Twisters Review – The Tornado Whisperer Awakens

Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic

The 90s featured a string of disaster movie blockbusters, and 1996’s Twister from director Jan de Bont, one of the essential names in 80s and 90s action, was smack dab in the middle of it all with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton in the lead roles. Nearly 30 years later, we’ve got a sequel in Twisters from director Lee Isaac Chung.

Five years after a disastrous and tragic encounter with a tornado leaves her emotionally and physically scarred, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is pulled back into the field of storm chasing by her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) with the promise of doing some good with top-notch technology in mapping and predicting tornados.

Returning to her roots in Oklahoma, Kate and Javi’s crew quickly cross paths with another crew headlined by Tyler (Glen Powell), a massive YouTube sensation with an outsized personality who has dubbed himself the “Tornado Wrangler.” Both teams compete and work with one another during a rapidly intensifying season of tornados being unleashed on vulnerable towns.

While this is a sequel to Twister, it is of the standalone variety; the only real ties to the first film, aside from the overall focus on storm chasers, is the borrowed technology of mapping a tornado from the first film is repurposed and used here because it is “field tested.”

Kate, Tyler, and Javi are not related to Jo and Bill or anything like that (I wonder if we get Helen Hunt reprising her role in a potential sequel similar to how the original cast members of Jurassic Park were inevitably brought into the Jurassic World trilogy).

Some other themes and story aspects feel familiar to the original, though. Javi and Kate’s crew, Storm Par, is armed with state-of-the-art tech and competing against Tyler’s rag-tag group, which is a slight twist on how Cary Elwes’ Jonas had the financial edge over Jo’s team. Also, whereas the original was about trying to make early warning systems more effective, this one is about using technology to dissipate tornados and potentially save homes and lives.

The disaster movie elements are executed really well. There are several encounters with tornados, obviously. The tornados are ever escalating and always unpredictable, resulting in moments where the characters have to be resourceful and nimble on their feet, something that has been true as far back as The Poseidon Adventure (or even further back). This could mean deciding which tornado to pursue in an open field based on the rapidly changing weather conditions or where to find shelter when a tornado is bearing down, and there are limited options, like an overpass or an empty motel pool.

Twisters dives headlong into the disaster movie tropes, which is sure to please summer blockbuster fans, but it also tries to weave in a moving human story too, with some mixed results. Kate’s backstory and the trauma are obstacles she must overcome, and there is also an element of unfinished business that lures her back to a place she has run away from. Javi is revealed to be working for, at best, questionable people, but his heart is supposed to be in the right place. Tyler is a brash, larger-than-life online personality, but he is revealed to have more depth than he lets on.

Edgar-Jones and Ramos give fine performances but don’t really stand out from the bombastic blockbuster and the spectacle of it all. Powell, though, is the one who really shines. He gives off a McConaughey-esque energy and charisma, and even when his character is obnoxious, there is still a level of charm in there that softens it and prevents you from hating a character that could be overbearing or trying too hard in the wrong hands.

One thing that really did not work for me was Kate’s preternatural understanding of tornados. She has an uncanny intuition about how they behave and how environmental elements shift to read and react to what a tornado will do. She can discern things that absolutely no one else can do. It’s been a long time since I have seen Twister, but I don’t recall Jo or Bill having this almost supernatural ability; if Tyler is the Tornado Wrangler, then Kate is the Tornado Whisperer.

The film also pulls its punches regarding the increased frequency and damage of tornados, steering clear of any talk about climate change or global warming. There is a looming villain in all of this, though, a business magnate that goes around buying up land from people who have had their homes destroyed, taking advantage of their plight, which frankly feels a little cliché. There’s really only one scene where the actual businessman does not even get any dialogue; most of the odiousness of the corporate greed is left to his nephew, a generic white guy in khakis.

Lastly, for whatever reason, the “We got twins! Twins!” line of dialogue from the trailer when two tornados form rubbed me the wrong way and remains one of the most annoying lines of dialogue I have ever heard in cinema. I’m glad I never need to hear/see it again.

Twisters was a film I was dubious about going into. While some of it is cheesy, and some of the character elements don’t land well, there is just enough charm amidst all the onscreen disaster spectacle to please audiences and make it slightly recommendable. If It’s not a category EF5 blockbuster, but it’s a solid EF3.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars