Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell lead a new cast of a modern-day tornado chasers. Our JP has his take on “Twisters,” a standalone sequel to 1996’s “Twister.”
Twisters
(Universal Pictures)
- Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
- Screenplay by Mark L. Smith
- Story by Joseph Kosinski
- Based on Characters by Michael Crichton, Anne-Marie Martin
- Produced by Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley
- Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane
Studio Synopsis:
This summer, the epic studio disaster movie returns with an adrenaline-pumping, big-screen thrill ride that puts you in direct contact with one of nature’s most wondrous—and destructive—forces.
From the producers of the Jurassic, Bourne and Indiana Jones series comes “Twisters,” a current-day chapter of the 1996 blockbuster, “Twister.” Directed by LEE ISAAC CHUNG, the Oscar® nominated writer-director of Minari, Twisters stars DAISY EDGAR-JONES (Where the Crawdads Sing), GLEN POWELL (Top Gun: Maverick) and ANTHONY RAMOS (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) as equal forces, with opposing motivations, who come together to try to predict, and possibly tame, the immense power of tornadoes. Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Carter, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi (Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better. As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler, Javi and their crews find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.
JP’s Take:
I can always go for a good disaster movie, as they can range from weighty and sincere to the facetious and zany.
“Twisters,” the standalone sequel to 1996’s “Twister,” is the type of epic follow-up that straddles the line enjoyably. It’s just a step above many B-movies: hosting the right amount of schlock to mellow drama while maintaining its high-budget look and feel. Funny enough, you’ll notice how much of a resemblance it bears to the original. Visually, you’d feel as though this were a reboot, as sweeping tracking shots come into play here. You witness the magnitude of these mega-storms, as the storm chasers enter the danger zone the visuals give you an up close and personal experience. Its visual style and shot composition all play out in the same fashion as its ‘96 progenitor.
But the excitement doesn’t go unwarranted when tragedy becomes the catalyst. We follow a crew of college-aged environmental scientists, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Jeb (Daryl McCormack), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), Javi (Anthony Ramos), and Praveen (Nik Dodani), who set out to chase the storm of the century. Their objective is to unleash an experiment that will deaden the punch of a category 5 storm, using a powder-like formulation Kate and her team have invented. While on assignment, the crew is hot on the trail of a storm, which is growing in intensity. Once the storm hits, they’re forced to reckon with Mother Nature herself, as some team members fall victim to her destructive power.
Despite its emotional set-up, don’t expect full-blown character studies here. This is a disaster movie built to exhilarate and it delivers. It gives you just enough life-trolling backstories that you’re able to care about the players. Yet, it’s more fun just watching two teams of storm chasers that hunt down the biggest storm ever like a reality show treasure hunt. It’s also an up-to-date parable for the social media generation that thrives on putting it all on the line for the views. As with Tyler Owen’s (Glen Powell) team, the outlandish Tornado Wranglers, which consist of Lily (Sasha Lane), a drone pilot; Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe), the only real scientist in the crew; Dani (Katy O’Brian), the mechanic; Boone (Brandon Perea), Tyler’s videographer; and British Journalist Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton), who’s clamoring for a juicy story. The rivalry begins when Kate joins former classmate / friend Javi, after starting his own storm-chasing business Storm Par, which seems suspiciously funded by a developer named Marshall Riggs (David Born).
Since Kate is the gifted “tornado whisperer,” Tyler catches wind of her abilities, which sets off a wild competition to see who will be the first to capture this mega-storm. As we’re experiencing catastrophic weather in real life, due to extreme climate change, “Twisters” is apropos of the times.
The remainder of the cast helps bring some perspective to the madness, as Maura Tierney provides the emotional anchor as Kate’s mother, Cathy Carter. Rounding out Javi’s team is Scott (David Corenswet), the hard-nosed young business partner to Javi, followed by Mike (Steven Oyoung), Javi’s righthand man. You’ll spot the funny Paul Scheer as an airport traffic police officer, and the not-so-apparent Easter Egg role, played by James Paxton, the son of the late original “Twister” star Bill Paxton, in the role of Cody, the disgruntled motel guest.
When you’re being distracted by the faux romance that sparks between Kate and Tyler and other melodrama, the death-defying, hair-raising chaos will take control. And although some moments get cheesy, it never loses sight of its purpose …to simply thrill viewers. I felt “Twisters” was just schlocky enough and wild enough to sit through till the end.
Official Site: Twisters
