TWISTER was a whole let better when I first saw it back in May 1996... Most movies just naturally play better on the big screen, with an expensive sound system and an excited audience, and TWISTER just isn't the same experience as it was eight years ago. The first and most obvious problem is that an effects-driven movie just isn't made for the small screen, so those amazing twisters aren't nearly as scary without the theater experience. Another problem with the CGI (admittedly ground-breaking for its time) is that it's rather commonplace now. How did a movie like TWISTER, with paper-thin characters and almost zero plot, make over $240 million? You need to remember that 95/96 was the period when CGI first became readily available and abundant, to all of the major studios. This was the period when otherwise mediocre films like ID4 and ERASER made huge grosses on the stregth of special effecs that couldn't have been imagined before CGI... CGI was still fresh and exciting. Eight years later, however, CGI is everywhere, so over-stuffed and jam-packed into garbage like THE MUMMY and VAN HELSING that these so-called effects just aren't that special anymore. And since these effects were pretty much the whole show in TWISTER, 2004 audiences won't be all that impressed...
Review of Twister
