Twisters (2024) What a difference 28 years makes......the amount of time elapsed between this current summer blockbuster and its predecessor "Twister", released in 1996.
The original, produced by Steven Spielberg and conceived and co-written by bestselling author Michael Chrichton, took the time to build a believable backstory filled with memorable characters. So even amid the spectacle of CGI-generated tornados, audiences became invested in the fates of the storm chasers well played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. And the quirky, supporting cast backing them up got their individual moments to shine as well (a young Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jamie Gertz, Alan Ruck and grand old film veteran Lois Smith, whose credits date back to "East Of Eden".
And that kind of character building is what's sorely lacking in "Twisters", which strictly follows today's template of the typical Summer Blockbuster.......stripped down to nothing but non-stop, machine-tooled wham-bams, one cataclysmic tornado after another, each wreaking escalating amounts of colossal destruction.
Character? Story? A few paltry shreds in evidence, but brother, you came to the wrong film if you're looking for anything else other than gazing slack-jawed at the mighty winds of Industrial Light & Magic, blowing people and houses to Kingdom Come.
Just sit back in your reclining multiplex chair, chomp on your popcorn as cars, trucks, and various unlucky humans swirl through the air as they ascend to the Land Of Oz.....(or more likely, finally splatter like water balloons when gravity sends 'em back to earth. )
The only true fascinating credit here is having the film directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the film festival artiste of 'Minari'. But not to worry, you won't spot any pretentious, indie-film, culture-vulture, mumblecore tropes in the proceedings,The film's so mechanical and methodical in its delivery of razzle-dazzle, it might as well have been directed by an air traffic controller or NFL referees.
The generic leads here are Daisy Edgar-Jones (of "Where The Crawdads Sing" and Glen Powell (of every other movie this year). Powell's proven (in the Netflix 'Hitman') that he's got genuine acting chops, but if he does enough of these preening, snarky wiseguy roles in bloated Hollywood tentpoles, he'll find audiences start to tire of him in a hurry.....(just ask Chris Pratt and Ryan Reynolds).
By the way, if anyone's interested, the technology on display here is wishful sci-fi thinking, at least for now. (Edgar-Jones' plan to weaken tornados by feeding them a special chemical concoction. ) But it does make for a truly.....uh.... mind blowing (along with everything else) finale.
As a mindless, soulless, Dollby Atmos ear pounding, popcorn muncher, "Twisters" does indeed achieve the low bar of its goals. For those fine with that, 3 stars (***). But anyone hoping for a real fun crowd pleaser like the original 'Twister',.......sorry. They just don't make 'em like that anymore........
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