#REVIEW: “TWISTERS”

Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong

In 1996, Twister firmly established that–in the context of cinema–running from (and towards) tornados, watching them suck random people into the sky, and experiencing their devastating impact on anonymous small towns will forever be fun and cool. 28 years later, Twisters takes this idea and.. does it a second time. It’s not so much a sequel as a soft remake featuring some of the same tech, and a similar ‘will-they-or-won’t-they’ romantic rivalry in the eye of the storm. This time, the tension swirls around rising star Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones (and Anthony Ramos, the third–or maybe fourth??—romantic lead).

Twisters works from a solid dramatic foundation. In her past life, our ambitious hero Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) attempted to stop tempests in their tracks with barrels of diaper-adjacent flurry stabilizers. Trust me–this technology is better explained by the visuals and characters! But after a horrific opening sequence, she’s tornado-traumatized into a boring life of meteorology. Years pass, and her old co-worker Javi (Anthony Ramos), invites her back to her supposed true calling, chasing a cluster of twisters in Oklahoma. Kate reluctantly joins his squad, and they encounter the brash and boisterous Tyler (Glen Powell), a big-time tornado youtuber bent on driving inside any cyclone that’ll take him in order to generate as many views as possible. Kate‘s repelled and Tyler’s smitten. The tornado hunt is on, and the twisters do not disappoint. If only the characters were as compelling as those brutal winds.

Twisters delivers more than its fair share of exciting cyclone scenes, but the heart of the Movie falls short of the Bill Paxton-Helen Hunt dynamic in the original. Powell is charismatic, but that may or may not be a trick of the contrast between him and Edgar-Jones, who spends the vast majority of the Movie in a subdued slump. I don’t blame the character, but her presence isn’t nearly as compelling as all the other people in the Movie would have you believe. She can’t turn around without finding a loving admirer, but the writing and performance don’t match the universal appeal. By the midpoint of the Film, it’s clear the real star of Twisters is the twisters. And I’m happy for them. But that feels like a missed opportunity. Unfortunately, the finale features the weakest tornado sequence of them all–and without getting TOO spoilery–our leads are inexplicably split apart when we need them together the most! Twister understood this core principle–without Paxton and Hunt in relative proximity, there’s no movie. Never split Paxton and Hunt! Twisters defies this for seemingly no reason, and then, after a dull resolution, it doesn’t so much end as slowly fade to black. While I wouldn’t say no to TwIIIsters in another twenty-eight years, and Twisters packs in some decent scenes, I don’t think it makes a good enough case for itself as THE tornado movie–particularly in place of the original.

Universal Pictures Canada release TWISTERS July 19, 2024.