Twisters Review

“There’s no tornado.” – Luckless a-hole soon-to-be victim of a tornado

I was probably sold on the notion of seeing this film as soon as I heard it was in production. Its predecessor, Twister, is a perennial favourite of mine. A film I watch on Blu-ray more often than I care to admit. In fact, I might as well just stand up and admit I love disaster/extreme weather effects movies. Be it Twister, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Into the Storm, Geostorm or films like Armageddon, Deep Impact and The Core, I love them all. Unhealthy? No, not really – I feel it’s a lot healthier and better from your mental health than sitting at home watching the endless cycle of politics and corruption the 24-hour news media thrives on. Have you seen reality lately? It’s awful.

Which leads me to why it’s important, no scratch that, it’s vital to keep cinemas going. Yes, we have the means to watch feature films at home, we can have large screens and surround sound systems that would’ve been unfeasible back when I was in my teens, but cinemas are the place where we can ideally watch a film uninterrupted by the constant pings and beeps of mobile devices demanding your attention because someone else has sent you yet another cat meme, or any other of the myriad distractions of daily life. Yes, I’m aware that there are those among us who consider themselves way too important to silence their devices to watch a film, but my cinema of choice (Cineworld) regularly patrol their screenings with ushers using night vision glasses. This makes for ideal conditions and I commend the staff and recommend the cinema.

The reason I’m mentioning all this is not to suddenly turn preachy, (heaven forbid) but because Twisters is a film that needs to be seen at the cinema – at least the first time. This is a film to be experienced on as large a screen as you can park your posterior in front of, with as awesome a sound system to put you in the middle of the action. And believe me, Cineworld’s sound system got a workout during the screening I attended, which was the first showing, a couple of days before the American release.

I’m not going into spoilers here, because it’s a movie about storm chasers and there are tornadoes – the script, I guess pretty much writes itself. The audience isn’t there to appreciate plot nuances or storytelling subtleties – we’re there for spectacle and spectacle is exactly what you get.

Structurally, it owes a good deal to the original Twister (1998) though it’s not a remake. More a loose sequel, with again, a slick, commercially financed high-tech team competing with a lower tech, self-financed bunch of renegades, but there are no continuing characters. The latest storm chasers are still using the Dorothy sensors that were introduced in the first film, but that tech is outdated, and there are new ideas on how to actually supress an active tornado. Whether this technique is actually feasible is not for me to say, I’m nobody’s idea of a scientist – but it sounds good.

The cast of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell pretty much fill the roles of Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton, and although he’s well established with roles in Hidden Figures and Top Gun: Maverick, I’m hoping this is a breakout role for Powell. I was struck with the notion that if Marvel Studios ever wanted to fill in the gap of what happened to Captain America/Steve Rogers after he went back in time to live his life at the end of Avengers: Endgame – they need look no further.

The real stars of the show though are the effects, and they are perfect. Both sound and visual.

This isn’t a movie that will win best actor, actress or film at the Oscars – but who cares? It’s the very essence of a big summer blockbuster where you leave your cares outside, walk into the foyer, check your ticket, take your seat and for a couple of hours you forget everything else, but the sheer thrill of what’s on the screen.

Enjoy the escapism.

Rob Rating = 9