Before the lights dimmed in the cinema for the latest Hollywood blockbuster Twisters, a sequel to the 1996 film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, a friend and I chatted about how bizarre it was to get a follow up film 28 years after the original.
After the lights dimmed a trailer came on for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the upcoming Tim Burton film that follows on from his breakthrough film from 36 years ago. That will equal the gap between Top Gun and its sequel, but they’ve got nothing on Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns (54 years).
As Peter Allen proclaimed, “Everything old is new again.” So here we are with Twisters, with no returning stars, except the force of nature central to the film’s premise.
The film follows scientist Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who after a devastating encounter with a tornado has settled into a new life working at the weather channel in New York City. She enticed back to the American mid-west by her former colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) who has now got access to newfangled radar equipment that will allow an even greater understanding of the destructive weather phenomena.
Reluctantly she agrees to help his team for just a week, sharing her unique gift for understanding weather patterns through a combination of reading the data and looking around her and interpreting the elements. Kate can see signs in the clouds, sense the change of wind over a field of barley, or subtly interpret the way the florets of a dandelion fall in the breeze.
The original Twister film saw Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton lead a ragtag bunch of crazy characters on their hunt for tornadoes, while Cary Elwes led a competing team of corporate clones.
This time round Kate and Javi are the slick scientific team with all the gear, and their important work is interrupted by Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) who leads a ragtag bunch of yahoos who appear to be more interested making YouTube videos and creating Jack-Ass style stunts for their audience.
At first Kate finds the brash attention seeking Tyler annoying and frustrating but like in all the classics – opposites attract.
Unlike the original film which saw the really big twister come right at the end, this story has destructive tornadoes at every turn.
Filled with action packed sequences, the convoys of cars speeding across the landscape and buildings being blown away like their made of plywood come thick and fast.
While the film is a lot of fun, you can’t help but feel that you’re watching a movie that you’ve seen before. Unless of course you’ve never seen the original 1996 film – if that’s you, you’ll probably have your socks blown off.
You also can’t help but wonder how long the producers hoped Helen Hunt would sign on to appear in a cameo. She doesn’t, but you can clearly see where she might have entered the action.
Twisters is everything you’d expect it to be, big actions scenes, huge effects, big characters and simmering romance between two people who at first think they’re polar opposites.
Twisters arrives in cinemas today.
