Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters is bringing the disaster movie back to the big screen this summer. More unrelated follow up than sequel, Twisters stars Daisy Edgar Jones as Kate, a storm-chaser turned weather analyst who returns to her home state of Oklahoma in the name of tornado research that could help mitigate the damage that an uptick in tornadoes is doing to the area. While performing this research alongside longtime friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) Kate finds herself butting heads with Glen Powell’s Tyler Owens, a storm-chasing meteorologist influencer with a massive streaming audience. Kate and Tyler’s storm-chasing competition helps them both bond over their love of the weather and need to help those who can’t help themselves as bigger and bigger storms bear down on Oklahoma.
Twisters is a wild ride from start to finish. Tornadoes hit, people die, things get destroyed, and those who are left do their best to pick up the pieces. It’s not all spectacle though, there’s a lot of technical jargon and scientific theories thrown around in Twisters, and most of it is stated very clearly and concisely so that the audience need not be meteorologists themselves in order to understand what’s going on.
The film, of course, takes liberties with some of the science but for the most part, it feels believable. When it isn’t believable, it’s really jarring, however. There is a moment late in the movie where Kate explains that the science they have in place to save the day will not work, yet when the climax of the movie hits, it all works out despite the explicit statement that it wouldn’t work half an hour beforehand. To make matters worse, there’s no explanation after the fact, the film simply moves on.
Under all the tornados and the science, this movie is mainly a story about Kate and her resilience and need to help those around her. She tackles these storms with the express purpose of saving people from them, and Daisy Edgar Jones’ performance really hammers it home. The standout star of Twisters, however, is Glen Powell. At first appearing as a rowdy and irreverent southern charmer, it’s clear Tyler knows his stuff about tornados, and we see his persona soften over the course of the film as he helps people in need both during and after the tornadoes touch down. Glen Powell sells all of this with a gusto and charisma that’s believable every step of the way.
Twisters is big and loud, and doesn’t let up from start to finish. It’s got some corny lines and some plot points that don’t quite make sense, but it’s a fun summer blockbuster of a kind that it feels like we haven’t seen in a long time. The visual spectacle of the storms was impressive every time they were on screen, and the characters chasing and weathering those storms were just as impressive. Twisters was made for the big screen, so make sure you head out and see it this summer.
Score: 8/10
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TWISTERS
Release Date: July 19, 2024
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Disaster Epic
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane, Harry Hadden-Patton, David Corenswet, Daryl McCormack, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O’Brian, Nik Dodani, Kiernan Shipka, Paul Scheer
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Screenplay by: Mark L. Smith
Story by: Joseph Kosinski
Based on characters created by Michael Crichton & Anne Marie Crichton
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley
Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg, Thomas Hayslip, Ashley Jay Sandberg
This summer, the epic studio disaster movie returns with an adrenaline-pumping, big-screen thrill ride that puts you in direct contact with one of nature’s most wondrous—and destructive—forces.
From the producers of the Jurassic, Bourne and Indiana Jones seriescomes Twisters,
a current-day chapter of the 1996 blockbuster, Twister. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar® nominated writer-director of Minari, Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing), Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) and Anthony Ramos (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) as equal forces, with opposing motivations, who come together to try to predict, and possibly tame, the immense power of tornadoes.
Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Carter, a former storm chaser haunted by a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years who now studies storm patterns on screens safely in New York City. She is lured back to the open plains by her friend, Javi (Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new tracking system. There, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), the charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures with his raucous crew, the more dangerous the better.
As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed, and Kate, Tyler, Javi and their crews find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.
Twisters features an exciting new cast, including Nope’s Brandon Perea, Golden Globe winner Maura Tierney (Beautiful Boy), Sasha Lane (American Honey), Harry Hadden-Paton (The Crown), David Corenswet (We Own This City), Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders), Tunde Adebimpe (Leave the World Behind), Katy O’Brian (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Nik Dodani (Atypical), Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Paul Scheer (Black Monday).
From Amblin, Twisters is directed by Lee Isaac Chung and is produced by Oscar® nominee Frank Marshall (Jurassic and Indiana Jones franchises) and by Patrick Crowley (Jurassic and Bourne franchises). The screenplay is by Mark L. Smith, writer of the Best Picture nominee The Revenant, from a story by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion), based on characters created by Michael Crichton & Anne Marie Crichton. The executive producers are Academy Award® winner Steven Spielberg, Thomas Hayslip and Ashley Jay Sandberg. Twisters will be distributed by Universal Pictures domestically and by Warner Bros. Pictures internationally.
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