Twisters – Review

Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 2 minutes, Director – Lee Isaac Chung

Former storm chaser Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is called back to the game for a week to help an old friend (Anthony Ramos) achieve funding for his tornado tracking company, however the team have to put up with YouTubers (Glen Powell) making content in the middle of storms.

1996’s Twister is one of the most fun films to have come out of the decade. It’s a film that’s aware of its own silliness and runs with it. As if openly admitting that it started out as an experiment with the latest digital effects technologies and making sure to enjoy the blustery ride. While a box office success the film is undoubtedly somewhat divisive and it’s taken a good while for any form of follow-up to come to fruition. However, almost 30 years later Twisters finally makes it to the big screen. A standalone sequel that while part way through it seems as if it would be great fun in 4D never quite manages to have the same degree of almost goofy cheesiness as the original.

This isn’t to say that Twister is wall-to-wall grins. The opening acts as a dramatic flashback for Helen Hunt’s lead character, witnessing her father be pulled away and killed, alongside her home destroyed, by a tornado. The opening scene of Twisters follows suit as Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate barely survives one of the strongest possible storms, her friends who were helping her experiment with calming tornados mostly killed. A sequence following a frantic rush to save people when one of the titular whirlwinds crashes a rodeo has plenty of tension, and is one of the best in the film. Such moments work well, and would likely still do so if the rest of the film relaxed into the style a bit more.

As Kate is called back from New York City by surviving friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) for one week to help track and monitor tornados in Oklahoma, to ensure funding for his company researching them, the game of storm-chasing has changed. It’s become much more popular thanks to YouTubers such as Tyler Owen (Glen Powell), livestreaming their experiences of chasing, and sometimes sitting in the direct centre, of a tornado – to the great fear of journalist Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton), writing a piece about Tyler and his team. A series of chases ensue, one after the other, with the teams seemingly working in competition – one for work, the other for fun and views. Yet, despite the soundtrack and intended joyous air that’s meant to be coming across it always feels as if such moments are taken a little bit too seriously.

The overall tone and style of the initial chase sequences, before the stakes and eventual destructive effects of the tornados are seen, never quite come across as relaxed enough to be properly entertaining. What comes across is an unplanned tightness amongst the almost free-wheeling escapades of Tyler as he lets off whatever his million subscribers have voted for him to release into a twister – whether it be flares or fireworks.

There are likable moments to be found, and there’s still an entertainment factor, however not quite enough for the film to be as enjoyable, or at times thrilling, as it perhaps wants to be. Powell and Edgar-Jones put in likable leading turns, although the film forces a romantic angle in the later stages which never quite takes off, in part down to little time spent building up this kind of relationship between their characters. And indeed there is tension to be found in faster-paced dramatic sequences such as one involving characters diving for cover in an empty swimming pool or the pacey events of the third act. Yet, these are the most serious moments of the film, dealt with at times with a similar face to the instances of characters letting loose, or the audience being introduced to the contrast between the two teams and the rivalry at hand.

Twisters holds a likable nature, and one that certainly provides enjoyment, but it frequently feels as if it needs to relax into itself a bit more. To be in the moment and embrace the energy of the swirling winds at the centre of so many moments. If it did so then there may be more fun to be had than the, albeit entertaining, amusement that there largely is throughout. The leads help to keep things moving and so does some of the more tense spectacle, however the overall energy of what for the characters are dizzying thrills never quite translates to the audience.

There are likable and tense sequences within Twisters, and while having entertaining moments the sequel appears to take itself a bit too seriously, needing to relax into itself to fully bring out the fun.