Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Twister 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Midwest side story.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 3, 2024

A nostalgic favorite that remains director Jan de Bont's best film (sorry, Speed), the 1996 tornado thriller Twister may not be 30 years old yet but WB gets the 4K party started early in time for the probably disappointing sequel. Sure, it's more than a little corny and unbelievable in spots, but Twister still packs a visceral punch and is firmly cemented as a big-screen standout from my teenage years so suck it, logic. This UHD's long-overdue 2160p/HDR10 transfer and Dolby Atmos audio fully replace WB's ancient 2008 Blu-ray, not the mention their 1997 DVD that has the distinction of being the very first Hollywood film on a small, shiny disc. Needless to say, a lot has changed in the last several decades and Twister has been tweaked to take advantage of new technology... but the film's new look and sound are perhaps more tastefully done than you'd expect for a film that features near-sentient tornadoes and a flying cow.

For a synopsis and similarly warm take on Twister, please see the above-linked Blu-ray review by Martin Liebman.

Twister 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: No remastered Blu-ray is offered for Twister, so these screenshots are sourced from the 2008 Blu-ray.

The reports of Twister's demise on 4K via judicious re-coloring have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, I was surprised by just how faithful this new 2160p/HDR10 transfer was to previous home video presentations... with a few exceptions, of course. For starters: yes, select portions of this film have been noticeably tweaked as part of WB's long-overdue UHD overhaul, which replaces an ancient 2008 VC-1 encoded Blu-ray that earned middling marks for video quality even back then. This process was overseen by director Jan de Bont (who participates in a new retrospective interview that briefly mentions Twister's new color tweaks) along with Warner Bros.' senior colorist Shari Eisenberg, and really only a handful of scenes are moved beyond what I would describe as "normal" levels; that is, the wide majority of Twister does indeed sport a slightly cooler overall palette than before. But this is for good reason: most DVD-era masters favored a slightly yellow or golden tint that has skewed our perception of what most films from that era actually looked like.

The first (and in my opinion, only) significant color change occurs soon after the 21-minute mark as a major storm approaches; in addition to a general dimming of the image (which gives off the impression of a day-for-night shot), the sky gradually turns a much more noticeable green in keeping with the appearance of actual tornado conditions; yours truly hardly grew up in the Midwest, but even I have experienced a "greenout" or two firsthand and the effect is fairly accurately conveyed. De Bont admits in his retrospective interview that he was never able to get the exact color he wanted during post-production and seems tremendously happy with what they were able to achieve here. (This may have happened much earlier in Twister's home video timeline had it not been rushed to Blu-ray and ignored until now.) I'm inclined to agree with his positive remarks; sure, there are brief moments during this sequence that will require an adjustment period because they obviously look noticeably different than what's come before... but in my opinion, it's nowhere near what I'd consider blatant (or blanket) revisionism and actually suits the material like a glove.

And that's it. The storm's basically over, because almost nothing else about Twister's new 2160p/HDR transfer should spark any kind of real controversy. For the most part, it's a ground-up facelift for a film that's looked scuzzy on home video for so long that it's hard to genuinely compare with anything else. Before watching this 4K disc for the first time, you can bet that I gave the old Blu-ray a spin and its noisy textures, generally muddy colors, and noticeably processed appearance hold up as weakly as ever. All that has been largely wiped away to reveal a much more film-like and stable image, albeit one whose special effects can't help but stick out a little at times due to age and, of course, the fact that we're seeing everything in high resolution and have a pause button at the ready. Image detail is much improved, black levels are more carefully controlled with only sporadic hints of crush, and individual colors are much more striking in a natural way. (The only exception I could spot was a brief scene near the end, the wet post-tornado exchange between Jo and Bill before their team finds them, which has a slightly reddish-purple tint to their skin color that doesn't look as accurate as earlier presentations.) Textures don't seem to be overly smoothed or "grain managed" to any significant degree, and as a whole just feels like the ideal presentation we should have gotten a long, long time ago.

Despite this 113-minute film and its extras not earning a 100GB disc, everything played smoothly at a bit rate that typically stayed in the 60-70Mbps range while occasionally spiking into the 90s during the handful of times I checked. Aside from those very minor instances of black crush mentioned above, no other encoding issues were detected.

So in closing, only two things are really missing here: optional "theatrical colors" (which really isn't a huge loss, even with my typical purist's mindset) and a remastered Blu-ray, which should have at least been made available separately. Perhaps the next best companion piece to this 4K edition, then, would be the German boutique label Turbine Media's 2021 remastered Blu-ray, which advances upon the much older WB Blu-ray's lackluster VC-1 transfer while reportedly retaining the film's "original" color palette and even has Dolby Atmos audio to boot. Speaking of which....

Twister 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's little more so say about the default Dolby Atmos mix except damn nature, you scary. Director Jan de Bont similarly expresses his overwhelming enthusiasm for this new remix in the accompanying interview (again in very little technical detail, somewhat frustratingly), describing it as "direct" and once again potentially "better than the theatrical experience." For the second time, I'm in agreement: this is a room-rattling and dynamic mix that will regularly test the limits of your equipment, with the worst potential outcome being that you may realize how lackluster your subwoofer actually is at critical moments. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself immensely and, though I might normally dock a half-point or so for the missing theatrical audio, this is such a well put-together effort that I've no choice but to award it a perfect five stars. Everything operates as expected: there's plenty of surround and discrete activity, dialogue is crystal clear*, Mark Mancina's original score has a fully dynamic presence (as do the occasional pop music cues, diegetic or otherwise), low end is tremendous, and the height channels are put to good use exactly when and where you'd expect. From start to finish, this is a basically flawless remix that ticks all the boxes for pure audio escapism.

* - There is one brief exchange, right around the 1:03:43 mark, where a few lines of post-storm dialogue between Jo and Bill are somewhat muffled before returning to normal levels. It seems as if the light presence of slightly beefed-up wind competes with their lines here... and although slightly distracting, I admittedly almost didn't notice it as I was running English (SDH) subtitles at the time. It's certainly not a major issue but worth pointing out.

Twister 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with fairly goofy new artwork; it's not the worst in recent memory, but still nowhere near as good as the original movie poster. A shiny slipcover and Digital Copy redemption slip are also included. The bonus features include one new retrospective interview with director Jan de Bont and a decent collection of legacy content sourced from the 2008 Blu-ray (listed below with notes when needed). Missing from that older disc are the mid-length History Channel program "Nature Tech: Tornadoes" and a pair of theatrical trailers.

• NEW! The Legacy of Twister: Taken by the Wind (15:44) - This new retrospective interview with Jan de Bont immediately leads off with the director speaking about this being a "new version" of the film and potentially superior to theatrical presentations, which is in reference to both its sporadically green-tinted new color grading and the Atmos mix. From there it turns into a more traditional behind-the-scenes retrospective and talks about the film's groundbreaking special effects, general production, approach to visual storytelling, shooting in the Midwest (away from most studio interference), and of course its legacy during the past 25+ years.

• Audio Commentary - A legacy track featuring Jan de Bont and VFX supervisor Stefen Fangmeier.

• Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited (29:00)

• HBO First Look: The Making of Twister (14:04)

• Anatomy of a Twister (8:34) - Not mentioned in the 2008 review, but a like-minded DVD-era featurette.

• Van Halen "Humans Being" Music Video (3:37) - With blistering DVD-grade Dolby Digital audio.

Twister 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jan de Bont's Twister is a solid staple of 90s-era thrillers, delivering a visceral punch and then-groundbreaking special effects that largely hold up almost 30 years later. Warner Bros.' long-overdue 4K UHD edition, which fully replaces their ancient 2008 Blu-ray, brings the A/V goods with a very satisfying (though slightly color-tweaked) new 2160p/HDR10 transfer and outstanding Dolby Atmos audio. Bonus features remain largely the same, with a new retrospective director interview headlining most of the familiar legacy extras. It's a largely well-rounded effort that is really only missing a remastered Blu-ray, and as a whole certainly comes firmly Recommended to fans and first-timers.