Action
Adventure
Review: ‘Twisters’ is a Solidly Entertaining Sequel that Avoids Mediocrity Thanks to Its Leading Man’s Charisma
July 18, 2024Ben MK
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Like death and taxes, you can always count on Hollywood to seek out new opportunities to capitalize on moviegoers' nostalgia. Whether it's remakes, sequels or prequels, almost everything old is guaranteed to become new again in one way or another. It's a tradition that has proven true in recent years especially, with films like Bad Boys For Life and Mean Girls trying their best to woo both old fans and newcomers to the multiplexes. And with Twisters, history repeats itself once again, as director Lee Isaac Chung sets out to deliver a decades-later followup to Jan de Bont's 1996 action classic — only this time, with improved visual effects and a heaping helping of leading-man charisma. Following a whole new group of Oklahoma-based storm-chasers, the story begins with Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a grad student determined to secure a grant for her ingenious invention — a system with the ability to disrupt and essentially stop a tornado in its path. It's a game changer that could potentially save thousands of American lives each year. However, when things go terribly wrong after she and her friends attempt to track down a tornado to prove her invention's viability, it leaves Kate traumatized and unable to continue with her work. Fast forward five years, and Kate, now working a desk job in New York City, has tried her hardest to put that disastrous day behind her. When her old friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos), comes to visit her one day with a proposition that would have her helping him use state-of-the-art military technology to shed new light on how to predict the destructive weather patterns, though, she finds herself venturing back to her old stomping grounds. Enter Tyler (Glen Powell), a rival storm-chaser from Arkansas whose own team of rough-and-tough, tornado-vlogging fanatics make Javi and his crew of polo shirt-wearing academics look like a group of trainees from the Best Buy Geek Squad. Known for his flair for showmanship and his unabashed penchant for selling merchandise with his own face on them to their legions of fans on the road, Tyler immediately lands himself in Kate's bad books, as he races her and Javi's team in his souped-up pickup truck from one twister sighting to another, in an attempt to leave his mark on as many tornadoes as possible. Much to Kate's surprise, however, she soon discovers another side to Tyler that suggests he may not be as annoying as she initially thinks he is. And when it becomes apparent that his motives for chasing tornadoes may be even more well-intentioned than Javi's crew, Kate and Tyler end up teaming up, as they set out to restart her work on disrupting tornadoes — all just in time for them to try and use it to stop a major one from flattening a nearby town full of unsuspecting people. Written by Mark L. Smith, what follows attempts to recapture the thrill of watching Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton play cat and mouse with tornadoes in the original. Still, despite being largely successful with its many edge-of-your-seat set pieces featuring our heroes facing off against larger-than-life meteorological foes, there's something missing from this sequel that the first movie had in spades. Blame it on blockbuster fatigue or chalk it up to the fact that audiences in 1996 were much more easier to impress with computer-generated tornadoes that audiences in 2024, but it's safe to say that viewers who know and love the original won't be blown away by this followup. For the most part, though, Twisters proves to be a solidly entertaining diversion, thanks in no small part to Powell, whose charm and charisma almost singlehandedly saves the film from being just another generic cash-in. Suffice to say, the result may not be anything groundbreaking, and even the ho-hum plot may leave fans of its predecessor underwhelmed; however, what Twisters lacks in originality it more than makes up for with the sheer watchability of Powell's performance. Like Anyone But You and Hit Man, Powell proves he’s capable of shouldering more than his share of the box office load, once again mesmerizing viewers with his magnetism. And when it comes to the summer movie season, that's as much that audiences can ask for. Twisters releases July 19th 2024 from Universal Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images. Its runtime is 1 hr. 57 min. |
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