Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari was a marvel – a moving, effortlessly graceful portrait of a Korean family searching for the American dream in rural Arkansas based on his own childhood. The director was on the verge of giving up on his dreams of filmmaking when his soaring autobiographical fourth feature took off, racking up critical acclaim, six Oscar nominations and even a Little White Lies cover. In the grand tradition of Hollywood, Chung was then handed the keys to a blockbuster property – a planned sequel to 1996’s Twister, which starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as starcrossed tornado-chasing lovers in the heart of the USA’s Tornado Alley.
Such a project might seem a little left field for Chung – though Arkansas is neighbours with Oklahoma, the state with the highest number of strong tornadoes per unit area, and possesses the same expanses of golden wheatfields and lush grasslands that gave Minari its fresh (in the literal sense) identity. One of the most poignant elements of Minari was how the local community welcomed the Yi family, helping them to build a new life amid cultural differences and familial hardship. This transfers across to Twisters, where there is some emphasis placed on how tornados physically devastate the population, with poorer communities bearing the brunt of the damage. There are glimmers of this community-minded storyline within the film, but they are ultimately overwhelmed by a less interesting main plot which sees screenwriter Mark L. Smith rehash various tropes from Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin’s initial script while attempting to add some vague socio-economical commentary.
Once again the central character is a plucky young female meteorologist, this time Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar Jones) who – just like Helen Hunt’s Jo Harding – witnessed the death of someone close to her during a category five tornado. The opening of Twisters is a little underwhelming compared to the literal barnstorming of the original, as Cooper sees her boyfriends and two of her storm-chasing colleagues swept off while trying to deploy her potentially game-changing “tornado tamer” machine that aims to absorb the moisture in a tornado, effecting cutting its fuel source. Crushed by guilt, Cooper trades storm chasing for a safe, stable job predicting the weather in New York City – until her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) rocks up five years later and asks her to come back to Oklaholma to help his company out with a tornado scanning gig.
Positioned against Javi and his vanload of polo-clad scientists are social media sensation Tyler Owens and his vanload of storm-chasing maniacs, whose approach to tornados favours fireworks, flares and drones over radar and scans. Cooper is predictably dismissive and po-faced, assuming Tyler and his team are a bunch of thrill-seeking know-nothings putting themselves and others in danger for that sweet live-streaming ad revenue. Owens doesn’t exactly deny this, but he’s a qualified meteorologist too – and a former bull rider, adding to his almost comical levels of machismo. Powell, a student of Tom Cruise so dedicated that big TC turned up to support him at the Twisters premiere, already seems to completely recognise the power of a personal brand. He’s charming as ever with his perfect smile and carefully applied cockiness, seemingly unflappable even in the face of certain danger, stealing the show without even breaking a sweat.
It doesn’t help that retired rodeo Owens is a more intriguing character than Cooper, who lacks the wild streak of Jo Harding, more serious and subdued. Her motivation being identical to her predecessor doesn’t help matters, nor does the mysterious positioning of her as having a mystical “gift” for weather almost as silly as Karen’s in Mean Girls. Similarly, Javi – a Miami native who joined the military before returning to storm-chasing and now sees his personal mission to help better understand tornados at odds with the real estate vultures who give him his funding – offers more in the way of narrative interest, and Owens’ wacky crew (played by the pretty stellar and completely underutilised line-up of Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Katy O’Brian and Tunde Adebimpe) barely get a look-in beyond a few snarky one-liners.
Perhaps this seems miserly – who comes to a disaster movie for the character work? But in Twister – still only a fairly middling film about a science experiment – the chemistry between Hunt and Paxton, along with the history between their characters, gave the film a solid anchor. That emotional core is missing in Twisters, even with a few stabs at highlighting the human cost of America’s inadequate tornado warning and damage mitigation systems.
Where that film had a memorable incident involving a cow, Twisters has…chickens. There is one late-stage set piece which is quite impressive, but the much-feted “We got twins!” moment highlighted in the trailer is ultimately underwhelming, and even with the leaps in CGI since the 90s, the simulated tornadoes pale in comparison to footage readily available on YouTube.
In Twisters, Powell’s character refers dreamily to the fact that scientists still don’t fully understand tornadoes. They’re unpredictable and untamable – both Twister and Twisters have been about brave, foolhardy attempts to lessen their horrifying impact on human life. In Minari, the relationship between nature and humanity was similarly fraught, as the Yi family attempted to make a living off the land in the face of culture clash and harsh nature (a fire devastates their farm in a heartbreaking moment). But at the end of Minari, when Jacob and David go to harvest the minari plants that Grandma Soon-ja planted months before, it’s a poignant reminder of how land connects us to the past. While Twisters gestures at this, and the stakes seem undeniably more dramatic, the strokes are broader and the impact lessened. It’s a bigger, louder film in every sense, but Lee Isaac Chung never needed all that bluster.
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ANTICIPATION.
Adored Minari, sceptical about a sequel to a pretty mid 90s movie. 3
ENJOYMENT.
Has its moments, but mostly a load of hot air. 3
IN RETROSPECT.
More of a light drizzle than a storm. 2
Directed by
Lee Isaac Chung
Starring
Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
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