Twisters (2024) Review: A Fun Popcorn Blockbuster!

It is that time of year again when the heat of the summer is so unbearable that an afternoon at the movies is just what is needed. Some might say summer blockbusters are a staple of American culture, much like baseball, apple pie, and country music. With the country in mind, Lee Isacc Chung has followed his award winning film Minari with a standalone sequel to 1996’s Twister, which starred Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.

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Although it may seem like a departure from Minari, what still stands is Chung’s ability to display the American landscape through different eyes. Twisters stars Daisy Edgar Jones as Kate Cooper, a meteorologist and ex-storm chaser and Glen Powell as Tyler Owens, a YouTube “tornado wrangler.” When Kate gets brought back into storm chasing by her ex-colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos), she must reconcile with her past in order to create a better future for those affected by tornados in her home state of Oklahoma. Twisters is an enjoyable time led by the charisma of Glen Powell and strength of Daisy Edgar Jones in this Hollywood sequel that has a heavier hold with Lee Isacc Chung behind the camera.

Kate Cooper has left storm chasing after a tragedy that left her feeling defeated and guilty. She is brought back into the field “temporarily” where she meets Tyler Owens and his crew of Youtubers, who have more to offer than what is just on the surface. Chung and screenwriter Mark L. Smith has developed a story not just about the dangers of storm chasing and the impact these national disasters have on middle America, but also about a woman who must travel back to her roots, physically and emotionally, in order to discover her strength and courage she left behind.

In a scene in the beginning of the film where a young girl asks an employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration if New York sees tornadoes, it becomes apparent that for so many of us living on the East and West coast such a natural disaster is out of sight and out of mind. Working in New York City, this allows Kate to leave her troubled past behind and distance herself from tornados.

Chung and Smith are able to layer Twisters in a more meaningful way by examining the impact of tornadoes on these areas and the small town folks who live there. This is done through the development of their characters and utilizing the disaster trope in an empathetic way.

Where so many films use their special effects and “summer blockbuster status” as a means to be as ridiculous and even violent as possible, Twisters has a variety of great action sequences that take advantage of the lovability to its characters, causing the audience to watch these tornados swirl in hope that the people will survive. In this sense, there is a strong sense of empathy that Chung has created in Twisters that mirror the ambitions and feelings of Kate and Tyler.

As an audience, it makes us not want to see constant destruction after destruction but see our characters combat these forces of nature and succeed. For every intense tornado scene is moments of showing its upsetting impact on people and small towns, giving the “little people” a voice in a genre that so often leaves them as an afterthought.

Twisters’ special effects are implemented to look as authentic as possible, leaving out the cheap CGI visuals and opting for computer generated images that play well with the sweeping winds and film footage. Although the first film was popular for its flying cow getting sucked up into a twister, everything looks like it was handled with precision to create the most realistic effects.

The difference between a level one on the Enhanced Fujita and level five is distinguished to level out the film’s high impact scenes with enough science to remain believable. Overall, Twisters is a popcorn movie that will help beat the heat and have a great presence on cable, making it easy to turn on again and again.

‘Twisters (2024)’ Rating – 3.5/5

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