Partway through Twisters at a theater on Sunday night, I had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t particularly hurry back. When I returned, I asked my movie companion what I missed, and the answer was, “Nothing.”
That about sums up how I feel about the whole experience.
Twister vs Twisters
I’m a huge fan of the original Twister (1996), having long ago lost count of the number of times I’ve seen it. It’s an iconic adventure/disaster film, with everything one should have: quirky characters, great one-liners, spectacular effects, a bit of heart-tugging, a central romance, and a big finale.
The new film has the same producer, Steven Spielberg, but all-new characters and storyline. There are some callbacks to bits and pieces of the first film that fans may recognize, but little of the original’s spirit and heart.
Helen Hunt dominated Twister as Jo, a half-crazy tornado researcher obsessed with diving into the storms that destroyed her family. The new female lead in Twisters, played by British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones (sporting a spotty and unsteady American accent), is a pale shadow of Hunt’s.
She never seems at home in the character, while Hunt, who grew up in L.A. and New York, was totally believable as a daredevil Midwesterner.
My brain kept asking why the Twisters character wasn’t played by Dakota Johnson, who might have actually done something with it. But perhaps, at 34, she’s not as wide-eyed and dewy as the 26-year-old Brit.
It’s My Name, Don’t Wear It Out
Edgar-Jones plays a character named Kate. If you didn’t gather that in the first few minutes of the film, during which it’s said repeatedly, fear not, because it will be worn to a nubbin by the end.
Even though it’s my name, it didn’t need to be used in what seemed like two-thirds of the lines, sometimes more than once in a single line. Overusing character names in dialogue is a bad screenwriting habit that should always be fixed in editing.
Since Mark L. Smith got a “screenplay by” credit, rather than the more comprehensive “written by,” I don’t know how many cooks there were in the kitchen.
While this approach produced a terrific script for Twister (including contributions from Buffy creator Joss Whedon — watch it again, you’ll hear it), in this case, it just left me not sure who to blame.
Not Even Glen Powell Can Save It
Hot rising star Glen Powell, a native Texan, is generally wasted in the role of YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens. He’s given little to do other than to drive his truck with abandon, and pose in cowboy boots, jeans and Western shirts, showing off his great hair and signature grin.
I saw him in the quality WWII film Devotion, so I know he can do more, but this movie does his acting range no favors.
There is a scene where he’s wearing a white t-shirt in the rain — and it doesn’t even get particularly wet. Those waiting for a Great Plains version of Mr. Darcy’s clinging wet white shirt — from that other mid-1990s classic, the BBC’s Pride & Prejudice — will be sorely disappointed.
There’s not even a payoff of Tyler’s barely discernable romantic spark with Kate. Supposedly a closing kiss was filmed, only to be abandoned and reshot. But if the leading lady isn’t going to kiss the leading man, why cast a heartthrob like Powell? Might have well have gone for a more outrageous or offbeat character.
Tyler’s motley crew is diverse enough to look at, but they’re not given even half the personality that Hunt’s crew gets in the original. As my companion noted, “I just don’t care.”
But, People Seem to Like Twisters
Now, Twisters has done very well at the box office and reviews are generally positive. The special effects are quite good, and director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), raised in Arkansas, does justice to the look of Tornado Alley and its spectacular skies.
And, the film is refreshingly free of messages — political, environmental or otherwise — which came to the notice of the Wall Street Journal, in which the film critic noted:
Five years ago “Twisters” probably would have not only mentioned climate change but also included a speech or three about it and made a villain out of someone in the fossil-fuel business, like a nefarious fracker. The villain in today’s film is an opportunistic property developer. If anything, the story suggests it’s factors meant to combat climate change that pose unheralded dangers: The characters are nearly killed by the blades of a gigantic wind turbine that is ripped apart in a storm.
If I had never seen Twister, skillfully helmed by Jan de Bont, and didn’t have expectations, I might have enjoyed Twisters more, but it suffers in the comparison. There wasn’t even as well-written a description of the Fujita scale of storm intensity, as in the original:
I don’t know that fans, near 30 years hence, will be quoting lines from Twisters (my fave from Twister was one of Hunt’s: “He really is in love with himself. I thought it was just a summer thing.”).
The soundtrack has a lot of songs in it, none of which I can recall at the moment.
And Tyler’s pickup truck, which screws itself into the ground to hold it in place during tornadoes, so that fireworks can be shot into the funnel, isn’t nearly as cool as the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) from the TV show Storm Chasers (about which I wrote a lot back in the day).
Ironically, the TIV now looks a lot like a proto-Cybertruck, only actually useful.
My advice? Save your ticket money and rent/buy Twister. It’s on a bunch of sites, and can be streamed by Max subscribers. But, if you want to see a Twisters trailer, here you go …
Note to parents: The film is rated PG-13 (as was the original, and for about the same reasons), but there’s no violence not caused by storms, though many of those scenes are intense. There’s no sex (though there is some romantic kissing at the beginning), no nudity, and a bit of mild swearing here and there. There is no discernible faith content.
Image: Universal Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures
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