Twisters (2024)
Full disclosure: the original 1996 Twister
is not a personal favorite and it's no classic. Sure, it has cool visual
effects, but the story is dumb, the situations ridiculous, and the characters
dull. The same thing can be said about the new Twisters, which is a
remake of sorts. It's definitely not a direct sequel, but it is a rehash of
what we saw back in '96.
Twisters opens with a young set
of storm chasers. That these people are supposed to be inexperienced storm
chasers, but did they have to write them and play them like obnoxious
fraternity kids on a party bus? Anyway, most of them get wiped out by a vicious
tornado. Only two survive—Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos).
Haunted by the tragic event, Kate quits
chasing storms and gets an office job in New York. Five years later, Javi pulls
Kate back into storm chasing by telling her that there is now better technology
to help study or even disrupt tornadoes, which could save lives.
So it's back to chasing tornadoes for
Kate, but what she didn't anticipate was a rival gang of storm chasers. These
yahoos from Arkansas are led by "Tornado Wrangler" Tyler Owens (Glen Powell).
He is a reckless daredevil and everything that Kate is against, but, oh my God,
she thinks she loves him. Edgar-Jones and Powell have an easy chemistry together,
and they both clearly are movie stars, but deserve to be to seen together in a
better movie.
Twisters spends so little time
showing the tragic aftermath of a deadly tornado that it barely registers that
a community of people have lost everything. It's insincere and even offensive,
because it seems like the filmmakers are just itching to get back to the scenes
of tornadoes causing carnage. These special effects scenes aren't thrilling
because there is nothing to care about. The characters are obnoxious and the
story is stupid, just like in the original.
