Being back from vacation, it was hard to get started back into things, work, or other activities. But thankfully I got some time over last weekend to venture out and catch another new movie in theaters. This week’s selection is Twisters from Director Lee Isaac Chung. Twisters does a good job of being a sequel without actually being a sequel. I will explain that more later, but before we start this whirlwind together, just know that there will be spoilers, so if you don’t want this to plow a path through your thoughts on the movie. Maybe find some shelter, read some of my other reviews here, and return when you’re ready for the whole storm.
Ok, let’s go into the storm now, shall we? I say that as a joke, but that is literally what some of the characters do in the movie. Much like the original film, Twister (1996), this one starts with a flashback, only this time it’s only five years ago. A group of young storm chasers are trying to use Dorothy IV and some chemicals to see if they can slow down the intensity of a tornado. This is the first and only real ties Twisters has to Twister unless I overlooked something on my watch-through. (edit: I did miss something. I found out that Bill Paxton’s son had a cameo in this to honor Bill, not a movie tie-in, just a nod to it) I just want to know how this group came upon having Dorothy IV and has nothing been used between III and now? There is a tragic end to this scene with only two of the young adults surviving.
We pick up five years later with one of the two survivors, Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is now working at a NOAA office in New York instead of Storm Chaser. You can tell right away that she isn’t really happy, but she’s also still recovering from the incident that killed her boyfriend and friends. But, when Javi (Anthony Ramos), the second survivor, comes back into her life her world gets turned upside down again. Javi works for “Storm Par” a tornado radar company and he wants her assistance to help track down some tornadoes for his company.
She reluctantly agrees and much like the 1996 original, there is a rival group also chasing the same storms. This time though it’s a group led by Tyler Owens (Glen Powell, who I told you was popping up everywhere) and his group of “tornado wranglers”. I liked this twist(er) on the storytelling here. Tyler and his group come across as if they are shooting for a real YouTube channel, in fact at this very moment, there may actually be someone who does that. But either way, it was a very modern plot to place into the film.
At this point, the two sides are each trying to chase a tornado, with Kate always leading the charge and being able to read the storms correctly each time and Tyler consistently consumed by her and her skills. This is around the same time Kate starts to learn that Tyler’s group isn’t all bad, but the company that Javi works for isn’t doing good things for the communities destroyed by the storms and does her own storming off to spend some time at her mother’s house. Her mom was played by Maura Tierney and that was a pleasant surprise since I didn’t see her in the trailer.
Tyler tracks her down at her mom’s house and they hang out for a bit as she tells him everything she had been working on in the past. Eventually, they realized that she was on the right track but just needed to add some extra to what she was doing. Tyler agrees to help her, so she joins his crew during the next twister. In the meantime, Javi is slowly starting to regret his decisions as well.
As we hit the climax of the movie, we get an awesome scene of the twister catching fire before it turns into a mile-wide EF5 category tornado. As Kate and Tyler rush to the nearby town to assist, Javi decides to join them and leave his team behind. They all reach the town barely in time to start moving people into the local movie theater. Just as the twister starts to rip apart the town (including the theater) Kate rushes to Tyler’s truck drives into and launches the chemicals. The truck is overturned, but her efforts work as the tornado starts to die down.
During the closing scene, Javi takes Kate to the airport and Tyler shows up too. I thought there was going to be a romance somewhere in here. They sort of teased early on that Javi may have feelings for Kate and there was definitely something going on between her and Tyler. But, alas we get nothing except them running away from the airport to chase another storm. I did read somewhere that they did film a scene with Tyler chasing after Kate and them kissing in the airport, the Chung thought the story was good enough without it. I guess that’s what part two is for right?
So, overall this was a fun movie with some intense moments and with not many ties to the original, it does a good job of standing on its own without that reference point (if you haven’t seen it). As a sequel, it would have been fun to have a few more Easter Eggs or a nod to the past, but I’m a sucker for those things, so not having them doesn’t take away from how good the action is. My biggest gripe with Twisters is the character development some of them don’t change for five years and then seem to do a complete 180 in the matter of a day or two or have completely misguided story paths.
In the end, none of that matters as we have a bonafide hit disaster movie on our hands here. I know I joked about a sequel earlier, but this definitely has some money legs to stand on now after the performance so far. With all that said, I give this movie an 8 out of 10… that’s a class EF4 if you’re counting.
What did you think of this movie? Have you watched it yet? Were you on the end of your seat? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and I will be back with a new review next week that will probably be about the biggest movie of the year so far.
Thanks for reading and I will talk to everyone next week.
