It’s summer, and tornadoes might be on the news and on your mind, so if a studio is releasing a disaster film with blockbuster hopes, tornadoes and storm-chasing are a good bet. There was just such a blockbuster hit back in the ’90s, TWISTER, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. TWISTERS, starring the rising star of the moment, Glen Powell, and the cute Daisy Edgar-Jones, is a kind of decedent of that action thrill ride, although not exactly a remake nor a sequel but a hybrid of both. Of course, the real star is the visual effects, many generations advanced from the original, with flying objects and terrifying, unpredictable power of tornadoes. In sequel and remake mad Hollywood, you have to wonder what took them so long
The original action thriller had Helen Hunt as a research meteorological scientist chasing storms and grant-funding and Bill Paxton as her estranged husband, a researcher turned weatherman who is done with storm-chasing, plus competition from a corporate weather research company headed by a former colleague. Directed, surprisingly, by Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of MINARI, TWISTERS has some echoes of that original film but no academic researchers this time and a very different romance in the story. Instead, we have a professional meteorologist, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) working with a private company and a tornado chaser Tyler Owens (from Texas, no less – Glen Powell), who meet on the windswept plains of Oklahoma. She isn’t there for academic research but to aid an old friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos) whose private weather research company is testing some new equipment and needs her expertise. The two have different reasons for being there, different style, different methods, different equipment, but both are there to chase tornadoes.
Glen Powell plays a showboat YouTube channel sensation, who along with his motley crew, chases tornadoes for their daredevil social media show, selling tee-shirts and trinkets along the way. Daisy Edgar-Jones is a professional in meteorology, now a respected figure working out of a high-tech office in New York, but once a storm-chasing Oklahoma graduate student, until a field test of her theory on how to “kill” a tornado goes tragically wrong, a traumatic experience that we see at the opening of the film.
But she is lured back to into the field, and her native Oklahoma, by an old friend who was part of the team helping her test her theory that day. The two have not seen each other for years but he reaches out to her for her expert help testing some new equipment for his weather-data collection business, providing precise, local data on tornadoes to his paying customers. We also get the sense that he has hope to reconnect with her in hopes of kindling romance.
The meteorologists gather in a field with other storm-chasers, some serious and others not, to watch the skies for a developing front with storm potential. YouTube star … and his wild crew pull in a red pickup truck and assorted dinged up vans with music blazing and hoots, drawing a crack from one in the crowd about rednecks from Arkansas.
Personally, I prefer more science in my science fiction (which this kind of is, since it deals in the science of weather and tornadoes), but there is little actual science in this remake/sequel. Kate’s old idea for stopping a tornado is pure fiction and there is a scene with an “eye” in a tornado (that’s hurricanes, not tornadoes, folks). But for most audiences, that won’t matter because they are just there for the FX, with are present in abundance – dazzling visual effects of the power of one of the most terrifying, dangerous forces in nature, the unpredictable tornado.
And you do get those visual jaw-droppers and a visceral thrill ride, although it takes awhile for the story to get started after the early terrifying sequence that shows why Kate is afraid to go back into the field of storm-chasing. After that flashback sequence, the film flashes forward to introduce characters in the present. We get some meet-cute scenes showing the differences between the free-wheeling Tyler and the more professional Kate, and to establish some of the differences between those chasing storms for data-collection and those chasing for thrills and social media likes.
Things really get underway as both sets of storm chasers are taking a break, with Tyler and Kate taking in a local rodeo. Things pick up quickly for the excitement and the storm effects, when a surprise night-time storm hits, sending everyone scrambling.
The effects in TWISTERS are truly thrilling, and massive things fly through the air (although no cows this time). The above sequence, and another awesome one with a movie screen, echo scenes in the original but everything is much bigger, and more impressive. However, audiences should note not to take advice from this film on what to do in a real tornado – heading for a movie auditorium is not the safe choice.
There is little science or accurate information about tornadoes in this one, and Kate’s theory on how to kill a tornado is pure fiction, but the tornado scenes do supply summer escapist thrills, if no practical advice. Also, the romance between the two leads never really takes off, unlike a number of truck and buildings, as there is little to no romantic chemistry between stars Daisy and Glen.
TWISTERS can provide some popcorn fun and summer thrills in the only safe way to encounter a tornado but movie fans hoping for a repeat of the emotional appeal of the original TWISTER likely will be disappointed, as this story is less involving. If you are just there for big visual effects, TWISTERS has thrill delights for you, particularly in a sequence in a movie theater.
TWISTERS opens Friday, July 19, in theaters.
RATING: 2 out of 4 stars
