Rating – ***1/2 (3/5)
A disaster film sequel coming out three decades later is about the disaster in question – almost too much. That does sound perplexing but there’s a rhyme and reason to the proceedings taking place and hell breaking loose in Twisters – the new one starring Glen Powell, who is almost everywhere these days, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos in lead roles. It’s fascinating to think of a film about tornados that just keeps flipping around so much that it becomes like the things that are sucked into a tornado – taking itself too seriously. Not that it is a bad thing but it certainly pirouettes way too often with a disaster that needs to be tamed and a cliched love triangle that keeps getting more and more awkward.
There’s plenty to applaud in the film though – the sound design and VFX crew deserve special applause for making this world of rapid tornados believable to an extent where you’re at the edge of the seat clenching your jaws, squinting your eyes and lanking your posture hoping it doesn’t kill too many or suck in like a magnet. I mean how else can a disaster film even work if the disaster shown is not done effectively? Hence, the team associated with the visual effects, action choreography, cinematography and impeccable sound design deserve all the credit for understanding the assignment and doing their job excellently. That cannot be quite said about the writing team, who never let the disaster part take over the emotional core and end up working with cliches, teenage-styled budding romance, and even grief.
Thankfully, the actors try to instil genuineness and make you actually care about their arcs. Powell continues to look like a drool-worthy handsome man who also can be vulnerable, Edgar-Jones spearheads the project with the right amount of young energy and maturity when the timeline moves ahead, and Ramos – he has the weirdest and most awkward scenes to do but he does well too.
Twisters occasionally throw in those alien jargon and terminologies to make things sound more legitimate but instead of being a campy disaster drama, the grimness of the subject matter takes over thus pushing you into the territory of the logistics. Never entirely helpful for disaster films.
Despite this, Twisters is a rather fun and engaging time at the movies, and hey, who knows, the childlike treatment of a triangular romance might just hit a chord more than other things.
Apart from Lee Isaac Chung, the one credit that popped up and caught my attention was that Steven Spielberg executive produced it – that shows the technical excellence at display. Not that you wouldn’t want to stay away from tornados anyway but after watching Twisters, you will want to be away from even the thought of it courtesy of the usage of the word ‘tornado’ umpteen times in the film and even a constantly devastating visual that keeps sucking in and you are just absolutely helpless. You can/can’t tame the tornado – for you to decide.