"Twisters" Lifts You Up...then Drops You

Photo by [Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic, Warner Bros. Pictures & Ambli - © Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

First Impression

This is going to be short and sweet. I'm really hoping this is a sequel to the orignal 1996 film. That film made me interested in weather, specifically tornadoes. I was that kid that watched The Weather Channel, bought weather books and basically was teaching myself about weather. I am so excited for this movie. I've only seen the one trailer and nothing else. The original had so many amazing realistic moments in it and now here in 2024, I can't wait to experience this.

"Twisters" Spoiler Review

Before I get into it, I want to make sure it's known that I saw this film twice. I don't normally see movies twice in the theatre unless they're absolutely amazing because let' face it, going to the movies can be expensive. In this special case, I went and saw it another time because my wife hadn't seen it and we had some time to kill but I'm so glad we did because it needed another look.

So here we go, first off right out of the gate, don't watch this movie thinking it's a sequel to the first one. If you do, you will be sadly mistaken. This is not a sequel. As much as you or I probably want it to be, it's not. Think of this film as the next chapter in the "Twister" franchise. Seeing as it's been almost 30 years since the original came out, a lot has changed in the world of storm chasing and this film touches on that while still keeping everything old school.

There's only so many ways to chase a tornado so don't expect something completely different here. Technology has changed a lot in 30 years since the first Twister film. If you recall, Twister's main objective was to give everyone an early enough warning to get to safety. In this film, now that everyone has smart phones and a "$10 weather app", the main objective isn't getting a better alert system, it's now trying to actually stop a tornado artifically. This concept, on paper, sounds ridiculous. When pitching this story to Universal, I'm pretty sure someone said "You can't stop a tornado" and Steven Spielberg and his team were like "Hold my beer". Ridiculous or not, the concept sounds intriguing enough for you to wonder if that's even possible and if so, how can it be done? Twisters answers this question but not before we get through the Youtube Channels and T-Shirts.

Glen Powell plays Tyler Owens. A storm chaser with a Youtube channel. Him and his team of "Tornado Wranglers" have built a presense on the social platform by documenting their storm chasing and just as you would guess, they're all very loud and obnoxious. Now here's what's interesting, in the first film, they storm chased in a red truck, camper and some other SUVs while Bill's enemy, per se, traveled in high tech vans with more state of the art equipment. This lives on in this new film too with Tyler (Glen Powell) and his team storm chasing in a "storm tough" red truck and campers while Kate (Daisy Edgar Jones) travels with her friend and his team in high tech trucks.

Photo by [Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic, Warner Bros. Pictures & Ambli - © Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

Are There Nods To The First Film?

Yes. But they're not all obvious. For instance, in one scene we see Kate dressed in a brown jumpsuit as she leaves with Tyler in his truck. If you remember, Helen Hunt wore the same brown jumpsuit in the first movie after their first tornado encounter under the bridge. Something you'd easily miss if you haven't seen the first one in awhile. Another is Kate telling her friend Javi (played by Anthony Ramos) "I'm not back" when he tells her "Welcome Back". This was Bill Paxton's famous line in the first film. You do see "Dorothy" from the first film in the very beginning but no mention of how they got it, who used it or anything. So this makes for a sour taste in the mouth knowing there's no acknowledgement on Bill and Helen's hard work.

Story

I don't think the writers had a good brainstorming session on ideas for this film. It's the same two storm groups fighting over getting the best data for the tornado only Tyler is doing it for the views while Kate is doing it to actually stop a tornado. After we see Tyler shoot fireworks into the tornado and terrorize his British ride along, we begin to see him start to mellow out. What I do like about his character is that even though he's loud and craving for attention, he actually helps Kate identify that she's unaware of what her friend, Javi, is actually doing and you start to see the heart that Tyler has is actually for the greater good.

Kate is a splitting image of Emmy Rossum. I almost thought it was her at first. Her story starts the same as helen's did in the first film. She has a traumatic incident where she loses her friends to a tornado theyre chasing before fast forwarding to the present. They really couldn't think of a better opening? That first opening sequence in the original Twister was so frightening. You're literally watching a man fight for his life to keep the basement door shut and protecting his family, screaming in agony before getting sucked up. In Twisters, it's almost predictable that everyone, but Kate, is going to die. They get picked off one by one as they go towards the overpass for shelter (which Kate mentions is the worst idea). It's hard to describe in words how this opening scene doesn't compare to the original, you'll just have to see it for yourself. It's not horrible, but it really could've been a lot better.

This film also has a night twister just as the original did. That one tore through a drive in movie where this one tears through a rodeo. This sequence happens so fast. It goes from being calm, to tornado in seconds. In the first film, there was a lot more buildup to the twister coming so that made this part seem overly dramatic. Both night scenes consists of a motel and debris flying throughout with one not so great "near miss" bus scene. In the first film, you see a car come crashing through the roof of the garage where the characters are hiding. In this film, you get a bus that crashes down right next to Tyler that barely misses him and it's very clear that the bus is CG. Which leads me into the next topic...special effects.

Photo by [Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic, Warner Bros. Pictures & Ambli - © Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

Special Effects

I read an article that said they wanted to use as much real tornado footage as possible but instead they wet to CGI. Now for a film like this, you have to have CGI tornadoes because trying to film real ones up close is far too dangerous. But there's so much CGI to the debris and tornadoes that it's insane. The special effects are actually done really well here with the exception of a few scenes where it's clear as day that it's fake. For example, at the end we see Tyler about to be crushed by a falling water tower that, again, just near misses him and floods the street. They pan to an aerial shot of the water bursting out of the tower and it's so fake, you almost have to laugh at it. Same goes for the trolley that comes flying by too. It's scenes like these that break a film. I understand it's a disaster movie, but I'm pretty sure we had more believeable special effects in 1996 then we did here. They drove through an actual house for Christ sake.

Final Thoughts

As stated previously, I went to see this movie twice. The first time, i just tore it to pieces because I was coming fresh off of seeing the original the day before. I was expecting this to be a sequel to the first with some nice nods to the original and perhaps even having one of the characters be the son/daughter of Helen and Bill. I think my expectations were a bit too high. After the second time around, i enjoyed it a lot better but the cheesy parts are still cheesy, it's still predictable and the special effects aren't amazing, but theyre great still. All in all, it's still an enjoyable film to watch and the soundtrack is amazing if you like country music like myself. If you can get past fireworks being shot up in the tornado, i think you'll enjoy this film.