The 580th film I have seen in theaters…
A group of college students experiment with “taming” a tornado by altering it’s chemistry. Things do not go well. 5 years later, Kate, the brains behind the scheme is lured back into the storm chaser game in the hopes of developing a high resolution scan of tornados, thereby saving lives.
Enter Tyler Owens, the “Tornado Wrangler”. A live streamer (hitting a little too close to home) who broadcasts from inside tornados. He and Kate form a connection and set out to wrangle a tornado or two.
Daisy Edgar-Jones is Kate and Glen Powell is Tyler. They are our romantic leads and they MORE than carry this film by pure charisma. Powell in particular impressed me. The dude can carry a movie. He’s apparently campaigning for Batman, and I can see it. He might be a better Hal Jordan though.
Like it’s predecessor, Twisters thrives on it’s supporting cast. Every one of these people, except a couple of the nerds in picture 2, are well developed supporting characters.
The “cool” team has Brandon Perea as Boone the cameraman, Harry Hadden-Paton as Ben, the journalist, Sasha Lane as Lily the drone pilot, Tunde Adebimpe as Dexter the science guy, and the great Katy O’Brian as Dani, the mechanic/swag seller. Every one is a blast to watch.
On the opposing “corporate” side we have Anthony Ramos as Javi, Kate’s old college friend, and fucking Superman himself, David Corenswet as Scott, the douche. This is my first time seeing this dude in a film and I can now see it. He’s definitely got the look down. The character is very much the anti-superman in this, and largely quiet smugness throughout. His explosion of anger towards the end showed a bit of range. I think he’ll be a good Superman, but that’s not the point of this post. lol.
I appreciate the chutzpah of going the Alien$ route with this sequel. I honestly never gave a Twister sequel a minute of thought. A soulless cash grab sequel to a 30 year old movie, no big deal. Then I saw the trailer, and said “Hmm, there might be something there”. Then I went to Comic Con and sat in on a Katy O’Brian panel and they played a clip from this film. I went “hmmm…” again and decided to check it out asap. Then I got Covid and was grounded for a while. Now that I am back on my feet, this is exactly what I needed.
Aside from a throwback to the technology in the original, this movie does not tie back at all. It is completely standalone and this was a good decision. Too many sequels devolve into a nostalgia circle jerk these days. As I said earlier, the casting was spot on, every one of them. The script was tight and the banter well written and executed by those actors. This is the secret sauce to the success of the original and it is replicated faithfully here.
Was this as good as the original? The answer might actually be yes. The only edge that the first movie has is that it released first so several aspects were , by nature, derivative. This is not as big of a drawback as it could have been though. No “flying cows” in sight, thank god. The action/cinematography was just as well executed here as in the 90’s, albeit with better effects. The sound design in particular was terrifying. As mentioned, the acting and writing was on par with the original as well. Paxton and Hunt made a good pair of leads, but Powell and Edgar-Jones hold their own. This was a damn good movie. I was not expecting to like this more than Deadpool, but here we are. The perfect summer movie.
8/10
SuperStuff 
speak now, or forever hold it