In 1996 the world was gifted with Twister, a fun summer disaster blockbuster with an absolutely stacked cast. Nearly thirty years later, Oscar nominated filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung brings us back to Oklahoma with Twisters, a very loosely related sequel sending audiences back to the storm chasing fun of the original.
This new blast of tornado fun stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate, a former storm chaser brought back into the game when an old friend (played by Anthony Ramos) introduces her to new military technology they can use to accurately scan tornados. In doing so she crosses paths with tornado wrangler Tyler Owens, played by the ever so popular Glen Powell, and his team including Brandon Perea, Katy O'Brien, Sasha Lane, and Tunde Adibimpe.
To put it simply, I had a blast with this. It takes everything great about the first film and understands that it doesn't need to reinvent the wheel, instead giving us everything you want in a summer disaster flick. Yes it does get a little dumb at times, but it also does a pretty great job of showing the destructive weight theses storms have. There's the fun of riding around these tornados with Glen Powell shooting fireworks in them, but then there are moments of pretty heartbreaking drama when things get real, and that emotion is something I really appreciated.
From a technical standpoint I don't have many gripes. The CGI was actually pretty convincing to me, and that easily could have taken me out if they were looking like Sharknado. Lee Isaac Chung is a great filmmaker and I think his handle of tone is a large part of what makes the emotional moments work alongside the fun, but I was also pretty impressed with how he handled the scale of this. The cinematography is pretty solid, nothing necessarily blew me away but it looked good, and the soundtrack is pretty perfect although edited somewhat strangely in a spot or two.
I love Daisy Edgar-Jones, and I was surprised to see that she is pretty much the main lead here. I thought her and Glen Powell would share the wealth but he is more of a supporting character, and she does a pretty great job carrying this. Powell is also perfect, he's fun but with a little something under the surface that lets you know he has a heart under the cool guy façade. I'm over the moon about the supporting cast though. All the names I mentioned before as part of Powell's team are so much fun and I only wish we got more of them. Perea especially is hilarious and has some of the best lines. We also get Harry Hadden-Paton as a hilarious British reporter finding himself very much out of his depth, new superman David Corenswet as a douchey associate of Anthony Ramos' character, and an opening scene with Kiernan Shipka Daryl McCormack, and Nik Dodani that just had me wanting more.
At the end of the day, this is the kind of movie that has you driving home after with your arm out the window with some country blaring out the speaker whether you like country music or not. I was worried my initial opinion was tainted by the fun-aid of Twisted Tea, but I've seen it twice now and had a blast both times. This is a terrific summer blockbuster.
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