Twisters - Film Review

Hollywood is in the business of legacy sequels and business is booming, baby. From Top Gun: Maverick to the most recent Beverly Hills Cop 4, audiences can't get enough of their iconic characters from decades ago, returning to the roles that made them famous. Some have missed the mark and some have made billions of dollars. The time has come to further along the story of the hit 1996 movie Twister which starred the late Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman. What makes this legacy sequel stand out is that it adds more nuance to the narrative without bringing back any of the original actors, but instead allows the new cast to stand on its own two legs and twirl around the chaos of severe weather with high-impact action and witty dialogue. Titled Twisters, this film is a rip-roaring good time with the insatiable charm and smile of Glen Powell.

Written by the guy who wrote the nazi-zombie flick Overlord and directed by the amazing filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung who gave the world the award-winning film Minari, it has proved that he can not only showcase family drama but also a thrilling horror-infused disaster movie. And what a treat it was to witness on the IMAX screen. Twisters have a familiar setup and pacing that starts with a tornado and a group of people chasing the path to gather input and study the evolution of these funnels. This time around though, Chung amplifies the horror element that closely resembles humans being dragged to their deaths by demons or something supernatural in a high-stakes game of survival. After some tragedy and a couple of survivors, the story cuts to five years later to a big week-long tornado outbreak in Oklahoma.

This is where Twisters introduces Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), one of the survivors of the opening scene who is now a desk jockey at a weather center in New York where she is visited by an old friend named Javi (Anthony Ramos) from that tragic day that informs her that his last five years was spent building a device that would make her dream come true of not only figuring out how a tornado works but also would stop a tornado in its track before it could destroy a town. Soon enough, Kate's fears are tested as she chases new tornadoes while meeting the YouTube storm-chasing sensation Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), who drives his truck straight into these Twisters for the views, rarely studying them. An odd couple situation forms between the pair but slowly turns into mutual respect as Tyler has some secret tricks up his sleeve.

The usual beats play out from the first film, including a nighttime tornado, animals being whipped around a funnel, and the protagonists facing their fears of their past trauma. With Kate, it's about facing the death of her friends and colleagues while trying to navigate her surviving friend working for a slimeball real-estate mogul who profits off the disastrous tornado activity, which is unarguably the least-appealing movie of the film. Luckily, this tangent is barely given any fuel to drive. Most of the time is given to Tyler and Kate to figure out how to stop and destroy these twisters at their strongest. Even in its cheesiest moments, Twisters works, because it knows exactly the type of movie it is and it leans into the action and absurdity of it all, even as these stars survive a deadly tornado at the bottom of an empty pool at a rodeo.

Powell's smile and ability to turn up the charm to 11 by saying things like, "We don't chase tornadoes, we ride 'em" is the correct amount of tongue and cheekiness this movie needs and delivers. That element mixed with the impressive visuals and horror-action sequences of people being killed by tornadic activity creates a two-hour-long action-packed sequel that will become another cult classic. Chung took this weather franchise in the right direction and updated the thrills, suspense, and comedy while never trying to be something it's not. Twisters is a ton of fun and only seals the deal that Glen Powell is to be a superstar for years to come. Plus the county soundtrack in Twisters is so on-the-nose cheesy that nobody can help but sing along and cheer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!