confines of the film. It often seems that Director Lee Isaac Chung is attempting to develop drama and emotion, and while there are singular lines within each of the songs that are relevant to their placement in the film, the songs are wildly out of place. Each time they introduce viewers to a new country song it feels out of place, incapable of hitting viewers the way I feel this team had hoped–and, furthermore, whatever emotion had been developed up to that point is swept up in this veritable storm.
Beyond that emotion struggles as well, as I attest that to wildly fractured narrative, or should I say narratives. There are far too many things going on in Twisters, causing it to bounce around from place to place throughout its entirety. What is initially presented as the storyline is Kate’s venture into new technology that may potentially save lives in the future–and that’s something that I could have gotten on board with, but that only exists for a short time at the start and finish of the film. From a poorly developed (and entirely unnecessary) romance, to the odd inclusion of an antagonist–Twisters can’t ever find its footing, and the characters are lost in the chaos throughout.
Again, it’s emotion that needs to be developed in order for this character-driven thriller to work. However, there are so many aspects of the film that steal from what Edgar-Jones, Powell, Anthony Ramos (Javi), and the others are capable of developing in this regard. I never felt a connection to the characters, and by the end of the film, had they lived or died it would have made no difference to me.
There are two things, however, that did work for this film. The first is the way in which the explanations of all strom-related things are presented. I’m no expert on meteorology, but each and every word uttered from the characters’ mouths feels legitimate–and through a bit of research it appears that scientists agree that Writers Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski got this right at least. This makes the events of Twisters more plausible, more believable–and at least viewers had that to latch onto.
The other aspect of the film that worked for me was the cinematography. Twisters has to be an immersive film that captures the true intensity of the storms that these characters are chasing–and Director of Photography Dan Mindel does just this. We are often in the driver's seat with Kate and Tyler, and that helps to develop a level of intensity that Twisters desperately needed. As a result of the cinematography, Twisters is a fun film–but fun doesn’t equal good.
Twisters had a lot of potential, so many chances to make this film emotionally riveting and appealing–but time and time again this crew fails to make that happen. Never is emotion lost on the wonderful actors tasked with bringing this film to life, but the other aspects often hinder the film’s ability to reach viewers emotionally, something that was missing from the film almost entirely. There were so many times that I felt frustrated in the theater as missed opportunity after missed opportunity presented itself, and by the end of the film I found myself genuinely aggravated at this affair. What could have been would have been better–but Twisters fails in so many ways.
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
Written by Mark L. Smith, Joseph Kosinski, Michael Crichton, & Anee-Marie Martin.
Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Harry Haddon-Paton, Sasha Lane, David Corensweat, etc.
5/10 = WORTH WATCHING, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
Comments