Twisters – The BRWC Review. By Daniel Rester.  

Twisters spins into the summer season with a big helping of disaster movie porn. It’s a belated sequel to Twister (1996), which was directed by Jan de Bont and starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. While Twisters only has a sprinkling of nods to the original, the sequel from Lee Isaac Chung captures the fun spirit of that film. It also works as a good platform for rising stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell. 

Edgar-Jones plays Kate Carter, a former storm chaser brought back into the game by her friend Javi (Anthony Ramos). He needs help with testing a new tornado scanning system in Oklahoma. Kate and Javi’s team not only have to face the storms, but a cocky Internet personality named Tyler Owens who calls himself a “tornado wrangler.” 

Like with Twister, Twisters uses a simple plot, likable characters, and ludicrous science babble to hang a series of crazy set pieces on. Chung and writer Mark L. Smith do attempt to point out the effects the storms can have on everyday people, and how real estate vultures can swoop in, but for the most part the action scenes and Kate’s story are the focus. Because who wants to worry about real-world outcomes when visual effects are going wild and Powell is wearing tight shirts in the rain? 

Edgar-Jones, Powell, and Ramos all have believable chemistry, and Smith does manage to give their characters arcs as well. The supporting cast is stacked with familiar faces too, including Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, and David Corenswet. Most of the side players only get a few lines to work with, but they all bring effort to the table. Lane is fun as a drone pilot named Lily, while Maura Tierney brings heart to the material as Kate’s mother Cathy. 

Chung and cinematographer Dan Mindel smoothly capture the farmland settings in the film while being aided by an army of visual effects workers for the storms. The visuals and sound design are all believable throughout. Less believable is that Tyler gets away with using copyrighted songs while doing YouTube live streams. Some of the song choices, mostly country, do become distracting at times; a Spielbergian tone with the music would have been a wiser choice, like Twister did with its music score.   

Twisters does not change the disaster movie formula in really any way, and it’s not quite as good as the 1996 original. But it’s a fun piece of summer escapism with a diverse cast and plenty of thrills. For those wanting an old-school Hollywood blockbuster, Twisters checks the box. 

Rating: 7/10

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