Like Independence Day, and maybe The Blair Witch Project, Twister had the advantage of being a great opening night experience. It plays best with a packed house with your head swimming with the hype surrounding it. Seeing it on the biggest screen possible with the loudest sound system available, as a moviegoing experience, it’s hard to beat. As with the previously mentioned movies, when viewed at home on an average sized TV all by your lonesome, it’s rather underwhelming.
Bill Paxton is an ex-storm chaser who tracks down his wife (Helen Hunt) so she can finally sign the divorce papers. She’s in the midst of tracking a potentially historic tornado event, which means a swarm of twisters could be headed their way. Naturally, he gets sucked back into his old storm-chasing ways and they two eventually rekindle their romance while ducking high wind, hail, and killer tornados.
The story is paper thin, which makes sense since that’s the first thing that gets sucked up in the funnel cloud. On the big screen, the plot didn’t matter as it was the cinematic equivalent of a theme park ride. I hadn’t seen it in a long time, so I was surprised that the effects still hold up for the most part. The sound design is still great too. If you want to check out your new sound system this would be a great test reel. As a movie though, it leaves something to be desired.
The flaws are magnified on the small screen. If the plot is paper thin, the characters are translucent. Although I like many of the actors involved, I can’t say I gave one lick about the characters. It doesn’t help that the so called “Storm Chasers” are all annoying. Even Phillip Seymour Hoffman is grating. It doesn’t help that they all feel like a cross between roadies for a rock band and science geeks.
Also, there is zero chemistry between Paxton and Hunt. I guess this was the beginning of Paxton trying to be a leading man (at least in a big budget movie). Unfortunately, he left his charisma at home. It’s just further proof that he was at his best when playing wild-eyed supporting characters. Hunt is especially vanilla, although it’s not really her fault that all she really gets to do is squint in the distance and look at incoming funnel clouds.
I guess the filmmakers were afraid that making a tornado a villain wasn’t enough, so there’s also a gratuitous human villain. Cary Elwes plays a rival storm chaser with corporate sponsorship who piggybacks on the heroes’ tornado hunt hoping to hog the glory. That wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t just playing a slight variation on the evil redneck character he played in Days of Thunder.
If you get a chance to catch it in a theater, by all means do so. Seeing it at home is about only half as much fun. Still, if you want to see a cow fly....
Theatrical Experience: *** ½. Home Viewing Experience: **. AVG: ** ½.
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