Review: “Twisters”

From the jump, it’s clear that Twisters— whose cold open introduces a personable young cast, throws in some science-y gobbledygook, and culminates in a visceral, effects-laden action sequence—is straining to resurrect the good-old-fashioned summer blockbuster. For the most part, it succeeds, although a lot of that success is dependent on its continuing a legacy. Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster thriller Twister isn’t a technically magnificent cinematic achievement, but it is a ton of fun, boosted by top-notch (at the time— and frankly, they still hold up well) special effects and a charismatic cast who generate as much electricity in their interactions as the storms they’re chasing. Director Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters, with a screenplay by Mark L. Smith and story by Joseph Kosinski, is a stand-alone sequel chronicling a new generation of storm chasers, but it may be more accurate to call it a loose remake, as it’s essentially the same movie with a couple modern twists thrown in.

Twisters follows Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), at the start of the film a college student who aspires to help people and change the world with an invention that could reduce a tornado’s intensity. But she’s knocked down by tragedy, and when the story picks up five years later, the woman who used to run right into the heart of the storm is a meteorologist working in a New York City office. Kate gets a second shot at her dreams, however, when she reconnects with her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos), who now works for a tornado radar company called Storm Par. She travels back to Oklahoma with him in the midst of a tornado outbreak which has drawn in a host of tourists and other storm chasers, among them Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), who along with his team is a popular YouTube personality who livestreams his forays into the heart of tornados. A competition of sorts strikes up between the two teams, whose true motivations shift in a different light, while Kate has to reconcile her trauma to move forward personally, and help the communities who are devastated by the constant stream of sudden, intense storms.

If it’s been minute since you’ve watched Twister (or if you’ve never seen it; prior viewing really isn’t required to understand or enjoy Twisters), the similarities between the two movies likely won’t be so irksome. But it’s a little disappointing to see this filmmaking team take the easiest, laziest road imaginable. Lady scientist heroine who experiences a traumatic event? Check. Climatic action set-piece located at a movie theater? Check. Love triangle? Greedy corporate flunky trying to profit off others’ pain (even David Corenswet’s costuming in this film is almost a carbon copy of Cary Elwes’ in Twister)? Check. A story that centers around launching drones into a tornado? Check. A moment to slow down, visit said heroine’s family home, and eat a nice meal? Check and check. And even though Twisters primarily shot on location in Oklahoma, and Chung grew up around the area (even setting many of his previous movies, including his acclaimed semi-biographical drama Minari, there) the film lacks a voice, vision, and sense of style. I love Chung’s work (I’m even the sole admirer of the off-beat 2023 episode of The Mandalorian he directed, which was met with nearly universally mixed-to-negative reviews elsewhere) and there are a few nice human moments sprinkled throughout Twisters that are in step with the themes he likes to explore, where the personal cost of these weather events is made plain. But otherwise, there’s little that stands out visually or narratively in Twisters; it doesn’t even bother to swing toward some sort of clear, timely messaging about climate change, which would have been easy to do, if potentially preachy.

But there are a handful of harrowing moments throughout Twisters, ones that rely more on soundscapes and tight close-ups on the characters’ reactions as opposed to sweeping views of their surroundings (the glossy CGI effects don’t really do it many favors), and even if, like the first film, a lot of the action centers around watching the characters drive around the countryside bantering, it’s often a blast to watch. Also like the first film, much of the success of these scenes is dependent on the personalities of the cast, which is another stumbling block for Twisters, which offs a few potentially interesting characters in its opening scene and replaces them with people who are…not. Jones, stepping into the sort of lady scientist role where her profession alone is intended to make us believe she’s a compelling character (the film also oddly plays her knowledge about weather as being an almost psychic skill), attempts to imbue Kate with some charisma, but she’s ultimately flat all-around: in her interactions with the other characters, in her gestures toward humor, and in her efforts to pull from a place of guilt and sorrow when expressing her character’s trauma. It doesn’t help that the other actors surrounding her ooze energy and personality. When Powell’s Tyler shows up, Twisters really takes off. The man just has it, and Chung grants him some real movie star shots. He’s so at ease here, and so good at conjuring chemistry with just about anyone— with a twinkling look and a crooked smile— he almost makes you believe that he could possibly be interested in a woman who is turning in a top-tier entry into the pantheon of “go girl, give me nothing” performances. The rest of the supporting cast, even those with minimal screen time, is great, from the wonderful surprise of Maura Tierney appearing as Kate’s mom to Sasha Lane, Katy O’Brian, Brandon Perea, and Tunde Adebimpe as the other personalities on Tyler’s team. The only other false note is the normally welcome Ramos, but he’s admittedly given a pretty thankless role to begin with.

Twisters even sets itself up for the easiest, most cliched romantic conclusion in the books, and still manages to frustratingly fumble that. Ultimately, it suffers from a problem that many modern popcorn movies seem to have, in that it either needs to be a little smarter, or a little dumber, and instead sits in this liminal space of exploring serious issues but being impossible to take seriously. I’ve spent a lot of time outlining problems with this movie here, but I still, I can’t deny that what does work works well enough to generate enjoyable in the moment, if not memorable after you leave the theater, entertainment. At the end of a long day, I was more than content to sit in a big chair with a big bowl of popcorn in my lap and watch a bunch of weirdo drive headlong into tornados for two hours. But I wish there was more originality swirling around Hollywood so that we don’t constantly have to go back to what worked in the 90s to make that happen.

Twisters is now playing in theaters. Runtime: 122 minutes. Rated PG-13.