Review of Twister

Introduction

There are lots of tornadoes (Twisters). They are very dangerous. We need to know more about them by placing sensors inside the tornadoes. We need to put the sensors in their path and then escape.

And if you can follow that, the film will be a breeze! This really was a mere excuse to put some mind-blowing special effects onto a screen in front of you and stick storms in your speakers to aurally assault you with. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt make likeable leads and the chemistry between them is good. The characters however are rather one-dimensional… but this isn’t what this film is about anyway. Its about Twisters – they’re big, they look ominous and they sound loud!

Video

When going to make a film that relies so heavily on special effects, the film print isn’t something you want to skimp on. This DVD comes from a very good transfer of the film, and, even though the film is fairly new, there has been a lot of care and attention paid to getting the detail right on the DVD. The picture is clean and clear, the brown and grey swirling mass of twister cloud comes across as extremely detailed. Colours are well represented; the murky greys, greens and oranges of the sky are picked up really well and have a wonderfully subtle colour about them. Shadow detail is fine. This is a very easy picture to watch.

Audio

In a word, excellent! A reference disk and one to show off your home cinema system for many years, this is still a difficult one to beat. The film opens up just before the onset of a twister in the late 60s. This really gives you a taste of what is to come, and the whole film will really test the dynamic range of your system, as all speakers get a thorough workout. The shriek of the wind from the first twister shown is almost unbearable. Speech is extremely well represented throughout; during this first scene, you never miss a word of dialogue or intonation from any of the characters. The range of bass notes on show is also very impressive. Each twister that passes is larger than the last, and the bass gets deeper, more gutteral, and a lot more sinister.

Features

Nothing much really. A trailer and some cast & crew biogs. The trailer is very effective, although I do wish it had been recorded in Dolby Digital also – it is what the film deserves after all.

Conclusion

This is a very enjoyable no-brainer film. The plot is wafer thin, there is a good chemistry between the characters, but they are vaguely sketched out. However this isn’t what the film is about, and Jan De Bont knew it. CGI was hitting the big time in the mid-90s and directors with money wanted to see what it had to offer. De Bont gave us a very thrilling ride here showing jaw dropping special effects and a wonderfully exhilarating soundtrack.

And this is really the reference film of this new type of genre, i.e. zero plot but great effects. There have been many that have tried to take its crown, and ultimately all of them have failed. I am generally not a fan of these types of movies; we all know what CGI studios can do these days, and with an ounce more imagination these can be incorporated into a very good story. Notable examples of this are Dark City, Final Destination, The Green Mile, Gladiator, The Matrix, anything from Pixar Studios (Bugs Life, Toy Story (1&2) etc). However there are too many Gozillas and Independence Days whereby the total lack of characterisation of any of the players leads to annoyance rather than enjoyment. This ultimately spoils the rest of the film and the effects then seem dour. It can be done very well, and Twister was an example of this, however I believe the success of Twister has led to many dull and lifeless films of the past few years where studios can churn out product with limited plot and story – but if they’ve got their “CGI finale”, then it somehow is going to make it good. This is the one film that defies the “all gloss and no product” branding.