'Twisters' is the best three-star movie of the past twenty years

Meteorologist Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is lured back to Oklahoma following a tragedy by her old friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos), to help with the development of a new technology that can predict and pinpoint the path and creation of tornadoes. There in Oklahoma, Kate crosses paths with Tyler (Glen Powell), a rogue storm chaser and social media superstar as the two teams compete as the storm season intensifies...

The original 'Twister', released back in the carefree days of the late '90s, was a summer smash with absolutely nothing in the way of cultural impact.

Much like a tornado, it tore a path through cinemas, percolated on videos, and then eventually petered out into not much at all. People remembered it fondly, sure, but there was no great desire for a sequel. After all, it's a movie about tornadoes. How does one even make a sequel to that? 'Twisters' shares precious little of anything with the original. Helen Hunt doesn't come out of the shadows and waves to the camera. Bill Paxton, sadly, passed on some years ago, while Jami Gertz and Cary Elwes are also nowhere to be seen. The only thing that carries over is the notion of tornadoes being cinematic fuel and attractive people trying to chase after them.

In the same way that 'Top Gun: Maverick' reminded us that it's as much about capturing the feeling as anything else, 'Twisters' has the same sense of vitality about it. The excitement when the tornadoes spin up and start ripping through debris is palpable, and when you see it in an IMAX or a giant-screen format, it feels intense in a way that CGI nowadays rarely ever is. It's also helped by a cast that is deeply aware that they're merely window-dressing and cardboard cutouts peppered in for the on-screen destruction.

Glen Powell, who is fast becoming the Matthew McConaughey circa 2004 of our time, plays the role with all of the subtlety and grace of a fart in a bathtub. He bursts onto the screen like the physical manifestation of a "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" t-shirt, complete with ten-gallon hat and easy charm. Daisy Edgar-Jones meanwhile is the virtuous, overly qualified science person who is trying to make tornadoes disappear with barrels that look suspiciously like the same barrels from 'Jaws', while Anthony Ramos is trying to work his radar gizmo and is in bed with a shady property developer. The script tries to spin up a love triangle of sorts between them, but it's all so ineffective and ultimately gets in the way of the good stuff.

To be clear if it wasn't already, 'Twisters' is as dumb as a bag of hammers, yet it's made by Lee Isaac Chung, whose last movie 'Minari' was a critical darling and went on to receive six Oscar nominations. It's hard to square a movie like that with something like 'Twisters', as there isn't an ounce of smarts or awareness to it whatsoever. There's not a single mention of the fact that the increase in tornadoes is caused by climate change, and even the imagery of a tornado ripping through a petroleum plant goes unnoticed and uncommented by all concerned. Instead, everyone's too busy trying to smell the fart and look good while doing so as loud country rock plays over the carnage. There's never a moment in 'Twisters' where it's not trying to be as broadly entertaining and accessible as it possibly can be. It is a movie that is earnestly trying to be fun, exciting, easy to watch, and the kind of brainless spectacle that so often made up cinema in the '90s. Based on that, 'Twisters' is a qualified success.