Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster film blockbuster, Twister, managed to be a cut above the standard disaster fare. The director knew he had a nothing script so the focus was on the tornadoes and once he began the destruction, de Bont and his FX team never let up. The film was a harmless rollercoaster of destruction that made millions. Talks of a follow up started and stopped for over 20 years. Now, screenwriter Mark L. Smith (working from a story idea from Joseph Kosinski) and director Lee Isaac Chung have brought fans Twisters, a stand-alone sequel that ups the tornado ante and becomes more fun than the original. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones is Kate, an aspiring scientist from Oklahoma who invents a way to stop tornadoes from reaching their destructive power. Unfortunately, the tech isn’t up to her needs. In a doozy of an opening sequence,a miscalculation causes the death of people close to her. Luckily, her friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) stayed far enough back to survive. 

Edgar-Jones and Ramos have good screen chemistry and their performances make us believe these two are dear friends; each coming out of their shared tragedy in different ways. The two actors are skilled at traversing any clichés the screenplay throws their way. Five years later, Javi reunites with Kate in New York City, where she works for a weather tracking agency. Javi pleads with his old friend to return to Oklahoma, as he has crafted machines that could change the course of storm science. 

As Kate joins Javi and his team back in Oklahoma, they find themselves competing with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his team of “tornado wranglers.” This crew is all party-all the time. Tyler streams their adventures on YouTube as he and his wild bunch (Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Tunde Adebimpe, and Katy O’Brian) launch fireworks into the heart of tornadoes. Harry Hadden-Paton is the British journalist who is along for the ride, as he is doing a story on Tyler and his crew. 

Of course there is a “meet cute” between Kate and Tyler, but it plays well, as the characters aren’t annoyingly antagonistic. These are two people on the same wavelength who don’t understand one another just yet. While certainly a good-ol’-boy with a big ego, the filmmakers were smart to not cast Tyler as a villain. 

Glen Powell continues to prove he is more than his good looks. With this year’s Hit Man (for which he deserves an Oscar nomination), and this film, Powell proves his worth as a leading man. This is an actor who carries the torch of someone like Burt Reynolds in that he can do drama, comedy, action, and romance with natural ease. As Tyler, he oozes movie star charisma in a time where star power no longer carries box office clout. If he stays on this trajectory, Powell could change that. This man lights up the screen.

Lee Isaac Chung seems an odd choice to helm this type of picture. His last film was 2020’s Minari, about Korean immigrant farmers in the ’80s. Fortunately, Chung does a great job balancing the characters and the special effects, while making the clunkier parts of the script tolerable. 

Maura Tierney (as Kate’s mom) is wasted and Javi’s connection to a shady real estate developer is an unnecessary subplot that should have been jettisoned from the film. Kate dealing with her pain is enough to carry the film’s dramatic aspirations. 

After all, the audience is here for the tornadoes and the appropriately titled Twisters brings them on and the tornadoes are visually spectacular. The special effects are as good as it gets and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire assures many edge-of-your-seat moments. The tornados are loud and violently destructive, making good use of the CGI. While Dan Mindel’s camera gets too shaky now and again, the storm sequences are absolutely thrilling. 

While fun, the picture isn’t bulletproof. Mark L. Smith’s screenplay is more retread than sequel; many of the scenes mirror what has come before. One of the film’s best sequences (a nighttime tornado ripping through a crowded rodeo) is basically a carbon copy of the Drive-In carnage from the first film. 

Although the cast makes their characters memorable, they are composites of the main cast from de Bont’s film. Edgar-Jones is both Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt while Powell is Paxton, Carey Elwes, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. When it’s all said and done, the familiar story matters not. The actors do very well and the film is popcorn-chomping excitement. By the finale, where a monster tornado roars onto a small town, the audience will be glued to their seats. 

Summer is a time for moviegoers to shut off their brains and see fun movies. There was a time when studios would balance out their big budget summer extravaganzas with some adult fare; keeping both young and old moviegoers happy. As the years continue, Hollywood cares not for adult viewers and cranks out massive amounts of loud CGI-driven films with little in the way of script but filled to the brim with noise and flashy imagery. Most are pretty bad, but now and again, a really good one sneaks in. 

Big, bold, and exciting, Twisters is what summer films used to be. It’s a really good one.

Twisters

Written by Mark L. Smith (from a story by Joseph Kosinski, based on characters created by Michael Crichton & Anne-Marie Martin)

Directed by Lee Isaac Chung

Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O’Brian, Harry Hadden-Paton, Maura Tierney, Daryl McCormack

PG-13, 117 Minutes, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Amblin Entertainment