Twisters Stars Daisy-Edgar Jones and Glen Powell and is Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
Review: Twisters is a remarkable victory for theaters, summer blockbusters, and movie stars. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are certified mainstays in the industry after their recent successes, and Lee Isaac Chung remains one of the latest risers in a young camp of talented filmmakers.
Twisters Review
Twisters is everything you’d want from a summer blockbuster. The movie is exhilarating and dangerous, and features real movie stars and a burgeoning filmmaker capable of handling a big budget and even bigger expectations.
And while it isn’t surprising to see Lee Isaac Chung deliver a worthwhile sequel to the cult classic 1996 original from Jan de Bont, I wouldn’t have suggested a Twister reboot to be the director’s follow-up to Minari only a few years later. The two share little in common in terms of plot and scale, but the themes manage to stay consistent, and the confident filmmaking remains evident.
In front of the camera, Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing, Fresh) and Glen Powell (Everybody Wants Some!!, Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You, Hit Man) co-star in an outrageously effective and enthralling disaster film, where you can feel the wind, hale, and collateral damage ripping right through the screen. Edgar-Jones plays Kate, an undoubtedly talented protégé at identifying and reading wind patterns and potential twister behavior but followed by a traumatic past that keeps her from utilizing that talent.
Opposite Kate is Tyler Owens, effortlessly and charismatically portrayed by the industry’s newest posterchild Glen Powell, offering a performance equally as outgoing and starry as Top Gun: Maverick and Everybody Wants Some!!. Tyler is a “tornado wrangler,” performing death-defying stunts live on YouTube for his expanding audience. This includes such stunts like shooting fireworks and rockets up through a tornado’s funnel.
The two don’t gel at first, as Kate is repulsed by Tyler’s brash and cocky personality. But as the layers peel back between the two, they learn to work together in order to save small communities across the Oklahoma landscape devastated by natural disasters.
The twisters in the film feel as lively as any natural disaster I’ve seen in a movie in years. The practical effects are off the charts, and there’s a real sense of “how did they film this?” that seeps in scene after scene after scene. They feel genuinely dangerous and threatening, tearing apart anything (or anyone) that stands in their way.
The emotionality of the story is felt, too, as Kate’s backstory is shown in great detail to begin the film, setting the audience up for a redemption arc that you empathize and resonate with.
Or at least Tyler does, because as the two grow closer, the connection between them feels genuine, and both let their guard down and begin to work together. Twisters often can feel like a rehashing of the original, so it’s a pleasant surprise that Tyler doesn’t have the same characterization as Cary Elwes’ Jonas. There’s a softer side to him that Jonas never had, which makes for a third act in Twisters that feels like its own.
All in all, Twisters is a remarkable victory for theaters, summer blockbusters, and movie stars. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are certified mainstays in the industry after their recent successes, and Lee Isaac Chung remains one of the latest risers in a young camp of talented filmmakers. It’s a crowd-pleaser, and it’s visceral as hell. A few nitpicks in the believability of the story never swayed me too far because the sheer amount of chaos and adrenaline is enough to keep you moving.
Score: 8/10
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
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Twisters Film Cast and Credits
Cast
Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate
Glen Powell as Tyler
Anthony Ramos as Javi
Brandon Perea as Boone
Maura Tierney as Cathy
Sasha Lane as Lily
Harry Hadden-Paton as Ben
Credits
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Writer: Mark L. Smith
Cinematography: Dan Mindel
Editor: Terilyn A. Shropshire
Composer: Benjamin Wallfisch
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Twisters movie on Wikipedia
Twisters film on IMDb
