By - Ubong Ekpo
A Legacy Sequel/ Reboot Done the Right Way
Twisters is a legacy sequel to the original 1996 film, Twister starring the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. With 28 years passed between films, and no returning characters ( unless you want to count Dorothy) I still had hoped this film would live up to the spectacle of its predecessor and it did that and more. Twisters was better than I expected and it has the hallmarks of a reboot done the right way. With its three main leads, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, and Daisy Edgar Jones, Twisters shapes up to be a film full of earned emotional stakes and a spectacle that showcases the devastating impacts that tornados can have on communities.
Natural disaster movies like Twisters have a unique approach to their antagonist, as while there is no clear-cut “villain” besides the tornados themselves, which are inevitable forces of nature. Twisters managed to touch on the multitude of problems induced by Tornados in both technological and personal standpoints.
Glen Powell has been on a roll ever since his emergence in Top Gun: Maverick, starring in the surprise Rom Com Hit Anyone But You and the Netflix hit Hitman. In this role as Tyler Owens, a callback to the Jonas Miller character from the original film played by Cary Elwes, Powell exudes classic movie star charisma and charm as Owens. Tyler is a self-proclaimed “ Tornado Wrangler” with a major YouTube following, who is characterized at first as being self-absorbed and only concerned about gaining views, as his tactics for encountering Tornados are unconventional compared to the traditional Tornado specialist/chasers. Powell adds depth to this character as the film goes on and we learn he did go to college and studied Meteorology, he is much more than a flimsy YouTube star.
Daisy Edgar Jones is the clear-cut lead of this film, her character Kate Carter, modeled after Bill Paxton’s Bill Harding, experiences tragedy right in the opening scene, as we see her and her team, featuring Anthony Ramos as Javi, attempt to “tame” a tornado, only for it to be much stronger and deadlier than anticipated, leading to the demise of three crew members, including her boyfriend. The tragedy makes her leave Tornado chasing to work behind the scenes at a weather forecast station. I felt pain and guilt from Kate throughout the film, knowing she and Javi are the only survivors, and it was her idea to chase that fateful storm. Her arc goes through expected ups and downs as she struggles at first to re-enter the storm-chasing scene, only to triumphantly at the climax redeem herself.
Anthony Ramos is an actor I’ve been a huge fan of ever since I first saw him as Mars in the Netflix show “ She’s Gotta Have It’” an adaptation of Spike Lee’s first feature film. Having feature roles in Lin Manuel’s popular Broadway play Hamilton, the musical film In The Heights, and last year, Transformers: Rise of the Beast, Ramos is certainly on his way to being a notable movie star himself and in his role as Javi he delivers his comedic charm and shows caring chemistry with Kate. If Twisters is to be the start of a new franchise, I see a brewing love triangle between him and Tyler.
Twisters is the exact type of movie we need, taking a risk to reboot a franchise from nearly 30 years ago that people weren’t exactly clamoring for, but was still treated with the respect that the film artform deserves. Unlike other failed reboots, Twisters knows it’s not the original film, it does enough to pay homage to Twister, yet still lets the story and its characters stand out to be its own unique thing. When it comes down to it all however, the Box Office, for better or worse, tells the story of how the audience receives the film and it doesn’t disappoint, Twisters opened to a whopping $80.5 Million, nearly doubling its initial prognostications of $45-50 million, a major overperformance.
I implore everyone to keep giving films like this a chance, it may not necessarily be purely original, only time will tell if Hollywood will ever truly give original films a chance to be blockbuster hits again, but Twisters is surely a good sign that moviegoers do and are willing to take risk, if the film is properly made. Check out Twisters in movie theaters everywhere in the highest quality format possible!
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