Movie Review # 683: Twister (1996)

And now, in honor of new Twister sequel, Twisters, getting released recently, we review its predecessor, the one, and only, Twister!

Plot: Years after a tragic family incident involving a tornado in Oklahoma, Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) decides to become a meteorologist who is obsessed with tornadoes at this point. She figures out some devices that could potentially warn of weather patterns in advance before tornadoes occur. Will her invention work, or will it turn out that tornadoes truly will remain unpredictable?

Okay, first of all, I’m going to say that it’s been years since I had last seen this original Twister film. Quite honestly, had it not been for the newer sequel getting released as of recently, I’m not sure when I would have gotten around to rewatching this film again. You got me! Watching this film again many, many years later, though I had remembered some of it, I will also admit that I had also forgotten a lot of the movie as well. Well, also, after watching it again for the first time in a long while, I’m just going to say that the score is really great. I was surprised to hear that Mark Mancina composed the score for this film. Wow, he does just as great of a job here, if not better than when he worked on more family-oriented films like Tarzan, Brother Bear, Moana, and films like those. Truth be told, the areas where his score truly shines are during scenes that involve people driving, or when there are dangerous action scenes occurring. Additionally, for the acting, we have Helen Hunt, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, and, of course, the late Bill Paxton included in this cast. I will say that I was surprised to forget about Cary Elwes being in this film, and to play the role that he did in this film. Anyway, the action is also really intense. Well, since this is an action, as well as what is also considered a disaster film, that’s likely to be expected, wouldn’t you say? In addition to all of this, the way that the story is structured is surprisingly very creative. I mean yes, one should expect even an action film, or a disaster one to be creative to one degree, or another, that’s for sure. Still, Twister ends up being very creative with how the story is set up, how resolutions to problems are solved in this film, how characters are handled, you name it. The characters are also very well-written as well, especially the main ones, and a character who may as well be a borderline between a downright jerk, and villain. Some of them served as proof that it’s life for people to be complicated. This leads to another beneficial aspect of this film, the relationships, and how they are handled. Let me tell you, the relationships are well handled, even when some of them, let’s just say, go through rough patches. Finally, as far as positives go, Twister provides some excellent lessons in how people are complicated, not everyone is always honest with themselves how about their feelings of people, or situations overall, letting go of the past, especially the tragedies of your past, is really important, learning to appreciate those things which are good, and pure in your life rather than dwelling on what goes wrong, or on what you don’t have in life, and lessons like those.

But are there any negatives? Well, the one thing is that there are one, or two scenes where the language was a little coarse. Thankfully, nothing that made this film like it should have been given an R-rating, or anything like that. Still, there’s no denying that those couple scenes were definitely unnecessary. The other thing is that there were a couple conflicts, and situations that probably could have been handled a little better.

And that’s my review for Twister. It is a very creative film, and a really good one. It has characters that stand out well, a really good score, some exciting, and tense moments that will undoubtedly keep you on the edge of your seat. Not to mention some of the lessons that can be taken from this film. If you haven’t seen Twister, then make it a point to, whether you plan to also see the recent stand alone sequel, or not. Maybe you’ll find additional things to like about it than I did, but that’s up for you to decide. Anyway, yes, see this film, and see what you think!

Final Grade: A-