'Twisters' A Review

Twisters is a disaster movie, a quasi-sequel to1996's Twister. Kate(Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a storm chaser in Oklahoma but retreats to work with the weather service in NYC after tragedy on a chase. Five years later her friend, the only other survivor of said tragedy, Javi(Anthony Ramos) gets her back on the chase where they butt up against youtuber Tyler(Glen Powell).

Powell is uncompelling and off-putting as Tyler, unable to hit the charming-asshole balance coming across almost entirely as the latter. Edgar-Jones doesn't make much of an impression either way. They are both conventionally attractive which goes some distance for some but neither is able to really generate any real chemistry nor are they able to make much sense out of their flat, lifeless, improbable characters as-written. With the supporting players though the casting agency out did themselves, it is filled with recognizable up-and-coming talent- Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Katy O'Brian, Tunde Adebimpe, Kiernan Shipka, and Nik Dodani- and their presence fills out the mostly lifeless spectacle.

The film has a competent look, the CGI entertaining if not particularly realistic, but the script feels AI generated, the actors executing said script feel like automatons and the plot itself careens from scientific gobbledygook to silly spectacle to incomplete romcom to absolute absurdity. Twister worked because it had serious actors elevating a relatively silly idea. Here the tone is wildly uncertain. For a decades-late sequel Twisters does well as a complete refresh with a young cast unencumbered(for the most part) from clunky tie-ins, although there is a relatively frustrating bait-and-switch non-appearance from Helen Hunt.

The movie has some traction at the box office which I'm all for, whatever gets people in theaters I'm behind, so if you're interested go for it, for me though it was a snoozer.

Currently in theaters. 

Stream It.