Movie Review: Twisters
Movie Review: Twisters
Synopsis
After a devastating encounter with a tornado involving her team of storm chasers, Kate Cooper leaves the chasing life until her friend Javi brings her back into the game. She meets competitive Tyler Owens and his gang of chasers. Competing against each other, Kate and her new team work against the clock to gather as much data as they can about the tornadoes tearing through Oklahoma before the storm season ends. Along the way, Kate strives to use her skills as a meteorologist to save lives and property and discovers who’s in it for the money rather than helping people.
“You don’t face your fears, you ride ‘em” is my favorite quote from the movie. And yes, I got the picture quote wrong, but I realized that after creating it and didn’t want to redo it. You’d think it’d be a simple fix, right? Yeah, maybe for someone else, but for me, it takes a long time to make picture quotes and I didn’t want to spend more time on it. Hence, that’s why you always check first before finalizing a project. Anyway, back to the review.
Review
I saw Twisters in theaters because I heard that was how to watch it to get the full experience. I wasn't expecting much and thought it would be cheesy, but I was pleasantly surprised! I liked it a lot. The special effects were fantastic! I felt like I was there when the tornadoes struck.
I knew nothing about the movie other than it was about tornadoes. When the movie started, I tried to predict the storyline. I thought Kate’s Dorathy project was created to eliminate tornadoes once they’d struck before they could cause further damage to the land. I thought that her serum, once in the tornado, didn’t work as intended and caused the opposite, creating a much bigger tornado instead of destroying it. I then figured her scientific experiment, now in the atmosphere, would create an apocalypse of massive tornadoes striking without warning and with great force, causing mass destruction. I thought she’d spend the rest of the film trying desperately to undo her mistake. When I thought that was going to be the premise of the story, I thought, “Yep, I was right. This is going to be so lame.” But I was proved wrong and pleasantly surprised. There was more to it than that.
The film had character development and was not focused on a plot-driven story. I thought the storyline was well done and had good character arcs. The dialogue felt natural and realistic, and there were twists about some characters I didn't see coming and I appreciated that. Without giving anything away, there were also actions done by different characters that called back to earlier scenes and characters, a subtle full circle, and I loved that!
The aspect of a love interest wasn’t rushed. Friendship came first, mirroring a realistic relationship that could potentially blossom into romance between two people who share similar interests rather than something rushed and forced, which I also appreciated.
I’m thinking about doing a film critique once the film has been released on streaming services and DVD. I want to give the movie a second watch and dive deeper into my analysis of the storytelling aspect of this film. My review is rather vague because I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so my film critique would be more detailed with specific scenes and characters discussing why I liked what I did. Let me know in the comments if that’s something that would interest you.
Conclusion
As someone who hasn't experienced a tornado and the devastation, this film gave me a better understanding of nature's destruction and the trauma people experience from it. Not just because of the loss of property, but the loss of life. I felt like I was there in the tornado, and seeing the varying sizes of objects the winds picked up and tore apart made me remember how small we humans and our creations are. When nature wants to take charge, she does. While this film explores the horrors, it also explores the beauty of nature. I have also developed a deeper appreciation for meteorologists and the work they do. I encourage you to see Twisters in theaters to get the full experience!