by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
Five years after a terrible incident chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma, Kate Carter is drawn back to her
home in an attempt to solve the riddle of tornadoes once and for all in Twisters.
Now working as a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in New York, Kate Carter has left her
storm-chasing days behind. Until an old friend, Javi, the last surviving member of her storm-chasing
team comes to her with a proposal. Javi and his new team, Storm Pur, have a new way of analyzing
tornadoes which could give the world a way of tracking and understanding them better. Intrigued by
the ability to save lives through the new technology, Kate is drawn back into the world of storm chasing
only to find the world a lot different than when she left it.
The screenplay for Twisters is written by Mark L. Smith from a story by Joseph Kosinski and is based on
characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. It stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell,
Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, and David Corenswet. Twisters is directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari).
Twisters is a sequel to the singularly titled 1996 disaster film Twister that starred Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton
Cary Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The wildly popular original film featured a large cast with
extremely memorable performances and incredible special effects but an extremely lackluster story. The
sequel film has incredible special effects and a smarter story but outside of the main core of characters,
Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Javi (Anthony Ramos), and Tyler (Glen Powell), the rest of the cast is window
dressing at best.
Despite being a “sequel”, this film has almost no connection to the first film. (Perhaps this is the reason
why the film is not called Twister 2.) The motives are very similar though. In the original, the storm
chasers wanted to introduce new technology to help them to understand tornadoes. In this film, the
storm chasers also want to introduce new technology to study storms, but a subplot evolves about
being able to affect tornadoes.
Since the movie is titled “Twisters” there had better be some tornadoes involved. Thank goodness
there are. The special effects in this film are incredibly realistic. For those who have never been in a
tornado or even near one, Twisters provide the opportunity to witness multiple versions of storms
ranging from F1 to F5 in strength. There are two F5s! When seen in the preferred Dolby Atmos format,
the cinema booms and rattles and shakes with every cyclone that appears on the screen.
Speaking of on-screen, Glen Powell is just magic. He has been riding a hot streak lately starting with last
year’s Top Gun: Maverick. Hit Man on Netflix is a must see and Anyone But You is…good. Powell
seems to have a way of creating chemistry with whomever he is on screen with. Sydney Sweeney. Adria
Arjona. Jonathan Majors and Tom Cruise. In this film, he and Daisy Edgar-Jones work so well together
that viewers are rooting for them even before they get together. Their connection is juvenile and
simplistic, but it is cute and a needed rallying point of the story.
At some point in time, one wonders why this movie was made. With the increasing number of
tornadoes occurring in new and different places across the United States, this could be a quite troubling
and traumatic movie experience for someone who has experienced a tornado. But even in the movie, some people perilously underestimate the violent and destructive nature of even the smallest
of tornadoes. This movie reminds those who watch to never, ever do that.
Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language, and injury images, it turns out that Twisters is
strangely entertaining. It doesn’t grab the viewers with excellent acting but the spectacle of the storms
is enthralling. The movie is best in Dolby Atmos theaters or other cinemas with enhanced sound. Please
skip the 3-D and IMAX versions as they are unnecessary.
Twisters is in theaters nationwide on July 19, 2024.
Grade: B-