Twisters (2024)

Call it divine intervention or whatever you want, but it is worth noting that between revisiting the 1996 hit Twister and the sequel, there was at least two nights of pretty bad weather here in the Midwest.

Of course, being that I have grown up in the Midwest, it was nothing too new to me. Still, tornadoes are nothing I would dream of getting near (the closest I ever got was a few years ago driving home, not aware until later that a twister had touched down about a mile away). Thinking of it, the original Twister (which was always a go to rental for me at a point in my childhood) had a small bit of the “stay away from this force of nature” effect that Jaws had on me (as well as the whole world.)

Like the first film, Twisters starts off with a tragic event that leaves its mark on the main character Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Like the character of Bill in the original, her gift of being able to tell what a storm is about to do is needed one last time to help an old friend (in her case, a colleague played by Anthony Ramos).What she did not expect was to run into another force of nature in the form of internet star “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (we will get to Glen Powell here shortly, don’t worry.) Others who round out the cast include solid (though not so well known) actors like Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, and the always valuable Maura Tierney.

It is rather curious for director Lee Isaac Chung to direct this film, mainly when you consider his last film was the Oscar winner Minari (a film about an asian farm family in the 1980s). Still, Chung knows how to set the pace and when to slow things down (which does not happen all that often).

I try not to text people at all during movies (unless they are really terrible), but I did so in this case. I texted my little sister three simple words: GLEN FRIGGIN POWELL. If Top Gun: Maverick did not prove this is a guy to watch in the future, well…here is more proof of his immaculate star quality. No one in cinema today (at least in his generation) can pull off his cocky, arrogant, and adorable charm any better. He is a bona fide star, without question.

Parents should know that, like the first film, the movie is PG-13 mainly for the action and swearing (no sexual content). The swears are nothing more than what a normal junior high schooler would come across in a public school, so they would be fine seeing this (though some scenes can indeed be unsettling.)

Okay, obviously I am not at all going to try and explain all the weather mumbo jumbo that is spoken by the characters, or what they are actually trying to do other than stop tornadoes and save people in Oklahoma. When you see how Tyler’s truck is basically rigged like a third rate Batmobile, it is best not to think too much about the science behind it. Still, the film did have one or two plot lines I could have done less without (mainly about a corrupt land owner or whatever that was), plus the film did seem a tad long (despite being just a shade over two hours).

Aside from the “Dorothy” equipment (I forgot to mention I do admire them using more terms from the land of Oz), there is nothing really connecting the two films, plot wise. There are no returning stars (although there is a brief cameo from the late Bill Paxton’s son James as an upset hotel guest). Still, with all due respect to Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, they were never the true stars of the original. The true stars were the tornadoes, and the sequel is no exception (even if a good case can be made for Powell.)

The film is just a solid fun time at the theater, pure and simple.

Overall: