2024-08-17
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When the new summer movies are trying to try new tricks, the American science fiction disaster film "Twister" is already a bit out of place in terms of subject matter. To discuss this film, we have to mention its predecessor - the classic movie of the same name released in 1996.
For the 1996 version of Twister, it was a popular film that could compete with another alien sci-fi disaster movie, Independence Day, for the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Since Spielberg, the original director of the 1996 version of Twister, was busy preparing for Jurassic Park 2, he became the producer; and Jan de Bont, the director of Speed, was responsible for the filming, and the special effects team Industrial Light & Magic of Star Wars was used. Such a luxurious lineup joined forces and applied CG special effects to disaster film images for the first time. Such realistic destructive power and vivid soundtracks set a benchmark for the disaster film industry at the time, and it became the runner-up in the box office that year. Even in 2017, when Bill Paxton, the male protagonist of the 1996 version of Twister, passed away, storm chasers across the United States spontaneously organized to spell out his initials on the map using GPS positioning to commemorate his contribution to the industry.
In comparison, the 2024 version is mediocre in both its cast and box office. Although the special effects have improved a lot compared to the original version, it still falls into a similar dilemma as "Avatar 2": on the one hand, the audience is more knowledgeable and has improved their taste, and on the other hand, the special effects technology has reached a bottleneck and it is difficult to make a major breakthrough. It is almost impossible to amaze the public with special effects alone.
The new version of "Twister" pays tribute to the 1996 version in many ways, the most obvious of which is the scene where people hide in the theater when the last super tornado hits: the panicked crowd and the apocalyptic reality form an intertextual relationship with the scenes on the screen. Perhaps because love is as sudden and destructive as a tornado, both "Twister" movies are mixed with love elements, and both regard facing the tornado as a way to cure post-traumatic stress disorder - the pain experienced is like a tornado sweeping everything away, and the only way out of the shadow is to face it bravely. However, although the new version retains the two metaphors designed for the tornado in the original version, the real highlight is the parts that have been drastically adapted.
Comparing the two scripts, the biggest difference lies in the shaping of the heroine: the 1996 version still falls into the rut of taking the hero as the core of the narrative. Its main love storyline is a triangle relationship that unfolds because the hero has a new love. The plot depends on the hero's sudden awakening and decision-making. The two female characters appear as vassals of his personal emotions. If the focus is on the heroine's perspective, the metaphor of "the shadow of the tornado" should belong only to the heroine. She witnessed her father being swept away by a tornado in her childhood, and since then she has set the goal of exploring tornadoes. Conquering the tornado is a comfort to her father and a treatment for her own childhood trauma. But now Chasing the Wind has an additional meaning that reflects the value of the hero, and the importance of the heroine has been weakened.
The new version of "Twister" is anchored in the perspective of the heroine. The male characters have become elements that assist the development of the plot, and love is no longer the focus of the plot. Technology and human nature are the main body of the contradiction. The psychological shadow of the heroine occurred in college. In order to raise funds for the project, she and her friends went to chase the wind and collect data. Unexpectedly, they thought that the ordinary tornado of EF-2 level at most was actually a strong tornado of EF-5. Except for one person who stayed to operate the machine, only the heroine survived among the other storm chasers, and her boyfriend was blown away while protecting her. From then on, every night she felt like she was back in the arms of her boyfriend who protected her and couldn't fall asleep every night. She still studied the data of tornadoes, but she never dared to chase the wind in the field again. It was not until she was encouraged by the classmates who stayed behind and firmly told her "You can do it, this is what you are good at" that she gradually found herself again.
One thing I really like is that the new version pays great attention to portraying the heroine's excellence and professionalism in professional ability. In the first work scene, her colleagues asked her to analyze the data. She saw at a glance how the wind direction would change, and the team always followed her judgment in the subsequent wind chasing process. For example, when facing a multi-vortex tornado and needing to decide which side to chase, if you chase the wrong direction, the secondary vortex will disappear after a few minutes, and it will be too late to chase the main vortex, and this wind chasing will fail. The new version of the plot is that the heroine discovered the change in the direction of the wheat waves on the roadside, chose the side that no one else was optimistic about, and arranged another team of competitors to laugh at her lack of experience, but the heroine's judgment was correct. The similar plot of the 1996 version is that the heroine drove all the way to chase the wrong direction, and it was the hero who noticed something wrong and urgently changed the route to avoid wasting time. Although these changes are subtle, they can make the heroine's personality more distinct.
28 years have passed, and the original heroine who was chosen, trapped in love, and incompetent is no longer a female character that meets the audience's expectations. Similarly, if the remake is just telling the story again without any novelty, it will not satisfy the current audience's aesthetic taste. Disaster films have created a glorious history with their unique grand scenes to stimulate vision, but now they are gradually declining. The audience needs not only new female images, but also "wind chasers" who explore pioneering fields.