These tornados will definitely keep you in your seats.
A decade ago, we had “Into the Storm,” which I hated and felt it was a bombastic version of the 1996 special effects hit “Twister.” I was mixed about that hit (originally starring the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt), but I did enjoy the action sequences and visuals, and the trailer is still haunting and thrilling to this day.
Now, we have “Twisters,” the stand alone sequel once again released by Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. and featuring the same amount of thrills and special effects as before. But does it have to be tedious? No, it doesn’t. In fact, it’s actually a lot of fun.
Once again set in Oklahoma, the new heroine of the movie is Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar Jones), who has given up storm chasing after a tornado kills a portion of her team (Nik Dodani and Kiernan Shipka) and her boyfriend (Daryl McCormick). Years later, the only other surviving member of her team-Javi (Anthony Ramos)-asks her to get back in the saddle to test his new tracking system. He has a new team, including his business partner Scott (David Corenswet), and he needs her to be part of it. And she agrees, despite being haunted by her past.
Then, comes the famous and reckless tornado wrangler and YouTuber Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). His team includes the videographer Boone (Brandon Perra) and the drone operator Lily (Sasha Lane), and he’s trying to impress Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton), the London journalist profiling him. You could say they want to make fireworks out of those twisters.
The new director of “Twisters” is Lee Isaac Chung, whose last entry was the extradorinaiy “Minari,” the new screenwriters are Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski, and the original’s producing team of Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall are still credited as executive producers. And like “Pig” director Michael Sarnoski taking on the commercial approach with “A Quiet Place: Day One,” Chung is able to take on a big hit without overselling or glamorizing it.
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Dominion” were both lousy Spielberg sequels of recent memory, because they were derivative and predictable, like how some characters made stupid choices, how the dinosaurs weren’t as likable as they were in 1993, and the cliche that the villains have to be on their menu. “Twisters” is miles and miles and miles ahead of those sequels, because of how they keep its values, and it doesn’t have to act all self-congratulatory about it. In fact, the corporate storm chasing rivals don’t have the same fate as the Cary Elwes antagonist Jonas Miller did in 1996.
It also honors the original with the personality and pathos of the main heroine, and Kate Cooper is no different from Hunt’s Dr. Jo Harding. Jones plays her with the right kind of versatility. And I like the way it hints that will her rivalry with Tyler Owens will turn into a romance or a wise connection, and Powell delivers with the disposition and charms within. So imagine a world where Dr. Jo sparked a chemistry with a nicer version of Jonas. Jones and Powell sure like to depict it.
Does every twister work? No. But that doesn’t mean “Twisters” falls flat. Only a bunch of wood, metal, and debris do. And now that I look at it, I’m pretty sure these tornados just sucked “Into the Storm” far away from me. Maybe not to Oz, but definitely farther away.