There are two things you should know about me ahead of my “Twisters” review. 1) The original “Twister” is a very important movie for me, and 2) I have never cared for country music.
“Twister” was one of the first “grown-up” movies I was allowed to see as a child when it came out in 1996. I was 10 at the time and was in utter awe of the acting and the Spielberg-esque thrills the movie provided. I recently showed “Twister” to my 12-year-old and 9-year-old and was amused by how the special effects — which were groundbreaking at the time — now look like a rudimentary video game. I was also shocked to realize that Bill Paxton’s girlfriend, played by Jami Gertz, was not the villain of the movie, but just a nice lady who thought she had found a weatherman to marry and had to learn the hard way that he was in love with his ex-wife and deadly storms. Regardless, the acting was great, as were the thrills. I still loved it, and so did my kids, especially my 9 year old who has been telling anyone who will listen that she wants to be a storm chaser when she grows up.
So I took her to the press screening of “Twisters,” a movie for which my expectations were pretty low, due in no small part to my adoration for the first movie. A follow-up to a movie that felt so singular and special in my own personal lore seemed doomed to fail by comparison. But I was wrong. “Twisters” is also singular and special, and the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater this year.
I felt comfortable taking my daughter after reading the IMDb Parents Guide. The movie is rated PG-13 for intense action, mild language and images of injuries. The language was never worse than what my children have heard in movies rated PG and the images of injuries are mild for a movie wherein (spoiler alert) multiple people are sucked into tornadoes or hit with debris. I will, however, warn that the most upsetting portion of the film is the first 10 minutes or so, so families with especially sensitive children might do well to show up late.
“Twisters” stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate Carter, a retired storm chaser who reluctantly agrees to spend a week in Oklahoma researching a tornado outbreak with her old friend Javi, played by Anthony Ramos. She does this despite the tornado trauma she suffered in the film’s beginning sequence.
In Oklahoma, she encounters Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell. He’s a bombastic cowboy scientist with a team of “tornado wranglers” who create YouTube videos of their ill-advised tornado antics such as shooting fireworks into a tornado funnel from a truck bed. Which may be dumb, but also was really fun to watch. The Owens team represents the biggest departure from the framework of the original film. While Kate and Javi belong to the same category of storm chasers as the original team — people who could be from anywhere and are concerned only with the science of tornadoes — Owens is very country and treats tornado chasing like a demolition derby. And makes it look just as fun.
Without giving too much away, the story is a fairly predictable tale of enemies turned tornado-chasing partners. But the story really doesn’t matter at all. It’s coherent enough to not distract from what really matters. Tornadoes. And really good-looking people driving through tornadoes in big trucks blasting twangy songs about life in the country. Sometimes the tornadoes are small. Sometimes they’re giant. Sometimes they catch fire. Sometimes they swallow buildings. This film has a lot of tornadoes, and they look incredible. Visual effects have come a long way in the past couple of decades.
The weakest parts of the movie were the portions without tornadoes during which the characters only kind of convincingly explain the science of tornadoes to each other. I found these jargony conversations nearly impossible to follow, but just as my mind would start to wander, the wind would change direction, the sky would darken and bam! Another tornado! Even more intense than the last!
The more effective exposition was given to the real star of the movie in my eyes, the British journalist on assignment. He’s in the U.S. to profile American tornado chasers for a story, and he has the mark of all the best journalists — a willingness to ask really stupid questions. The answers to those questions from the smarmy but undeniably charming Owens helped the audience understand a bit better how tornadoes work and why they must be chased to be understood.
However, the quality of performances in the movie vary and some suffer in comparison to the cast of “Twister,” which included some of Gen X’s most iconic actors, including the prestige darling Philip Seymour Hoffman and Oscar winner Helen Hunt. But the leads make up for whatever side characters may lack. Daisy Edgar-Jones convincingly portrays a woman who is working through grief while navigating her passion for deadly weather. Maura Tierney brings the exact right wise and unbothered energy to her few minutes on screen as Carter’s mother. And Glen Powell absolutely shines in his role. Not just because he looks like he was born to wear a cowboy hat and boots, perhaps thanks to his roots in Texas. As Tyler Owens, he leans into his newfound heartthrob status and leverages it to make his character impossible to dislike, a real feat given how unlikeable many YouTube stars are.
At just under two hours, “Twisters” is a thrill ride of a film with a country-heavy soundtrack that I, an avowed country music hater, didn’t hate. I maybe even kind of liked it. I might be listening to the soundtrack as I write this. I don’t know what’s going on. I may have just gotten a little wrapped up in the excitement of fire tornadoes set to country hits. But it’s a real testament to what this movie can do. As is my 9-year-old’s review. “When I knew a tornado was coming, my legs would get tingly,” she told me. At one point during a particularly intense tornado sequence, I looked over at her and saw she was gripping the drink tray with white knuckles. Then I looked down at my hands, and I was doing the same.
“Twisters” opens in theaters July 19 and is rated PG-13.
