Twisters, the review: the manual of the good remake | Lega Nerd

If there is one thing that we have understood in recent years about film remakes (that is, that melting pot in which terms such as remake, reboot, requel and so on) is that what makes the difference in terms of success it is the ability of creatives to recover the meaning that those texts contained in the era in which they were conceived. Only when they are fully understood they can be retracted with good results, even in cases where they are distorted.

In the Twisters reviewat the cinema from July 17, 2024 with Warner Bros., we are talking about a film that falls into the above mentioned cauldron (successful operations side), being officially a “stand alone sequel” of Twister of 1996, although in the end it is more correct to indicate it as a real remake. Or better yet, like the manual of “how to make a good one remake“.

Il secret of success of the film directed by Lee Isaac Chung (passed from the authorial multiple nominee for the Oscars to the pain a The Mandalorian and now to a blockbuster vintage) lies precisely in its ability to recover the original material and put itself completely at its service and then adapt it to modern times, changing just enough to update it, without altering its spirit almost at all. The defects which fall within its sometimes too theoretical, almost scholastic, nature, while always remaining within the confines of functionality.

Kate loves tornadoes, even if she hates them a little too.

The astonished faces of those who see an open window.

As in the 1996 film, also in this case Twisters begins with an accident that irreversibly marks the main character, in this case the young Kate (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones), who in his pursuit of his beloved tornadoes suffers a serious loss which pushes her to retire to become a meteorologist. Again, the same profession that the protagonist of the film decides to undertake cult by Jan de Bont. Once the trigger is overcome, the film continues on tracks already laidputting Kate back on track through the appearance of an old acquaintance of hers from the days of passionate and dangerous research (or rather, hunting), bringing back in her that desire for scientific discovery and conquest.

Ours is in fact a “brilliant” young scientist who does what she does to be able to “read” the nature of these devastating and mysterious atmospheric phenomena. On his way but (in every sense) a sort of cowboy / influencer of the wind appears, the handsome Tyler Owens (with the sly face of Forget Powell), a sort of eminence in the bubble of fans of extreme adventures and tornadoes in particular. An adventurer with a colorful team at his command and a shy journalist who follows him to write his next article about him.

The meeting between the two will represent for both of them the most important meeting of their respective livessince the man will recognize in another human being a world to explore that is even more important than the one he has within himself, while the girl will find in the challenge thrown to her a way to come to terms with her past, with herself and with what she really wants. The next tornado which they will encounter will be the most important because they will face it together.

Knowledge is power

The choice to work meticulously on the fidelity to the original script allows not only to have a well-structured plot from the start on which to build a framework, but also to use the archetypes present in Twister to their liking, trying to renew its imagery and in the meantime conquer a segment of the public already fond of a certain type of cinema.

There are two different ways to chase tornadoes.

The tornado is presented not only in its function of representing Nature against Man, which has been a fixed idea for a certain high-budget entertainment cinema for a very long time, but also for its metaphorical function. Life itself, or at least the key moments of life itself, are tornadoes that must be faced, sometimes tamed and sometimes abandoned to them. The film is very explicit on this front, both in the dialogues and in the many scenes in which the characters find themselves reflecting on themselves and making crucial choices, while they are in the eye of the storm.

If there are any errors in the written part, they can be found in some moments of excessive captionespecially when you want to guide the viewer towards the changes that Twisters brings respect to the material from which it comes (the changes of strength between sexes and also between the tools that man uses to face internal and external challenges). Excellently transported into the 21st century instead the challenge between the human and the divine dimension.

Cinema & Entertainment

Not just the script, Twisters makes almost complete use of the visual and contextual recovery of the 90s atmosphere, the same one that allowed a certain type of “muscular” but domestic blockbuster (everything is in CGI obviously), to emerge creating an enormous appeal on the general public, creating a context around itself that over time has gradually been tested more and more through various other titles.

Chung was able to respect this linguistic universe, trying to reinvent it thanks to his sensitivity that for the uncontaminated spaces and the ability to give that retro flavour to his images. A welcoming flavour, like when he stages what seem like reunions between friends while in reality they are reunion a bunch of storm chasers, but also dramatic, as when he tells of the destruction left by the passage of tornadoes, an echo of those that the protagonist carries inside herself. This characteristic is fundamental to re-propose the imaginative power of the myth of the hero who not only defeats calamities, but accepts and understands them, through self-analysis and through science.

Unity is strength.

The production’s choice to avail itself of the work of the American author of South Korean origins lies precisely in his ability to work both with the intimate dimension (fundamental to the success of this film) and with the wilder and more evocative one. A quality on which he has focused a lot up to now in his career. Of course, in Twisters it is still quite tied in having to do so anyway sew a certain type of dresswhich focuses on spectacular cinema seasoned with a simple and direct human exploration. The film therefore lives a excellent balance between its entertainment side and its anthropological analysis side, as well as a staging that is nothing short of impressive.