Those pesky cyclones of destruction return for Lee Isaac Chung’s sequel-in-spirit Twisters. An indirect followup to the ‘90s fan-favorite disaster flick, we find a new generation of tornado chasers with Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos on the hunt to tame the most destructive force on the planet. On 4K UHD Twisters wins with an excellent Dolby Vision / Atmos combo and plenty of extra features.
If Hollywood loves to do one thing it’s make the same movie again with twice the budget. If there’s a thing most sequels lack it is originality. It’s easier to play it safe, do a version of the same thing again, shell out a gargantuan amount of cash, and hope audiences go for it. They do that because most often it works… unless they turn it into a jukebox musical. Now with Jan de Bont’s Twister, the film was a modest albeit not HUGE hit at the box office. It made money, but the film also wrapped things up well enough that a sequel wasn’t altogether needed or necessary. Attempts were made, but indy-darling Lee Isaac Chung got Twisters to the big screen without any returning original characters. In our sort-of pseudo-sequel, we have intrepid would-be tornado-tamer Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) living in New York. Years earlier she was part of a team of chasers with the dream of being able to stop a tornado, but tragedy destroyed their group. Now fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) turns up with new tech and an opportunity for redemption if Kate comes back to Oklahoma. But the chasing game has changed. On the scene are any number of amateur storm chasers including the YouTube famous Tornado Wrangler Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) ready to chase down the biggest twisters.
It’s weird to think of Twister as a franchise now, but it is. A long time coming, there were several attempts over the last 28 years to get a new film up the funnel. As he effectively edged into writing and directing, Bill Paxton had his own idea based on the notorious 1925 tri-state tornado that killed nearly 700 people. The plot would have been similar to this sequel where Paxton would be back behind the wheel of the red Dodge Ram with a space-aged material designed to stop tornadoes. But that pitch sadly didn’t get far before his untimely death. Then as of a few years ago Helen Hunt had her own plan to write and direct a sequel – but I’m not entirely sure of the plot, but obviously that didn’t get picked up. And now we have this spiritual sequel from director Lee Isaac Chung and writers Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski (Maverick). I call this a spiritual sequel because it doesn’t pick up where the last one left off. It doesn’t feature any of the original characters, but this one doesn’t entirely ignore the first film either. During the very exciting opening sequence, we see a “field-tested” Dorthy 5 hooked up to Kate’s barrels of absorbent polymer to get important data. And that’s all the acknowledgment this film offers of the original. Unlike so damn many recent legacy sequels, this one isn’t saturated with constant callbacks or nostalgia bombs. It’s certainly not entirely original, but it wisely doesn’t try to do the exact same plot twice. I mean both films are about people trying to give tornados a scientific instrument suppository, but how they achieve that mission is very different.
Best of all, it’s just as cornball, it’s just as silly, and just as much fun as the first. What I really enjoyed about Twisters was how it ramped up the amount of death and property destruction. Each tornado gets bigger and more deadly with people caught in the path and sucked up to meet their makers. With the big budget and advancements in visual effects, they could afford to do more destructive chaos right through to a thrilling climax at a small-town movie theater. That said, what holds this one back is we’ve seen CGI tornadoes before. There’s already a sense of familiarity going into this film and even with bigger more deadly and more flammable tornadoes, Twisters just can’t quite muster up the same sense of dread and primal terror of the 1996 original. To be fair, this film has its share of great and memorable sequences, the best hits a rodeo (with a cameo from Bill Paxton’s son). Also working in this film’s favor is it avoids trying to ape the romance/drama of the Paxton/Hunt dynamic. There’s an obvious chemistry between Powell and Edgar-Jones, but this film wisely avoids going down that road again. However I personally found it more interesting regarding the plot.
So sure, not an incredible film, not as great as the first, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was great seeing this on IMAX with my fiancée, who actually was more excited to see it than me. And while I enjoyed the hell out of Twisters in the theater, it’s just as much fun at home with my 4K screen and Atmos rig. The action is big and loud. The characters are colorful and fun. The titular cyclones are plenty windy and destructive. About all you need for a tornado flick.
PICTURE
Smashing onto 4K disc, Twisters devours 2160p with an excellent Dolby Vision transfer. From frame one all the way through to the end, this is a crisp, clean, detailed image. Shot on 35mm and finished with a 4K Digital Intermediate, the image maintains a film-like appearance with a naturally cinematic grain structure. Fine lines, facial features, and production design details are razor-sharp. I was really impressed with how well the CGI effects appear here. Time and technology have worked in this sequel’s favor for creating some big-scale tornado destruction. A lot of effort was used to combine practical effects with digital counterparts so a lot of the time the big wow moments have true weight to them. A few pieces here and there can look a tad cartoonish – Powell running from the disabled tram car always looked janky and still does on disc. The rest of the time the film looks great. Colors are right where they need to be, big bold with great saturation. Thanks to Dolby Vision those reds, blues, and yellows really pop nicely. Whites are well-balanced against the dark ominous shadows. Again that rodeo sequence is a highlight moment that hits all those marks. All around a damn near-perfect transfer.
SOUND
On the audio front, Universal delivers a rousing wall-to-wall Atmos mix to match their impressive Dolby Vision transfer. I mean, it’s a disaster movie with massive tornados, it’d be a huge failing on Universal’s part to crap the bed here. I really enjoyed the mix for this one because it really played with the creepy silence that happens during a big storm where you think everything is going to be fine before all hell breaks loose. And when hell comes it hits on all channels. Shipping wind effects beautifully circulate throughout the soundscape rising upwards into the heights. Heights are thankfully not only reserved for wind or rain, any time a hapless NPC gets sucked up their screams fly into the heights. Likewise, the bursts of fireworks are a fun highlight. Dialog isn’t lost, but like any disaster movie, we’re not here for the quality of the flowery speeches, we want to enjoy the chaos on screen rattling our walls, ceilings, and floorboards! The big El Reno finale delivers all of that. As each tornado escalates in intensity, so does the mix. By the end, the LFE is rattling away while the front/center, side, rear, and height channels do their work. Crank the volume and let ‘er rip!
SPECIAL FEATURES
What’s particularly nice to see is Universal didn’t skimp on the extra features. You get a great director’s commentary track, some fun gag reels, some deleted scenes, and plenty of featurettes to gnaw through once the main feature is done. The commentary is probably the most informative piece you can enjoy if you’re really into “how it was done, what it took to do this, yadda yadda” but the featurettes are still enjoyable even if they lean a little more EPK fodder. The Deleted Scenes aren’t all that extensive and feel likewise pacing cuts rather than missing subplots or character development. Bonus features are on both discs.
FINAL WORD
I went to the theater for big tornado destruction fun and got exactly what I wanted. It helps that Lee Isaac Chung, the writers, and the solid cast actually made a solid pseudo-sequel to the 1996 original. It might not be better (but it’s more interesting), but it thankfully doesn’t repeat itself or saturate it with numbing nostalgia callbacks. Twisters has its own wildly entertaining fun to have on the big screen letting it stand alongside the original without feeling like a complete repeat. On 4K UHD, Twisters storms (pun intended) onto disc with an excellent Dolby Vision transfer with a fantastic Atmos mix to match. Tag in about an hour of genuinely interesting extra features on top of a commentary track and you’ve got a damn good home release. Highly Recommended!
Film ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Picture ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Extras ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(out of five stars)