Twisters arrives with a fun, yeehaw love letter to the Tornado belt of Oklahoma from resident Lee Isaac Chung, director of Oscar winner Minari and the latest indie director to make the jump to franchise following that of A Quiet Place: Day One’s Michael Sarnoski and The First Omen’s Arkasha Stevenson. It’s an odd choice given the family-centric story of Minari but Chung tackles it with audacity, recruiting Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, everyone’s favourite movie star and Tom Cruise’s heir apparent, to play what essentially amounts to a couple in a hallmark disaster movie – with this film borrowing many tropes from the hallmark films in its structure and set-up of the characters’ romance, right down to the full airport sprint at the end of the film, maximising the chemistry between the two actors with gusto, in part due to Powell and Edgar-Jones’ natural ability to develop chemistry with anyone they’ve partnered with.
The film is entertaining enough to keep you occupied for its runtime but when you peel back the layers and provide a bit of depth to it it falters; chief among its lack of ability to make tornadoes scary. They never feel like a threat because you know our main characters will pull through, they’re too big a stars not to, and there’s no real risk no matter how absurd the situation gets. From the off, potshots are taken at Man of Steel’s tornado scene where the film goes out of its way to state that underpasses are the worst place to hide, and that is proven right as Edgar-Jones’ storm-chaser Kate watches her friends get taken by the tornado one by one in a ruthless fashion. Innocence lost, she moves to the city to work for a weather company in New York – but is called back home by a fellow survivor of their encounter, Anthony Ramos’ Javi, now working for a big-tech firm, both haunted by scars of their past and now find themselves face to face with a bigger threat of tornadoes on a scale like never before seen.
Climate change feels like an easy point-scorer to make here, doesn’t it? An increase in tornado incidents coupled with the growing change in the extremity of weather worldwide should’ve been a topic that could’ve been addressed with ease, right? Disaster films have a history of raising awareness of climate change; even the loud, bombastic Day after Tomorrow raised awareness to the many that watched it. Yet Chung goes out of his way to say this film won’t cover that subject, in a bizarre turn of events – choosing instead to focus on a love letter to small-town Oklahoma and the rejection of big-city idealism in favour of stubborn small-town independence and free-thinking. We’re quickly swept up by the allure of Glen Powell’s superstar YouTube sensation the Tornado Wrangler; whose team reject the ideas of smart thinking in favour of giving Tyler, a hunk with a heart of gold, and his sensationalist showboating. It’s the kind of movie that can’t commit to anything in its need to appeal to everyone, and as a result, lacks the fun and charm that it needs – Mark L. Smith’s script gives its cast nothing to work with.
Seeing this movie directly after Longlegs didn’t help but I’d already forgotten it by the time I was back on the Jubilee line, it doesn’t stay in your mind and doesn’t linger around long after the credits have rolled. There’s a core respect for humanity and the heartfelt need for team-bonding at its centre; the movie’s biggest strengths, and the assumptions that Kate makes about Tyler’s team of YouTubers is quickly proven wrong when she finds that they’re giving away his merch for free to rather than using the opportunity of a disaster to capitalise on their appeal. Sasha Lane has developed a reputation of starring in these sort of things – check out her performance in ecological thriller How to Blow Up A Pipeline, and whilst underutilised here, rounds out a strong ensemble which also includes Love Lies Bleeding’s breakout Katy O’Brian.
Powell’s energy and excitement is infectious and he’s more McConaughey than Cruise here; the versatility in his role showcased by just how different his turn here is than Hit Man. But he lacks the ability to give the meatier scenes depth – his energy here is all about his charisma and little else. We see the roles of the characters around him reduced to stereotypes – there’s a British Journalist – another one who comes from a weirdly specific place of residence – South London this time, as though every British character in American films has to point out what borough or county they’re from (see Joseph Quinn’s Kent-hailing lawyer in A Quiet Place: Day One) – the villain-turned love interest, the jock nerd, and more stereotypes across the charts like someone threw a dart at a board of character tropes.
There’s no disaster movie energy in Twisters and it seems more focused in being a hallmark movie drama. Refreshingly detached from any need to be a legacy sequel with only the slightest of callbacks to the original, Twisters follows the tropes of legacy-sequels to a t in recruiting an inexperienced indie director who will be controlled by the studio-heads into losing all their uniqueness and charm. Chung aims for a Spielbergian approach but never makes it stick – and the end result here is that nothing really ever does stick – make the tornadoes more memorable and you have a thriller on your hands, but perhaps the biggest disappointment here is Chung following up Minari with the most safest option that he could’ve done. This movie is credited to Joseph Kosinski and his energy and Cruise’s shadow over Twisters is obvious, acting as an influence over Powell whose charismatic presence is everywhere. Nobody can be Cruise; but Powell certainly gives it a damn good go.
VERDICT: 4/10
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