1996’s Twister is a movie that stands apart in its genre of 90s big budget disaster movies. Being released in the glut of Volcanoes and Deep Impacts, it rose above the rest and gave us a great cast with plenty of charisma to spare. It felt dangerous and comical all at the same time. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but is still entirely rewatchable.
Now, 28 random years later we get a semi-sequel in a way with Twisters. Yet, don’t be worried about not being able to follow the story if you haven’t seen the first movie in a while. There’s very few details taken from the first movie… except for the pacing, peril and flirtation.
In Twisters, a retired tornado chaser (Daisy Edgar Jones) is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to continue her research and find a way to mitigate the destructive paths of tornadoes. While there, she and her team race a “Tornado Wrangler” (Glen Powell) to each dangerous tornado.
Twisters is made to mimic the original movie with its two bickering leads, the rag-tag crew of chasers, and corporate stooges in the mix. Yet, even with all of these ingredients, Twisters is missing the one thing that Twister had – Heart.
Jones and Powell are both fun actors to watch. Once the story gets going, their Hallmark movie B-plot works. She is clearly taking this movie very seriously, but has the chops to elevate the material. Glen Powell continues to be the actor you never remember, but can’t help but like.
The action is very frequent and delivers what audiences are going to the theater to see. This tornado crew seemingly chases a new tornado every day. Yet, the calamities feel largely hollow and void of stakes.
The script is the main weakness here and lets down the experience and the actors. It’s completely predictable and none of the science is actually explained to make it feel relevant.
Yet, predictability and hand-waving is the formula for most successful summer blockbusters, so Twisters accomplishes what it sets out to be.
Twisters wants to be a return to form for disaster movies, but only manages to disappear in the genre. It’s passable, but largely forgettable. The actors are solid, but with far too many of them, there’s little done with any of their characters. This would make for a really solid cheap Tuesday movie night. B-
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