Twisters has already won over audiences by beating expectations with $81.2M opening which is 60% ahead of the $50M+ projection. But is Twisters any better than the original?
Making a sequel/remake 30 years later isn’t a bold move as it became the trend in Hollywood (Beetlejuice 2, The Crow, Gladiator II…), but succeeding to make a film as good as the original is a pretty big challenge. Twisters follows the same narrative structure of the original but doesn’t hesitate to take risks by modifying the original story, making it its own with quite unique new characters whose personalities are reminiscent of the 1996 movie.
Twisters is far more realistic when it comes to tornados. From the sound design to the visual, the storms are more stressful and anxiety-inducing. The film almost leans into horror, especially in that shocking introduction. Twisters isn’t interested to showcase the family & friendly relationships, it's more intimate and focuses harder on the human & material losses from the disastrous tornados. They couldn’t have casted a better actress than Daisy Edgar-Jones to portray someone with a lot of compassion, remorse and guilt. As for him, Glen Powell commands the screen with his charisma and charm. A lot of people consider him to be the next big movie star like Tom Cruise, who actually came to the movie's premiere to support Glen.
Twisters is well adapted to our times with new cutting-edge military technologies for the tornados and YouTube with livestreaming, offering quite funny sequences with POV shots and also allowing for criticism of excessive fanaticism that leads to recklessness. The fans of the original film will enjoy the few references thrown in the film like Dorothy and the little flying spheres. To better capture the atmosphere and vibe of the first film, director Lee Isaac Chung decided to shoot the film on 35MM to capture the look of the '90s, which is recognizable with the colors and the film grain.
Surprisingly, Twisters is explicitly more pro-American than the original. The film glorifies rural American land and its tradition. It is also pretty baffling to make a disaster film about nature today without questioning human responsibility and climate change. That would have been an interesting path to delve in.
Although the tornadoes are much more realistic here, they are far from being as menacing as in the original where they almost acted as a villain with their terrific sound design. The original music was quite forgettable and they gave more space for the soundtrack. One of the strengths of the original was its score, which conveyed an incredible sense of adventure. It also excelled in its very human approach to a group of friends who feel like a family: everyone knows each other well, the meal at Aunt Meg's where everyone shares memories of the good old days as if they had lived their entire lives together like a real family. The cast’s chemistry is just unmatched, from Philip Seymour Hoffman having the best time of his life to the love triangle where you could feel Bill and Jo’s desire through the screen.
Twisters doesn’t have the charm & energy of the original, but manages to create its own identity with its solid cast (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, David Corenswet), intense action and different take on the 1996 disaster epic Twister. The movie cost $155M to produce (without marketing), a figure that has already been reached at the global box office.
Rating: 3.5/5
Twisters is now in theaters worldwide.
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