bass-player-blues

The original Twister is one of my favorite childhood movies so felt compelled to write a review on Twisters... I found comfort in it due to the nostalgia but overall it's just another disposable cash grab. I'd probably never want to watch it again which is the difference between classic blockbusters like Twister which I've seen so many times I can basically quote the entire movie lol.

To avoid being completely dismissal and negative, I'll start with the good:

Daisy Edgar Jones who plays Kate the main character reminds me a lot of a young Helen Hunt. Good casting choice.

Although Mark Mancina's original Twister score is masterclass, whoever composed the score for Twister's did a good job capturing it in a cookie cutter sorta way which pays respect.

Good scenic shots of the American countryside. Some of the distant vehicle shots of the stormchaser vehicles are done almost exactly like the original which was a nice throwback. I can tell the filmmakers actually put in effort to capture that.

Special FX. Overall the CGI for the storms and tornadoes looks very realistic.

The Bad:

Unilkeable/too many characters. What made the original so good is the characters were flawed, colorful and likeable. They also were more convincing as stormchasers well into their 30's, 40's and beyond. Twisters on the other hand instantly shoves a bunch of Gen Z twerps in your face who look like they could still be in HS yet we're expected to believe all of them are flawless meteorology experts on day one spewing out absurdly complex technical data? That's another issue; too much unnecessary explanation of scientific concepts in the attempt to make it more intellectually credible (even though most of it is hogwash). The original Twister hardly did that at all. They explained the purpose of the sensors for the audience but didn't have a drawn out scene where Bill and Joe go back to the drawing board.

Country music. Although some of the country music was a comforting throwback to the original for some reason they felt the need to have a country song in nearly every scene! Where's the rock music like Van Halen? EVH passed away shortly before this was made, would've been really cool if his son Wolfgang could've made a song or two for the film.

Lack of suspense/buildup. In the original they did a great job at building up suspense before and during the tornado sequences. Each tornado was effectively treated as a real villain. In Twisters the tornadoes for the most part basically just show up and often any suspense which could be created is ruined by attempts at comic relief from the "tornado wrangler".

There's much more bad but I'll leave it at that.

He has the audacity to think he has some grand vision of the wild west society needs to see and passes it off smugly as some sort of masterpiece but all he really does is sell out to morally bankrupt modern audiences Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones style (literally copying all the themes, music, and feel of those sort of shows). Don't get me wrong even though I'm not the biggest fan of either those shows are much better than this and not contradictory or hypocritical in their presentation like this is. They're just unashamedly despicable unlike shows such as 1883 that try to uphold a fake sense of moral high ground which is never actually present. Sheridan thinks it's so intelligent and "edgy" to constantly have all the characters dropping F-bombs left and right. Wow, how cheap. I bet if you actually lived in the late 1800's you could go an entire year without even hearing an angry drunk swearing like that. Sheridan also cheaply casts country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill to win over all the rednecks in America despite the fact they're both subpar actors at best. Nobody really likes Kevin Costner's country band or singing so why should I want to watch them act in the same vein? You also get plenty of barely audible grumbling by Sam Elliot in another cardboard portrayal because Sheridan is so smart and knows what America wants!

I feel like when Tarantino was pitching Kill Bill after the studio gave him way too much creative control and $$$ they were probably thinking "that sounds awful". Tarantino probably followed up with "Every single boy up to the age of 14 will think it's awesome because like Samurai swords n' stuff and every adult nerd who works at Gamestop or hobby stores will consider it the best movie of all time until the next fad happens 4 months later... The nerd who works at Gamestop will have his mom bring him AND his brother to the theater so think about how much $$$ that is if they all do that!"

Tarantino seems to be well known for his "retro 60's and 70's based artistic approach" but interesting how he's willing to throw all of that out the window and have the iconic theme of the movie be "current fad" 2000's techno music instead of hiring a composer to create something retro-based. Tarantino knows he doesn't have to bother with that as long as he picks all his favorite old songs to be featured and the studio is willing to fork out the royalties.