Twisters Review: '90s Blockbusters Aren't Dead Yet In This Heartfelt Spielbergian Sequel

If you were forced to pick a '90s blockbuster that lent itself to the legacy-sequel craze, the original "Twister" would probably be near the bottom of the list, and "Minari" director Lee Isaac Chung would be the very last name you'd pick to bring such a follow-up to life. Boy, what a difference nearly 30 years makes. Back then, there was practically a cottage industry built around productions featuring an A-list headliner surrounded by a strong stable of character actors, a journeyman filmmaker bringing a sturdy sense of direction, and a straightforward enough hook to put butts in seats. A movie like that merely needed a savvy marketing push and the promise of big-screen spectacle to set it on the right track ... and thrill-seeking audiences could be relied upon to take care of the rest and lead it to box-office glory, thank you very much.

Those halcyon days might be a thing of the past since Hollywood seems more apt to force-feed us stale leftovers like "Independence Day: Resurgence" (remember that one?) rather than greenlight the next phenomenon-in-the-making, but this summer moviegoing season apparently has yet another (ahem) twist up its sleeve. In a continuation of what's shaping up to be an encouraging throwback trend this year, "Twisters" is making it feel like the 1990s all over again. Against all odds, this satisfying, crowd-pleasing effort somehow rides the fine line between its IP obligations and a refreshingly self-contained experience — one that's eager to roll up its sleeves, fly into the heart of the storm, and show the competition how it's done.

Nobody will confuse "Twisters" for its predecessor (which, make no mistake, holds up exceedingly well) and neither Glen Powell nor Daisy Edgar-Jones can fully match the magic weaved by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton the last time around. But what this offering lacks in originality and innovation, it more than makes up for in sincerity, adrenaline-pumping action made for the big screen, and its downright Spielbergian knack for inspiring awe and wonder even in the face of unrelenting destruction. If giving in to the franchise machine and putting his original storytelling on hold was the price Chung had to pay to provide one last glimpse of an era long gone, well, those brought to tears by the heartbreaking poignancy of "Minari" likely would've preferred the next natural step on that trajectory. But it's a testament to his talent and ability that "Twisters" almost makes the tradeoff worth it.

Stop me if you've heard this before. In a shockingly brutal opening scene, a younger version of our main character comes across a much more powerful tornado than she ever expected, narrowly survives a life-threatening emergency, and is left with the traumatic scars of an experience that will follow her for years to come. "Twisters" begins on an oddly similar note to the 1996 film, introducing us to Edgar-Jones' Kate Cooper as a bright-eyed tornado chaser convinced she can change the world. In what feels like an instance of unavoidable studio notes, however, the first half of the sequel goes on to cram in a host of callbacks and references that tend to be more distracting than anything else. You have the irreverent, goofball member of the team in Brandon Perea's Boone (a distant sendup to Philip Seymour-Hoffman's wacky antics), an older and wiser relative who provides crucial emotional support (Maura Tierney taking on the role originated by Lois Smith), and even the inclusion of scientific instruments named "Dorothy," just like the original movie.

Where "Twisters" really takes off, not coincidentally, are the moments the sequel all but forgets it's a sequel in the first place.

Kate's similarities with Hunt's Jo Harding end almost as soon as they start, thankfully. Her disastrous encounter that leads to the death of much of her team and the five-year time jump that follows has the opposite effect on her than the one experienced by Jo as a child early on in "Twister." Having retired from her storm-chasing ambitions and settled for a meteorologist desk job far away from the action, Kate's self-imposed exile grinds to a halt when her sole surviving friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) brings her back in the game again ... though not nearly as confident in her instincts this time around. Wracked by survivor's guilt and residual PTSD, Kate's initial struggles to get back on the saddle coincide with the showboating Tyler Owens (Powell) pulling ahead, setting up an enjoyably prickly, antagonistic dynamic between the two.

As if to underline the point about going in its own direction, the script (credited to "The Revenant" writer Mark L. Smith, from a story by Joseph Kosinski) adds a fascinating wrinkle — in an inversion from the first movie. Our protagonists' storm-chasing team doggedly pursuing a "once-in-a-generation outbreak" of storms turn out to be the one answering to corporate overlords, while Tyler Owens' competing, free-wheeling pack of "tornado wranglers" stand for the everyman ... even as the YouTube celebrity storm-chasers inspire their own groupies, shamelessly sell merchandise, and otherwise sully the purity of the job. "Twisters" has a lot to say about this theme ("Sometimes the old ways are the best ways," Tyler ironically muses to Kate at one point) and gets a lot of mileage out of pitting the two tornado-chasing entities against one another again and again; a familiar narrative beat, granted, but one that ultimately gets flipped on its head in very surprising ways.

What's less surprising is that Glen Powell — catapulted into genuine movie-star status following "Top Gun: Maverick," the rom-com "Anyone But You," and most recently "Hit Man" — ends up stealing the show in a role that might as well have been designed for him. Although the industry has propped him up as a charisma machine, I'd argue that Powell's true secret weapon puts him in good company with the likes of Oscar Isaac: brand names who are at their best when allowed to play characters who, ultimately, come across like a-holes. It's to his credit that Powell does so while never turning his brash "cowboy scientist" into an unlikable figure — an annoying figure, no doubt, but one who owns it while looking damn good in a cowboy hat. (He even gets his own wet T-shirt moment straight out of a rom-com!) As visceral as the actual sequences of devastation and violence are, Chung manages to make even the quieter, more character-focused moments — mostly between the main trio of Kate, Tyler, and Javi, unfortunately, leaving the rest of the cast to largely recede into the background — hit just as hard.

But "Twisters" never overlooks the fact that audiences are here for the tornadoes, and the many sequences of pure terror and mayhem more than live up to the hype. Veteran cinematographer Dan Mindel knows exactly how best to capture such larger-than-life thrills, perfectly capturing the danger and stakes while constantly making viewers wonder how he filmed this without causing serious injury (or worse) to any of its cast. The seamless visual effects play a major role in this as well, while the use of actual sets and stunning vistas packed full of wind-blown debris easily lends an air of verisimilitude. In the middle of all this high-flying action, "Twisters" brings a wonderful simplicity to its elaborate set pieces that, yes, call to mind some of the most effective moments in Spielberg's career. Tornadoes snatch victims into the air like the Martian tripods in 2005's "War of the Worlds" and suddenly appear out of clouds and mist to menace our heroes like the T-Rex itself, and it never gets old.

All this bombast ought to be enough to win over even those Philistines who turn their nose up at movies that commit the unforgivable cinematic sin of (gasp) feeling a little cheesy. "Twisters" has its fair share of clunky dialogue, an endless amount of indiscernible technobabble (honestly, it's kind of impressive), and even a smidge of contrived melodrama, to be sure, but it balances out these shortcomings with a relentless sense of earnestness and heart that's difficult to resist. This might not blow audiences away to the same extent as another legacy sequel like "Top Gun: Maverick," but that's hardly a flaw. Guaranteed, you'll be too busy cackling over the chutzpah to include a self-reverential line like, "This theater wasn't built to withstand this!" during a moment of peril to nitpick too much. It's as gloriously '90s as it gets, baby.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

"Twisters" flies into theaters on July 19, 2024.