TWISTERS

Twister, back in 1996, provided audiences with thrill-a-minute spectacle that made it such a major financial success at the summer box-office. It even spawned a popular theme park ride at Universal Studios Florida that opened in 1998 and maintained its place until 2015. Hollywood seems to have hit a trend of trying to breathe new life into old projects to try and make some quick money, and that is the case with Twisters, a standalone sequel that sees storm-chasing thrust into the modern world where technology allows for a much more up-close and personal experience with the dark side of nature.

Haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado, Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) gets lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi, to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. She soon crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a charming but reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. As storm season intensifies, Kate, Tyler and their competing teams find themselves in a fight for their lives as multiple systems converge over central Oklahoma.

Twisters stakes a claim to be as menacing as its predecessor with an opening sequence full of the peril you'd come to expect from a film full of tornadoes tearing through towns and destroying people's livelihoods. It's an opening that escalates to levels that totally threw me off-guard and signalled, to me, that Lee Isaac Chung was going to deliver something quite special here. After that though, there's a distinct lack of peril throughout the other tornado encounters. This includes a big finale that is over before it even really begins, resulting in weightless spectacle that fails to live up to the terror of the impressive opening sequence. That being said, the tornado sequences are visually impressive and fully immerse you right amongst it all - which is a major part of what these films are about. In that regard, it is solid summer blockbuster fun.

There's a humanity to proceedings, which comes as no surprise with Lee Isaac Chung in the director's chair. Following his gorgeous work in Minari, Chung manages to navigate a large ensemble cast (as was done in the first film) to make them all feel involved in a way that doesn't just make them feel like background noise. Mark L. Smith's screenplay and Joseph Kosinki's story really do drive home the idea of facing up to past trauma in the eye of adversity rather well, Katie's journey the most compelling of all the characters as a result.

Facing the twisters this time around is an ensemble cast led by Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, who share true chemistry that brings a much needed spark to proceedings. Powell manages to nearly out-douche his character from Scream Queens which, for those that know, is quite a thing to achieve - his Tyler Owens obsessed with entertaining his audience while storm-chasing with his ragtag YouTube team. Edgar-Jones gives Powell's ego a run for its money with a dogged performance as Kate, her fragile state of mind while facing her trauma played brilliantly by an actress who is certainly making her mark on Hollywood. As good as they are though, they're missing the gravitas that was provided by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in the original film.

What also makes this a fun summer blockbuster experience is the rest of the ensemble cast that get a chance to ride into the chaos. Anthony Ramos is the most prominent of them all but when you compare him to Phillip Seymour Hoffman from the original, it's just not fair. Hoffman was one of those actors who could take the smallest role and make it memorable. The one who will probably live longest in the memory from this film is Brandon Perea as one of Tyler's YouTube crew.

While I don't think Twisters surpasses its predecessor, it does prove to be a fun cinematic experience this summer blockbuster season. If anything, it will absolutely catapult both Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones into Hollywood superstardom.

Verdict: ★★★½