Twisters

For several reasons, as trailers for Twisters began to come out, I was comparing it heavily to Top Gun: Maverick. Glen Powell is an obvious connection point, but there's also this "legacy" sequel element, and the thought that, much like Top Gun put me in the cockpit, so too has technology advanced that I could be "in" the tornado. There's also something very American about storm chasers on the plains of Oklahoma, similar to fighter pilots in the U.S. military.

I was genuinely curious: could this be 2024's Top Gun: Maverick? 

The short answer is: from a box office perspective? Who knows. I doubt it, though this will do well, depending on how much Deadpool gobbles it up next weekend. From a quality perspective? No, but that's less because Twisters is bad, and more because TG: Maverick is one of the best films of the 2020's. 

What Twisters gets absolutely right is the characters and casting. Sure, there are some cast members that are woefully ignored (how could you ignore Katy O' Brian like that?), but our top 3 of Anthony Ramos, Daisy Edgar Jones, and Glen Powell all fit their roles perfectly. Their characters are well developed for a disaster film like this, and I found myself genuinely caring for their well-being. Edgar Jones' Kate in particular suffers some pretty substantial trauma that the story wrestles with effectively. It's nothing Oscar worthy, but where other disaster films ignore that type of thing, Twisters uses it to build her connections to other characters like Powell's Tyler. Powell's screen presence continues to be something akin to pre-workout, creating a buzz nearly every time he's on screen. He comes in hot with the introduction in this film and it allows his character to be perceived one way, while uncovering that he's genuinely a good guy (spoiler, I guess?). This is a cast that's built to carry a film like this, but also potentially be part of something bigger if it's successful enough to warrant a sequel. And it's likely because of this cast that I would see a follow-up, should there be one. 

At just over 2 hours (by 2 mins), Twisters is pretty efficient at telling its story (loving the short and efficient films lately!). Oklahoma is being ravaged by a "once in a lifetime" tornado spree where there's seemingly multiple tornados every day. Hence the plural on "twister"! Kate's previous research and general knack for reading storms makes her a key player to potentially learning how to diffuse the tornados once formed. The plot beats are enjoyable, if not a little generic, and I'm not sure there's any truth to the science of "wrangling" a tornado. Certain beats can be corny and damn, if there weren't multiple examples of nearly every character delivering play-by-plays on a tornado: "It's starting!" [cut to another character] "It's going west!" [cut to another character] "It's growing!" [cut to another character] "Lookout, it's changing wind shear!"...I digress, but that's not inaccurate at all. The story is entertaining in a turn-off-your-brain sort of way and much like I referred to above, I was more invested in the characters anyway. 

Lastly comes the actual storm chasing. It's here where I found Twisters at its most average. The special effects are typically great and the sound effects even better, but something about the way things were filmed just didn't get my pulse racing like I thought it should have been. There's exciting sequences and intense moments, but I also didn't get a true sense of danger all that often. From seeing others' reactions, perhaps that's just me, but I wanted Twisters disaster sequences to be more thrilling. 

In this long-awaited, yet not-wholly-necessary sequel, Twisters proves that with the right pieces - mainly cast - in place, you can make a sequel (or reimagining) to many once-dead franchises. There's no connection to the previous film that I could gather and instead this does feel like an "original" film with a cast that's good at entertaining and making you care about them. Throw in some fun tornado chases and you've got yourself a likely successful blockbuster. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10