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Twisters director wanted to make sure he was "never creating a feeling that we're preaching a message".

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Chung, who directed the franchise installment film centered on tornado chasers played by Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, told CNN that he opted to not explicitly include the term climate change in the film.

“I just wanted to make sure that with the movie, we don’t ever feel like [it] is putting forward any message,” Lee said. “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented. […] I think what we are doing is showing the reality of what’s happening on the ground. We don’t shy away from saying that things are changing.”

While Lee, who grew up on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, added that his own “brushes with extreme weather as a child” left a “very big imprint” on how he views nature, he didn’t want the film itself to be “preaching” any sort of political statement.
“I wanted to make sure that we are never creating a feeling that we’re preaching a message, because that’s certainly not what I think cinema should be about,” Lee said. “I think it should be a reflection of the world.”

He continued, “That sense of awe and wonder was something that I really wanted to preserve in this film, that it’s not just a summer blockbuster about running from tornadoes and hiding away. I wanted to make sure that we’re also revering and honoring the beauty of that power.”


Good guy DEI hire director makes surprise anti-woke movie? Regardless, this looks like an old fashioned blockbuster like the ones I grew up on so I'll be watching it in IMAX.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member

Hrk69

Gold Member
Can't wait for the big CGI battle where the franchise hero fights the twisters, only for the woman to land the final fucking punch and win the day

Martin Scorsese Agree GIF by The Academy Awards
 
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HL3.exe

Member
Is this news now?

This whole anti-woke dickriding really broke some minds online.

Virtue-signaling pandering I don't care for, but I personally love authorism. Makers who want to express a feeling or personal experience through their art. Otherwise, it's this generic slop, trying to speak to everyone, thus speaking to no one, that nobody is gonna remember long-term.
 
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"We don’t shy away from saying that things are changing.”

That's a political message/statement... I don't know what to say here, that is a political message/statement.
If he doesn't want to pass it in a preachy way, that's perfectly fine...

But considering there are people in this world (Who I'm sure he knows about) that pass a different message, that things aren't changing, or that simply preach conformity, which will lead to climate change worsening more then it already is, you "not shying away from saying that things are changing", IS A MESSAGE, that is related to politics.

If we were to delete every movie in cinema that is "message-oriented", only 10% of movies would exist.

There are smart and creative ways to pass a message, and there are tacky and preachy ways to do it.
Climate change is now woke? Is this really a hill you want to die on?
If there are people that unironically reject and dismiss climate change activism in art, because it's too "purple haired screeching WOKE", and they don't want to be caught being one of those lameos, I believe they genuinely need to seek therapy.

I'm not doing the "go to therapy" meme, I'm being sincere.
That's some arrested development.

I didn't think awareness of how fucked a lot of places in the planet are being or are about to be, and going "Sweet Baby are totally the tops, you guys!" Was the same thing.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I don't ask for much, but wouldn't it be nice for "Twisters" to be worth the price of a matinee ticket when it's 102 degrees on a random July Sunday?
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Smart move.

When you spend 150 million on a piece of entertainment that probably has the carbon footprint of a small city, best not have lines in it that bitch about driving diesel trucks instead of EVs with slave harvested batteries or how eating a burger led to a devastating tornado that could have been stopped had you only eaten soy.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
Climate change is now woke? Is this really a hill you want to die on?
You've not seen what some Lefty loons tried to push under the guise of fighting climate change...

Just look at AOC's first public version of the "green new deal" and what insane milestones it had. :messenger_winking_tongue:
 
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John Bilbo

Member
I mean it's better to create a fun and intriguing movie rather than beat the audience with some current day political message but even Lion Kings would sound more of a worthwhile sequel than Twisters.
 

MayauMiao

Member

Good guy DEI hire director makes surprise anti-woke movie? Regardless, this looks like an old fashioned blockbuster like the ones I grew up on so I'll be watching it in IMAX.

Saw the movie, and indeed the guy lost his balls and once again woman saves the day.

"You're smart, Kate!" . cringe.
 

Doom85

Member
sam winchester yawn GIF


Oh, not for the lack of a message or anything, this just feels like a red flag that the film is unremarkable and the director is trying to hook people in with any angle he possibly can think of right before opening weekend.

Honestly, the 90’s gave me more than enough disaster films, hell IIRC there was two instances of two major ones in the same year that dealt with basically the exact same threat. Zero interest in the genre anymore.
 
Honestly, the 90’s gave me more than enough disaster films, hell IIRC there was two instances of two major ones in the same year that dealt with basically the exact same threat. Zero interest in the genre anymore.
You shut it. I need more disaster films worth a damn. Last good one was The Day After Tomorrow (2004). This one is crap like so many other rehashes.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
You shut it. I need more disaster films worth a damn. Last good one was The Day After Tomorrow (2004). This one is crap like so many other rehashes.
I think the 'problem' is that we see SPECTACLE in everything now. Those older ones had effects we've NEVER seen, buildings falling, planes sinking into the sea, lava flowing down streets. But with CGI even a silly romcom can do that stuff, so it has become humdrum, especially if the effects have the same blah look so many films have today. Cameron can still deliver, but so few other directors can frame CG action as if it were real action, instead we get this swooping camera that spoils the illusion.

So a disaster film is an obsolete genre IMHO, you can't rely on the effects to wow anyone anymore.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I'll see this at the cinema as I loved the first one.

However, from the trailers it looks almost identical to th first film.

What I wanted was tornadoes that were 30 miles wide with winds reaching a million miles per hour.

That would be sequel worthy
 

MayauMiao

Member
I'll see this at the cinema as I loved the first one.

However, from the trailers it looks almost identical to th first film.

What I wanted was tornadoes that were 30 miles wide with winds reaching a million miles per hour.

That would be sequel worthy

It has no charm of the first one, and I love Twister. Prepare for a huge disappointment.
 
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Doom85

Member
You shut it. I need more disaster films worth a damn. Last good one was The Day After Tomorrow (2004). This one is crap like so many other rehashes.

Didn’t say to stop making them, now did I? See, unlike some of the superhero movie haters, I can dislike/be tired of a genre, but still hope the people who are still fans continue to get new films in that genre so that THEY’RE happy.

Like, after I found Avatar 1 mid and 2 beyond boring, I’m not seeing 3 or beyond, but I’m not wishing they stop making them because I know lots of people love those movies so here’s to more of them being made and you all have fun even if I won’t be there with you!

Happy Hour Drinking GIF
 
I think the 'problem' is that we see SPECTACLE in everything now. Those older ones had effects we've NEVER seen, buildings falling, planes sinking into the sea, lava flowing down streets. But with CGI even a silly romcom can do that stuff, so it has become humdrum, especially if the effects have the same blah look so many films have today. Cameron can still deliver, but so few other directors can frame CG action as if it were real action, instead we get this swooping camera that spoils the illusion.

So a disaster film is an obsolete genre IMHO, you can't rely on the effects to wow anyone anymore.
I was always more invested in the human drama, mass panic, and makeshift solutions to overwhelming problems. CGI is not a problem if used well, but the focus has to be human plight and ingenuity in the face of overwhelming odds.
 

Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
I never saw the 1st one I won't be seeing this one. I think chasing tornadoes is stupid. I just want to know how they'll defeat the tornado? Will Groot anchor itself really deep into the ground and grow to such an enormous size that the tornado will dissipate? Or will the Hulk punch the tornado into outer space. I hate this movie.
 
I never saw the 1st one I won't be seeing this one. I think chasing tornadoes is stupid. I just want to know how they'll defeat the tornado? Will Groot anchor itself really deep into the ground and grow to such an enormous size that the tornado will dissipate? Or will the Hulk punch the tornado into outer space. I hate this movie.
The plot of the first one is that an old colleague is recruited by a rag-tag team of scientists obsessed with tornadoes after his theoretical device for tracking them is successfully prototyped. Upon further testing the prototype fails in its intended purpose. After a close run-in with a powerful tornado the colleague has an epiphany about an alteration that would make the prototype work. In the end they succeed and have groundbreaking new data about the dynamics of tornadoes. It had nothing to do with stopping tornadoes and everything to do with improving prediction technologies to minimise casualties.
 
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Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
The plot of the first one is that an old colleague is recruited by a rag-tag team of scientists obsessed with tornadoes after his theoretical device for tracking them is successfully prototyped. Upon further testing the prototype fails in its intended purpose. After a close run-in with a powerful tornado the colleague has an epiphany about an alteration that would make the prototype work. In the end they succeed and have groundbreaking new data about the dynamics of tornadoes. It had nothing to do with stopping tornadoes and everything to do with improving predictions technologies to minimise casualties.
That sounds like id hate it even more. You guys enjoy hard pass from me.
 
That sounds like id hate it even more. You guys enjoy hard pass from me.
This sequel is tonedeaf. As much as I was entertained by the original, it was carried by the fantastic cast and their onscreen chemistry. This does not have any of that based on the trailer.
 
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Climate change is now woke? Is this really a hill you want to die on?
No, the point was about him not wanting to make cinema that's preaching a message. Which is what woke movies do and what pre-current era movies didn't do. The sooner we return to this the better. For the record I am also not a proponent of conversative preaching in movies.

"DEI hire director" is a wild thing to say.
I'm not basing this off nothing. Look at the guy's filmography. He's made 3 micro budget indie films and one break out A24 film and then they give him a gigantic budget. This has been a trend with Hollywood, giving small time, usually minority background indie directors huge breaks instead of having them work up the ladder like before. I mean good for him no doubt but it is what it is.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I was always more invested in the human drama, mass panic, and makeshift solutions to overwhelming problems. CGI is not a problem if used well, but the focus has to be human plight and ingenuity in the face of overwhelming odds.
Very well said. But let's face it, MOST disaster flicks were pretty bad with the 'human drama' and were all about the effects, back in a time when that stuff was unprecedented and very difficult to do. Even something like Independence Day, with those MASSIVE sets they blew up, had some merit just on purely visual WOW basis.

But now you can see stuff like that on a low budget TV show. It would take a hell of a script to get me to give a shit about a film like this today. You are also correct about the "problem solving" aspect versus a "well, we just gotta endure this thing". I feel like most recent disaster epics are more about enduring (Greenland, Don't look up) than solving (The Core? Maybe Geostorm?) as there is a sense of futility in the face of climate change.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
The plot of the first one is that an old colleague is recruited by a rag-tag team of scientists obsessed with tornadoes after his theoretical device for tracking them is successfully prototyped. Upon further testing the prototype fails in its intended purpose. After a close run-in with a powerful tornado the colleague has an epiphany about an alteration that would make the prototype work. In the end they succeed and have groundbreaking new data about the dynamics of tornadoes. It had nothing to do with stopping tornadoes and everything to do with improving prediction technologies to minimise casualties.
All I remember about the first one is that it had SO MUCH BASS that you could hear it 2 theaters down the hall! Between Twister and The Rock it was so hard to sit and enjoy Cable Guy, Mission:Impossible, The Phantom, Eraser, The Nutty Professor, Dragonheart, The Craft, or Barbwire (YES, all these films were released in May/June 1996!!) with all the BOOM BOOM BOOM going on :p
 
I'm not basing this off nothing. Look at the guy's filmography. He's made 3 micro budget indie films and one break out A24 film and then they give him a gigantic budget. This has been a trend with Hollywood, giving small time, usually minority background indie directors huge breaks instead of having them work up the ladder like before. I mean good for him no doubt but it is what it is.
He has a bigger and more prestigious director filmography than Jan de Bont did when he made the original Twister...
 
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Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
This sequel is tonedeaf. As much as I was entertained by the original, it was carried by the fantastic cast and their onscreen chemistry. This does not have any of that based on the trailer.
Jami Gertz in her absolute pomp, Paxton and Hunt were perfectly cast and had great on-screen chemistry, Cary Elwes as the smarmy villain, Phil Seymour Hoffman, the guy who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller, etc. I think I've talked myself into watching it again for the first time in 20 years.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
He has a bigger and more prestigious filmography than Jan de Bont did when he made the original Twister...
WHAT
THE
FUCK
are you on about? DeBont did SPEED before Twister....SPEED! A classic action film! And as cinematographer/DP here is a bit of his stuff prior to Twister.

SwZfeEk.jpeg


just LOOK AT THAT LIST! The guy had chops for a big budgets special effects visual feast like Twister.

I got nothing against Chung but here is his director list.

x3kH2SQ.jpeg


An episode of Mando up against SPEED! as directoral pre-req.......yeah, gonna go with JDB.
 
WHAT
THE
FUCK
are you on about? DeBont did SPEED before Twister....SPEED! A classic action film! And as cinematographer/DP here is a bit of his stuff prior to Twister.

SwZfeEk.jpeg


just LOOK AT THAT LIST! The guy had chops for a big budgets special effects visual feast like Twister.

I got nothing against Chung but here is his director list.

x3kH2SQ.jpeg


An episode of Mando up against SPEED! as directoral pre-req.......yeah, gonna go with JDB.
I was only going by his director credits, which were selected by default on IMDB:
TSuiCj1.png


As for Speed, it's a great action movie but not something I'd label as prestigous.

In any case, it's not a competition - I was only pointing out that OP's assesment of him being a "DEI hire" is both incorrect and ignorant. Chill out.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
As for Speed, it's a great action movie but nothing something I'd label as prestigous.

In any case, I was only pointing out that OP's assesment of him being a "DEI hire" is both wrong and ignorant. Chill out.
You owe Jan an apology, you basically said he was some insignificant director who got lucky when the buzz at the time (of Twister) was that he was a visionary cinematographer who was gonna deliver a lot of visual effects, which he did, in an era when this was hard to do, not something you just outsourced to a computer farm. THAT was the appeal of Twister back in the day. Chung brings none of that anticipation, and I suspect Twisters is gonna suffer by comparison.

And you definitely are underplaying the impact of Speed, that flick was like #8 BO for 1994, waaaay better resume for Twister than "hey, I directed an episode of mando"(the really slow ep about the imperials that was a set up for the cancelled Rangers show no less). Again, nothing against Chung, but the pedigree of Twister is FAR above that of Twisters.
 
You owe Jan an apology, you basically said he was some insignificant director who got lucky when the buzz at the time (of Twister) was that he was a visionary cinematographer who was gonna deliver a lot of visual effects, which he did, in an era when this was hard to do, not something you just outsourced to a computer farm. THAT was the appeal of Twister back in the day. Chung brings none of that anticipation, and I suspect Twisters is gonna suffer by comparison.

And you definitely are underplaying the impact of Speed, that flick was like #8 BO for 1994, waaaay better resume for Twister than "hey, I directed an episode of mando"(the really slow ep about the imperials that was a set up for the cancelled Rangers show no less). Again, nothing against Chung, but the pedigree of Twister is FAR above that of Twisters.
Iron Man Eye Roll GIF


Let me make this as clear as possible so you don't misunderstand my point yet again:
- OP claims that Twisters director is a DEI hire because he only has one "break-out" A24 film under his belt (and a bunch of smaller films)
- I point out that the original Twister director also had a small DIRECTOR filmography at the time (one successful film)

By OP's logic, De Bont is also a DEI hire because he's not American (he's Dutch) and was hired off the strength of his one successful film. That is the point I was alluding to.

I'm not arguing who was better suited for the job (it's pretty clear based off of the cinematography credits), I'm arguing against OP's point that he's a DEI hire because De Bont also fits that qualification.

That said, I admit I made the mistake of missing his cinematography credits (again, thanks to IMDB not selecting them by default). It's clear he had a hand in some of the best action movies of the 80s and 90s... but not as the actual director, which is the subject of this entire thread. Speed 2, The Haunting, and Tomb Raider 2? lol if anything De Bont owes ME an apology for wasting my time with those movies.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Let me make this as clear as possible so you don't misunderstand my point yet again:
Eh, I can draw a line from Twister back through Speed and then DP on a bunch of massive action films waaaaaaaay more easily than I can with Chungs films. As mentioned earlier, it seems oddly trendy for these CG effects laden turds to hire an "arty" director to do the "people talking" bits because all the CG stuff, usually 70% of these films, has been pre-rendered and is already being done well before any humans show up on set. In these cases the director is largely irrelevant to the final product and IS often hired more for their appearance than their actual body of work. Not sure if this is the case with Chung, certainly some great action directors have come from out of nowhere, but it's not a crazy leap that he was hired more because he wasn't white than because he was THE GUY getting this project off the ground (could be wrong, of course).

Anyway, we'll see in the next few weeks if it panned out.
 
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