Twisters (2024) Movie Review

Image Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12584954/

Did I like this movie?

No, not really.

Being more verbose about it, well, it’s complicated. There were aspects of the movie that I liked but there were more aspects that I didn’t like. There were places where I thought the movie did plot and character very well (if overdone in places — people became caricatures or stereotypes far more often than I would have liked), but there were other places where I found the story and characters derivative, almost to the point of tropes/trope status.

The Good

To be fair, I have to admit that the actors did a wonderful job in their roles. I didn’t really have any issues with the actors. This seems to be a modern issue with films — the actors do a great job with the material that they are given. The problem is the material and/or director’s /editor’s choices (or, less charitably, studio involvement/interference). As a writer on the outside looking in, it is really easy to second guess the choices made in the film, but when I find myself constantly praising the actors, but not the movie as a whole, Hollywood should probably take notice, especially when low Box Office numbers continue to follow new releases (although it seems the Summer of 2025 might be the first to shake off the Box Office doldrums, but I digress, I’m talking about a 2024 movie here).

The Bad

The script. Usually, here I note how nonsensical the script is in terms of plot (or characterization), but not so. Here, the script is one-note, as in I’ve seen this story before already, multiple times. Girl has some sort of issue and runs away from that life, one guy tries to get her back to old self, a “new guy” comes to town, the two guys vie for her affection, one guy is nerdy and a friend, but has “shady” dealings/past. The other guy is wild and kooky and fun (wow, I wonder who she’s going to pick for her love interest — it’s such a mystery . She’s going to get told that she needs to get back on that “bucking bronco” before she loses herself (and/or her gift). True story, in this movie the main character is told she needs to get back on that metaphorical “bronco” before she loses herself (or lines to that effect) by the wild and kooky (and fun) love interest. She then gets back to doing what she loves.

And at the end of the movie, the nerdy friend has to tell the suddenly to “go get the girl.” (I so wish WordPress had a TRUE spoilers tag).

I hate to be that guy, complaining about having seen this before, but it’s true. I’ve seen it in Shadow and Bone (Netflix), Tomb Raider video game (Shadow of the Tomb Raider), I’ve seen it in Horizon Forbidden West (elements), and I’ve seen it in Hunger Games (again, elements). I could probably continue if I racked my brain (elements in The Battle of Five Armies), but at this point I have to argue that this is beyond “Plot Points” and has moved into the formulaic.

The Ugly

But beyond that, I don’t like how this one really tries to push me away as an audience member. In Twister, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt pull me into the story and make me want to care, even thought I’m not a tornado hunter and hope never to be one. However, the “idea” of being a Tornado Chaser is something that the movie clearly has a LOVE for, where Twisters seems to actively hate the storms and make them out to be monsters (yes, there was an element of that in the original movie, but based on love and grief). This one (again, uncharitably) wants to monsterize the storms (the beginning and ending tornados), the people (greedy corporations want to take good ideals and turn them into exploitation), the characters (only rebels — YouTubers and their followers are the “good” guys, mavericks without a cause). This movie is trying so hard to be Top Gun Twisters: Maverick so hard that it can’t even allow it’s main actor to do anything other than take the Tom Cruise role from the other movie, YouTuber it a bit, and bing, bang, boom, “Bob’s your uncle, we print money!” .

From a (current as of this blog post), a 6.5/10 and a Google rating of 3.5, audiences seemed to like this okay. I did not. This one seemed to actively push me away and say, “hey, we’re only looking for the Country Music YouTuber Millenial and Gen Z crowd. Everyone else, need not apply.”

Unfortunately, I can’t help but think of the line from Twister said by both Jo and Bill “Cow. Another Cow.” “Actually, I think that was the same one.” I’m sure the studio was thinking “cash cow” or “franchise,” but I didn’t really get on with this movie despite the good work from the actors.

Star Rating

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

If I had to score this, I would give it a C- (D+ if I investigated all the Top Gun Maverick”isms” that the movie tries to reference.) It was competently made, but much like Alien Romulus, “franchise” over “story” is NOT a recipe for success in my book. Add in the fact that this “story” is beginning to veer into the formulaic, and I just can’t say that it was as good as I thought it would be based on the hype/or hoped it would be based on the movie that it was supposed to be a sequel/reboot to. The original is FAR superior to this one AND has the added benefit of actually inviting me in to be a part of the experience instead of pushing me away and marginalizing me off to the side.

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