‘Twisters’ Review
Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Kiernan Shipka, Katy O’Brien, Daryl McCormack | Written by Mark L. Smith | Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
28 years after the original movie, Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is using Dorothy to get a new invention off of the ground — a powder that should decelerate the power of a tornado if it gets swept up. After a catastrophic disaster with an F5, Kate puts her dreams on the back burner until her friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) entices her back to Oklahoma. While there, she meets YouTube sensation Tyler (Glen Powell), who describes himself as a ‘tornado wrangler.’ As the trio race for the best storm, Kate learns both guys aren’t as they appear.
Let’s call a spade a spade — Twisters is almost exactly the same film as Twister, except this time, no CGI cows get swept up in a tornado. Play by play, beat for beat, the core narrative is an identical twin, though the placement of charisma has completely changed. The first time around, Helen Hunt led the charge to be seduced by bad weather, whereas Glen Powell picks up the mantle in the “reimagination.”
Girl has a life-changing brush with life-changing weather, she warms to an estranged yet somehow distant man, yet tornado season brings the two together with a smattering of romance. Where have we seen that before? Twisters isn’t going to win any awards for originality, and the skeptic in us needs to question what the point of any of this is. Throughout its initial press tour, there was a hard drive to ensure that the movie wasn’t a rip-off or direct remake, but the result is slightly more subtle. If we were to be incredibly cynical, we’d say this was a desperate industry cash grab rather than adding any kind of artistic flair.
Daisy Edgar-Jones isn’t helping things too much by delivering a performance that is quite literally the middle of the road. If Kate was a spice, she’d be flour — which is something Helen Hunt’s Jo Harding never strayed towards. Obviously, Kate is a woman with a lifetime of trauma that needs working through, yet the corny storyline frames her future very conveniently. Arguably Twisters doesn’t need any romantic element at all, but if we’re sticking with a Middle America narrative, there need to be some traditional tropes.
This is all very pessimistic, though. At face value, Twisters is a really good time at the cinema. In fact, it’s exactly the sort of film that makes paying out for a ticket worth it. It’s big-time action delivered in a familiar and accessibly commercial form… and let’s not forget, this is parent fodder to the max. Audiences will spend the entire runtime rightly swooner over Glen Powell, who is well on his way to Tom Cruise of Matthew McConaughey trajectory. A cameo from his real-life dog Brisket would have been the icing on the cake, but we can’t have it all.
*** 3/5
Twisters is in cinemas now.
