"If you feel it…CHASE IT!"
Spoiler Alert: No cows were harmed in the making of this film.
You know that scene in 1996's "Twister" when Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton strap themselves onto a single pipe and witness an EF5 tornado from within the eye of the beast? Regarded as one of the most outlandish and absurd endings to a disaster movie, Hunt and Paxton held on for dear life to witness spiraling nature in all her glory. It's a collective moment for all who have seen the disaster thriller, making for a climax worth watching repeatedly.
The original "Twister" grossed nearly $500 million when released theatrically, spawning similar disaster flicks as it became one of the most talked about movies of the summer of 1996. Steven Spielberg and his "Jurassic Park" scribe Michael Crichton had their hands all over the monumental visual achievement that was "Twister," helping to propel Helen Hunt and a hilarious ensemble cast of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Alan Ruck, and Todd Field to movie stardom.
A standalone sequel from director Lee Isaac Chung ("Minari") enters the fray more than 25 years later. "Twisters" introduces an all-new ensemble cast that takes the tornado-set Oklahoma to the modern age with social media influencers, "science," and death-defying brainiacs at its center. The newest film in what has become a franchise for Warner Bros. is not as great as the original, similar in scope in its stupidity, and all-around a fantastic time at the movies.
Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kate, a storm chaser by day and cloud physicist by night. Interested in experimenting on tornadoes in order to find a way to disrupt their intensity, Kate and her storm-chasing buddies attempt the impossible so they can one day save whole towns of people from the destruction that hits tornado alley every year. The opening sequence to "Twisters" will not be spoiled here, but let's just say that things don't go Kate's way.
Five years later, Kate works as a meteorologist in New York City. Her old colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) recruits her to return to Oklahoma to finish the work she started in college and implement a new scanning system that could one day wipe out tornadoes altogether. The film quickly boomerangs back to Oklahoma, where Kate and Javi are immersed in the world of tornado-chasing nightcrawlers, led by Javi's boss (David Corenswet) and a rival social media influencer, Tyler Owens (Glen Powell).
Cocky and assured, Tyler represents everything wrong about studying tornadoes, at least in Kate's eyes. Her background is shielded by her determination to stay the course on this new project with Javi. Still, her anxiety about returning to the field and embracing everything she's put behind her gets the better of her. After some run-ins with a few nasty tornadoes, Kate finds her footing and welcomes the rush of storm chasing once again.
Similar to "Twister," this new sequel keeps with the formulaic undertones of its predecessor by aligning each team as rivals, yet they all have a part to play in this epic story. Tyler's rag-tag group of YouTube personalities (Sasha Lane, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O'Brian, Brandon Perea) are more like Kate's old storm chasing scientists than Javi's crew of corporate sell-outs. Though her allegiance is to Javi, Kate somehow can't resist Tyler's charms…and vice versa.
It isn't too long before Kate and Tyler team up to accomplish the impossible: making tornadoes less of a threat to small towns in their path while also getting a bit of a thrill out of the journey.
The connections between the original film and this one are few and far between, though for some odd reason, Kate and gang acquire old technology (Dorothy) that Hunt and Paxton used in the first film. "Twister" wanted to study tornadoes to give proper warning to residents ahead of time. "Twisters" emphasizes that tornadoes still can't be adequately studied, and the sequel strives to wrangle, tame, and ultimately want to control tornadoes.
Is "Twisters" stupid? Absolutely it is.
Will audiences embrace "Twisters" like they did with the original? Nope!
Does "Twisters" have what it takes to stand out on its own? Probably not.
But is "Twisters" a fun summer blockbuster that's utterly preposterous but somehow works? You betcha!
This flick isn't going to climb the Top Ten charts of 2024's best movies, nor should the science depicted within the film be studied for applicable use in predicting weather patterns. Lee Isaac Chung has crafted a thrilling blockbuster that stays true to the elements that made 1996's version palatable while cementing Glen Powell's heartthrob status in today's modern movie climate. Daisy Edgar-Jones shines in a lead role that asks a lot of her talents to convince the audience that she's a person capable of driving into tornadoes while also calculating their impact on her personal and professional ambitions.
However, you don't go see a movie like "Twisters" for the story or possibly even the cast of characters. You go see this movie, in a theater preferably, for the exceptional visual effects and the destruction the tornadoes provide. The tornadoes themselves are the real scene stealers, accompanied by some fantastic and ominous sound editing that would frighten anyone living within a 5-mile radius.
The film is a supernova of charm, country hijinks, and good old-fashioned catastrophe.
Ticket Rating: 🎟🎟🎟1/2
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