
“Twisters” feels like a film carefully crafted to evoke the nostalgia of early 2010s weekend afternoon programming on TNT.
“Twisters” is a curious mix of old and new, standing at the intersection of intergenerational entertainment. Refreshingly, it avoids the pitfalls of a direct legacy sequel—no lingering on Bill Paxton’s character, no long-lost children of Alan Ruck, and no revisiting older versions of Helen Hunt’s role for an expositional flashback. Instead, it embodies the spirit of the late ’00s and early 2010s trend of loose reboots.
Despite its efforts to channel some of the ’90s vibes from the original, “Twisters” often comes across as a dissonant reflection of 2024’s film landscape. It’s a film that juggles various influences and ideas, sometimes creating a jarring experience that can leave viewers feeling a bit disoriented.
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “TWISTERS”
5. The Ensemble Cast
Director Lee Isaac Chung and his team have assembled an impressive lineup of bona fide stars and promising up-and-comers to fill out the cast of this sequel, and it pays off in spades. Characters that could easily have been mere caricatures come alive thanks to the fantastic performers bringing unexpected depth to their roles.
This approach harks back to Jan de Bont’s original “Twister,” which, although you might not remember it for its star-studded cast, featured talents like Alan Ruck, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Todd Field, and Cary Elwes in supporting roles. The sequel admirably aims to capture that same blend of gravitas and chaos with its own casting. In “Twisters,” actors like Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Katy O’Brien, and soon-to-be-Superman David Corenswet take on minor roles and absolutely crush it.
This ensemble, much like the original film’s cast, will likely seem even more impressive over time as many of these names are poised to blow up in the coming years. They all deliver standout performances, with Brandon Perea particularly shining as Glen Powell’s right-hand man, chewing up the scenery to delightful effect.
4. WEAK SPOT: The Needle Drops
“Twisters” is so explicitly aimed at a ‘middle American’ audience that the trappings of it all can be a bit painful at times. While I’m not one to chafe at a film’s chosen setting or the ways it embraces the unique verisimilitude of that location, the country music needle drops in “Twisters” become a truly distracting and detracting element of the film.
It’s not just that they’re all country music needle drops that pose a problem; it’s the sheer quantity and steadily worsening quality of them. The use of these songs grows gratuitous pretty early on, but in their defense, there is some initial fun to be had. They help set up the environment of the film and feel well-integrated with the cowboy-esque tornado wranglers of Glen Powell’s crew. However, the film persists with their use to a mind-numbing degree, often in scenes entirely divorced from Powell or his crew’s presence. Making things worse, the chosen songs are often so egregiously blunt in their lyrical content and how they tie into the narrative that it’s hard to have any emotional reaction other than second-hand embarrassment.
When Lainey Wilson’s “Out of Oklahoma” kicks in (featuring a chorus that repeatedly says ‘You can’t take the home out of Oklahoma’) over the top of Daisy Edgar-Jones’ character literally returning home to Oklahoma, this technique reaches its true zenith of power in the worst ways possible. The songs aren’t chosen for how they enhance the film; they’re just slapped over fully-formed scenes so that they can be featured on the soundtrack. This approach actively dilutes the emotional impact of several scenes across the film, and this quiet moment of finding solace in her old childhood home is handled with all the grace of a sledgehammer when paired with this song.
3. The Indelible Charisma of Glen Powell
In this house, we recognize Glen Powell as a bona fide motherfucking movie star. The man has been delivering capital-G-great performances since Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over,” but has truly hit his stride as a creative and marketing force unto himself in recent years. This is largely due to his seemingly unending charisma and his ability to generate authentically palpable chemistry with anyone who shares the frame with him.
Whether it’s Sydney Sweeney in “Anyone But You,” Adria Arjona in “Hit Man,” or the two-for-one combo of Miles Teller and Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick,” Powell lights an infectious fire onscreen that spreads to anyone within a ten-mile radius. In “Twisters,” this remains true. His relationship with Daisy Edgar-Jones’ character is easily the strongest part of the movie and showcases where director Lee Isaac Chung really gets to strut his stuff.
Even in a role as seemingly limited as this, Powell does a fantastic job of showcasing the versatility of his range, as so wonderfully brought to the foreground in “Hit Man.” Whether he’s channeling the obnoxious braggadociousness of his character early on or quietly imbuing him with more vulnerability and tenderness in the more insular moments, Powell knocks it out of the park here with bona fide movie star charisma to spare.
2. WEAK SPOT: The Final Moment
Having said all of that, the fact that Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones are each so good in the film and so great together makes the final shot of the film absolutely baffling. In the most infuriating of ways, the final shot of “Twisters” is such an embarrassingly astute encapsulation of the modern cinematic landscape in which it was made.
To quickly surmise: it’s the end of the film. Daisy Edgar-Jones’ character is heading back to the big city on an airplane, saying her goodbyes to everyone, including Powell’s character, outside of the airport before heading in. After a few beats, Powell’s character decides to go running in after her, cheered on by Anthony Ramos’ character as he does so.
You’ve seen this a million times before in every other romantic comedy in history. The romantic chemistry and tension these two have built up over the course of the film is about to pay off in a big way with a kiss just before the credits roll, right? There’s even a great little payoff outside, where they’re threatening to tow Powell’s truck, so he uses some of the tornado-wrangling tech they set up earlier to literally drill his truck into the pavement so they can’t tow it, allowing him to run after Edgar-Jones. All of this works so well; hearts are swooning in the audience, and then… they don’t kiss. Or even hug. Or even shake hands.
Powell runs inside, shouting her name. She stops and turns to him, and they just stare at each other as a voiceover talks about stormy weather outside, with the camera focusing on storm clouds brewing outside the airport. It showcases such an absolute failure to provide emotional resonance through an act of romantic payoff, demonstrating the kind of sexless and corporatized storytelling that has become omnipresent in blockbuster films over the past decade.
Rather than having the two romantic leads kiss to end the film, “Twisters” would rather quasi-tease further conflict for a sequel. And while I can’t speak for everyone, I will say that you could hear audible groans of disappointment as soon as the credits rolled in the packed theater I was in for the film.
1. The Swimming Pool Rodeo
Okay, so with that big gripe out of the way, let’s talk about the best part of the entire film: the rodeo tornado that culminates with the characters having to take shelter in an empty swimming pool.
For a film that so often fails to capture the same kind of visceral tactility of the original film (This is not the swipe it sounds like, original “Twister” director Jan de Bont was a bona fide master of practical action work, serving as DP on films like “Die Hard” and directing “Speed.” He was an integral part of creating the kind of visual vernacular that the first film implemented so well, and it’s easy to see why. No one was ever going to be able to recapture that in 2024.) This sequence in the middle of the film really taps into some of the experiential horror and primal fears inherent to the subject matter in powerful ways.
First off, having Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones’ characters’ first real moment of bonding happen at this rodeo, only to be swiftly interrupted by an unexpected tornado, is thrilling. Prior to this, we’ve only seen them interact with storms that they chase. Here, it catches them off-guard, and without their crews or their technology, they’re both thoroughly unprepared, starting at a distinct disadvantage. It immediately makes the stakes feel much higher, and the danger feel that much more authentic.
In conjunction with this, this sequence is also the first time we see these characters actively working to help victims of the storm as it happens. In trying to inform people and rush them to safety as the storm is hitting, everything feels urgent and exciting in a way that the other setpieces just don’t. On top of all of this, the sequence culminates with a stitched-together sustained take, in which we watch Powell and Edgar-Jones hold out the wrath of the tornado in the abandoned swimming pool, and it is easily the most impactful moment of the entire film. For all of the truly impressive ILM visual effects on display throughout the film, it turns out the most impressive effect of all is still just the faces of some really good actors reacting to horrifying events on the biggest screen possible.
RGM GRADE
(C+)
I liked “Twisters” just fine. It is what it is, no more, no less.