Twisters – Film Review

Director – Lee Isaac Chung
Writers – Mark L. Smith, Joseph Kosinski, Michael Crichton
Stars – Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos

As Michael Stipe once sang “Should we talk about the weather?” Yes, it’s about time for another film based on Meteorological events! We meet Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) when she is a college student who has come up with a fantastic idea to tackle the scourge of tornadoes. She puts her theory to the test and things go… very badly wrong! The film then cuts to five years later where Kate is working in a Met office in New York. She’s visited by an old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) who aims to bring her back into the world of Tornado chasing with his new business venture. He seeks to do 3-D modelling of tornadoes using some new tech developed by the military. This concept tempts Kate away from her desk job and back to Oklahoma, the land of the Twister. She is working with a team of high-tech scientists assembled from the best US colleges. There, she encounters a maverick by the name of Tyler Owens (Glen Powell of Top Gun: Maverick among others). He doesn’t play by the rules and uses his team of crusties to chase Tornadoes for the entertainment of his YouTube channel fans. But is there more behind this showy exterior? Is there a heart of gold lurking within?

Yes, it’s the follow-up to the 1996 film Twister which incidentally was co-written by Michael Crichton. There is very little to connect the two films other than the subject matter and the font on the title screen! It’s an entirely different film just with the same subject matter. I guess that’s a reboot then? Of sorts anyway.

The film has a surprising amount of plot. Along with the all-too-obvious love story between the total opposites of Glenn and Daisy, we have some great fun set pieces of the various tornadoes. There is an almost Star Trek like disdain for minor characters who are casually gripped by the beast made entirely of wind. There are moments of high-tech jargon that sound wonderfully far-fetched, but who knows, maybe it is all carefully researched with cutting-edge science.

While the love story is always present, it never really takes flight. The film is based around the Tornados which seem two a penny in Oklahoma. In fact, you’ve difficulty choosing which tornado to chase there seem to be so many around. It’s hard to believe that anyone would build a house in these locations. It’s not totally devoid of characterisations, but I did think Daisy Edgar-Jones was destined for thoughtful pieces and not your average action flick. While it won’t do much for the Oklahoma tourist board, it is enjoyable as a Big Screen Blockbuster. If you’re looking for something loud and windy on a Friday night, you could do a lot worse.