Caught between the summer-movie sweet spot and the suck zone, Twisters delivers blustery chaos but, by minimizing its predecessor’s goofiness in favor of vacuous character drama, winds up only sporadically kicking into gale-force gear.
While Jan de Bont’s 1996 original was dumb as rocks and light on actual adrenalized suspense, it at least had the good sense to be over-the-top in every respect. Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, on the other hand, takes a more straightforward approach to his material, and the cost of less cartoonishness, ultimately, is meager slam-bang giddiness. Nonetheless, if it never raises one’s pulse, the film, which hits theaters July 19, does ably reconfirm the budding superstardom of Glen Powell, who—on the heels of his stellar turn in Hit Man—proves more compelling and thrilling than the catastrophic weather his hero can’t resist.
Somewhere in the middle of America, Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her crew of enthusiastic storm chasers are determined to substantiate her PhD thesis that a tornado can be quelled with polymers. Considering that Twisters pairs Edgar-Jones with Powell, it’s no surprise when Kate’s boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack) and the rest of her team meet a grisly end. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Kate retreats to a meteorological desk job in New York City until her former comrade Javi (Anthony Ramos) tracks her down. Javi offers her a chance to realize her dream by working for his upstart company, whose funding and resources—courtesy of a wealthy (read: nefarious) real estate developer—put him at the forefront of the industry, and promise to come in handy for a historic upcoming outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma.
