Film Review - Twisters (2024)

Twisters is a sequel of sorts to the 1996 film Twister and Lee Isaac Chung who directed Minari takes the reins here, this story concerns Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who loses her boyfriend and 2 of her friends while chasing a Tornado in Oklahoma, she moves to New York City and 5 years later she is approached by an old friend (Anthony Ramos) to chase Tornadoes again in her home state for research purposes but while there she also meets Tyler (Glen Powell) a rival Tornado chaser and the wind rush is on.

I hadn’t seen the original Twister film from 96 since it first came out on Video in 1997 but thankfully you don’t have to have seen that first film in order to watch this one as it is completely its own story with no ties at all to the previous film and I think it is better for it as I loved this movie.

The first reason for that is Chung’s direction, it is easy to see the different version of this movie where Chung is overwhelmed with directing a movie of this size after directing a small family drama in Minari but he also has the brains trust at Amblin Entertainment which includes the likes of Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall as well as Joseph Kosinki who directed Top Gun: Maverick and that must have been of great help to him as he does a great job directing the film and doesn’t seem to be fazed by the size of it.

And where this shines the most is in the films quieter character moments, they feel real and tangible and have some real emotional depth to them and that isn’t normally the case in these types of films but it is felt here and it does make a big difference to seeing these characters as people worth investing in or just tornado fodder to be sucked up the vacuum and you sit there going “bye bye.”

The second reason is the sound design, this movie is one you really need to see in a theatre with a great sound system as the howling wind and pouring rain and thunderstorms sound fantastic in one that has that and as someone who hates thunderstorms there were times where this movie scared me a little and had me tense with fear as storms and tornadoes can be deadly and this film shows that very well and it sounds great in a movie theatre, hopefully there is a Best Sound Oscar nomination coming this team’s way next year.

And lastly the 3 leads are very good, I’ve loved Edgar-Jones since seeing her in Where the Crawdad’s Sing in 2022 and she continues to build on that good work here, Ramos is a good young actor and one I’ve liked since In the Heights and he is solid here as well while Glen Powell continues to build on his success from Top Gun Maverick and Anyone But You and is a lot of fun here as Tyler with his midwestern charm, winning smile and charismatic presence you can’t help but love to watch no matter what he’s in.

And so that was Twisters and this is great fun at the movies but please see it in one that has a good sound system as you will not regret it, it’s thrilling/exciting/a little scary and has characters worth caring about, blockbusters rarely do this well and this one excels at it, 4 out of 5.