PREMISE
A retired and traumatized tornado-chaser/meteorologist is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies.
THE GOOD STUFF
GLEN POWELL- Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, we already know the kind of stratospheric push Glenn Powell is currently getting. To some, this is unwarranted. If anything, this movie proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that Powell has the kind of movie star charisma and screen presence that other individuals who were pushed into the stratosphere (Taylor Kitsch, Taylor Lautner, Alex Pettyfer, for example) simply do not have. It takes more than good looks to command a tentpole.
Powell’s character doesn’t come into the movie right away, but when he does, the entire energy of the movie changes and becomes a lot more fun than it’s promised to be up until that point. When he’s on screen, the movie is a lot of fun, and when he’s not on screen, you just kind of want him there anyway.
THE ACTION (The good stuff)- I’m a guy who believes that all movies should be seen in movie theaters first before they go to home viewing. However, that is just me being a film geek. I can understand with some movies why somebody would choose to see them in the privacy of their own home. But not something like this. Something like a tornado should always be seen on the biggest screen imaginable and as loudly as humanly possible. It’s a shame that this is not in True IMAX. I saw this in a regular-ass theater, which was quite impressive on a standard formatted screen.
THE COUNTRYNESS- I can’t help but have great respect for how rural this film is. The director of this film, Lee Isaac Chung, is a South Korean man raised in Arkansas. His most famous film, Minari, was filmed in Oklahoma, and I couldn’t help but feel an oddly similar kind of aesthetic and atmospheric vibe with this movie. This also leans heavily on a country-western music soundtrack, and many of the characters tend to have some twang in their voices. And I greatly appreciate that.
Certain metropolitan cities (particularly London and New York) have been done to death in films, and it seems as if they’re the backdrop to every third movie. For a movie the size of TWISTERS, changing the backdrop to something unfamiliar certainly makes it fresher.
THE BAD STUFF
THIS CAST – It’s kind of hard to call whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I lean more towards the bad. Sure, kudos must be given to this film’s cast. However, something must be said for the abundance of wasted talent here.
Anthony Ramos is an actor who has been underutilized for almost everything he’s ever done, and this is no exception. You got the great Maura Tierney scene-stealing, as she always does with the handful of scenes she’s given to chew on, but at least they have something sizable to do. Looking further down on this cast list, you will be surprised by what you see. Names like Katy O’Brien and David Corenswet (the man cast as the brand-new Superman) show up and do nothing. The funny thing is I don’t know what this film could have done to include them other than to be random faces in the background who talk now and then.
THE ACTION (The bad stuff)- As nice as it is to see tornadoes on a big screen once again, it kind of dawned on me in the middle of this film that there’s only one real way to do action regarding a tornado. A tornado shows up, wrecks the f*** out of everything, and then either you escape, or it disappears on its own. I credit the film for trying to add little sprinkles to make the tornadoes even more terrifying, but there really isn’t much modification to do. There are a lot of action sequences in this film that look exactly the same, just in a different setting.
THE UGLY STUFF
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This is a good old popcorn-dumb movie that is fun. If this film is designed to be a one-off, then I would think that’s the best way to go about things. But because the Hollywood machine wants to make a franchise out of everything, it’s hard to imagine building any kind of universe around it.
The first twister movie was a massive hit and a quintessential ’90s action tentpole. But there’s a reason why it never became a franchise. It’s not that there was some rich tapestry of characters or storylines from the first film. It was designed to be a one-off, and this should be as well.
TWISTERS is in theaters on July 18th