Twisters: Solid, simple, old school.

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Rob Ryan

The original Twister from 1996 was not exactly a great movie but it benefited from a cheesy and energetic tone, ground breaking visual effects (for the time) and the perfect casting of everyone involved. This modernised version of the original film named Twisters with one letter difference makes the smart choice (compared to a lot of remakes and sequels to 90s classics) to have it stand on it's own two feet without any sort of call backs whatsoever, the only thing that's kept is it's setting, structure and a machine named "Dorothy" consisting of tones of barrels containing sensors, ready to be sucked into a twister to be transferred as scientific data, the machine can also cause a tornado to collapse, the less you question how, the more you'll enjoy this movie.

Replacing the Bill Paxton role is Daisy Edgar-Jones who despite a rocky big screen debut performance in Where the Crawdads Sing manages to come to her own as a charismatic movie star. (she's even improved on an American accent) She plays Kate Carter, a former storm chaser who 5 years ago as part of her college thesis was trying to put Dorothy to the test along with her fellow storm chasers but a miscalculation meant she underestimated the scale of the storm and as a result, she is the only survivor while all her friends are sucked into the air.

One day when working as a Meteorologist in New York, she's approached by Ravi (Anthony Ramos) a former colleague who was reading the data at a separate vehicle at the time of the incident. He's received funding from a business tycoon to test out his military equipment that will allow him to predict the general area a twister is going to land at any given time and needs Kate's talent for sensing out more severe storms in order to track them down.

She reluctantly agrees and when she arrives back in Oklahoma, it's when the film introduces it's biggest bright spark, Enter Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) a self proclaimed "Storm Wrangler" who along with his rag tag group of redneck underdogs are not about wearing uniform, driving clean and fancy 4&4"s or selling out to the man. Ravi and his colleagues are not amused by Tyler's antics but that doesn't stop Kate and Tyler slowly but surly developing a close bond, learning that with his fearlessness and her genius they can finish what she started and maybe put Dorothy to the test again, all the while Tornados constantly keep tearing through unsuspecting towns in the area.

Glen Powell is becoming one of those actors who's sheer presence in a film boost's the charm and wholesome levels by an extra 10 percent, his infections smile, smug attitude and his affinity for starring in the face of death are all qualities that not only make him the perfect modern movie star but a perfect successor to actors like Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman and so on who managed to make the original work as well as it does. Both he and Edgar-Jones are dynamic actors and their differing personalities and obvious romantic chemistry keep the movie exciting when ever there's no Tornado action taking place but I don't think there is a more perfect leading man today that can match the originals energy as he does. He is impeccable and we are so lucky to have him.

The screenplay by Mark L. Smith doesn't take itself too seriously nor gets too bogged down on melodrama, back story, call backs or any number of unnecessary elements of modern blockbuster filmmaking. The film keeps the pace and action going wasting no time, There are a plethora of cheesy elements that keep true to that cheesy summer blockbuster disaster movie sensibility, from Ravi's co- worker (David Corenswet) who couldn't make his contempt for Kate any more obvious (Best believe he'll get his comeuppance at the climax) to an English journalist (Harry Hadden-Patton) with balding hair and oversized glasses tagging along Tyler's crew who almost acts like an audience viewpoint to the films scientific mumbo jumbo. The only subversive element of this character is that he doesn't get sucked up by the Tornado and actually get's somewhat involved in the action, it's nice they didn't go with the obvious conclusion to an otherwise thankless character.

The film could have benefited with more screen time with Tyler's crew as everyone of them is so enjoyable much like in the original that I was left wanting more, more about their individual quirks that make them unique and build the puzzle piece to Tyler's project. The storm sequences are also lacking when it comes to the build up and atmosphere. The sequences in the original not only carry a lot of weight but are also pretty scary and while the effects are impressive they just don't hold that same gravitas, presumably I guess due to how well used we are to visual effects of this scale ever since the original release, that it's hard to capture anything on that level again. Regardless, director Lee Issac Chung coming of the back of his Oscar winning debut Minari is proven to be non the less competent when it comes to big budget visual effects, lets hope this gives him the opportunity to make more personal and ambitious movies.

I guess what I liked about this compared to most modern remakes to 80's-90s classic was how it didn't carry a sense of self importance about itself, This isn't a film that's trying to one up the original nor remind you of how good it was nor be bogged down by it's own legacy, this is just a solid, simple, old school disaster movie that has a lot of personality and isn't afraid to have fun with itself, that's all it needed to do and on that level, Twisters delivers.