Glen Powell

Director Lee Isaac Chang deftly incorporates screenwriter Mark l. Smith’s action/adventure/escapist screenplay and intriguing characters with cinematographer Dan Mindel’s spectacular CGI action in this solid semi-sequel to Jan De Bont’s 1996’s disaster hit Twister. While the words “climate change” are never spoken, questions about this unfolding crisis and weather modifications haunt scientists. Do tornadoes serve a purpose? Do thunder storms, hurricanes and flash floods? Are they simply natural phenomena that occur to alleviate energy imbalances between the poles and the Equator? What might happen if we don’t let nature take its course?

Twisters, a run-toward-disaster action film, is not without its charms but not as goofily fun as perhaps it could be. There’s not a flying cow in sight. The weather-nerd exuberance – “We’ve got striation!” – recalls the dumb fun of the original Twister, but Twisters isn’t a barnburner. However, fans of the original might find reason enough to get carried away.

A new generation of extreme weather chasers are back on the trail of the cylindrical cyclones in this sequel to the 1996 Bill Paxton/Helen Hunt storm adventure. Twisters blows in bigger and louder and has you on the edge of your seat and in the path of an EF 5 tornado right from the start. Under the direction of Lee Isaac Chung, it is more realistic, more dangerous and more sympathetic, but not necessarily more believable than its 28 year old counterpart. It’s a Hallmark movie with really good special effects. Love in the Time of Tornadoes.

We’re staying on the topic of films but moving from “under the sea” to “above ground” weather disasters. This week, I review the sequel to an iconic cult classic that made us even more afraid of Texas tornadoes. The original film, Twister, starring Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton, was released in 1996. Now 28 years later, a sequel to what was already considered a visually groundbreaking thriller, makes a whirlwind return with even more impactful storms.

Callbacks to the original film are well placed with a brilliant action set piece in a cinema echoing the drive-in sequence in Twister. Twisters isn’t simply relying on fan service and familiarity, however. Lee Isaac Chung skimps on nothing. The environmental stakes are brought into sharp focus, as is the reality of disaster profiteering where venal companies land grab when people are at their most vulnerable. The action sequences are top-notch, and the character driven moments have excellent payoffs. Glen Powell’s star power is at its mega-watt brightest, and he sells the “ride your fear” ethos with his heart on his sleeve.