At The Movies: Twisters is a corny cyclone of fun, with a heartfelt twist

Twisters (PG13)

123 minutes, opens on July 17
4 stars

The story: Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a meteorologist who survived a deadly tornado that claimed the lives of her colleagues. The incident has soured storm-chasing for her, but her old friend and fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) lures her into taking one more job by assuring her that her work will save lives. On the tornado-blighted plains of Oklahoma, she meets Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a social media influencer who chases fame with as much energy as he chases storms. This film is a sequel to the hit disaster movie Twister (1996), starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

If memes existed in 1996, the one for Twister would have been a flying cow. It was a genius move to use that image in the film’s marketing because it was not just memorable, but it also captured the story’s essence – that there is a predator lurking in the sky, eager to swallow people and animals.

This movie borrows so many story elements from the 1996 original, it feels more like a remake than a sequel.

Here is the heroic female central character who carries a tornado-related inner burden, and a villainous supporting character who has sold his soul to a corporation.

There is also a romantic sub-plot that that becomes painfully obvious the second a smirking Powell, the Hollywood It Guy of the moment, walks into the frame. And of course, there is the idea of a monster, unpredictable and unseen, living in the clouds.

It takes talent to make this much corniness palatable. Director Lee Isaac Chung not only manages to pull it off, but also makes the ride fun, though he stops short of making any of it memorable or worthy of a rewatch.

He steps up to this big-budget project after the success of Minari (2020). The Oscar-nominated drama was his semi-autobiographical take on his boyhood as the child of immigrants who moved from South Korea to rural America.

Chung’s sensitive drama about finding footing in a strange land has almost nothing in common with the disaster movie, other than that both are set in an area where nature upsets the best-laid plans of humans.

Where they also overlap is in the calibre of the performances. Chung draws hidden depths from Powell’s YouTube huckster Owens, but also makes sure that supporting characters deliver their best in their allotted 20 seconds of screen time.

David Corenswet, the actor playing Superman in a 2025 DC Universe movie, acquits himself well as Scott, a detestable drone who places profits over people.

A thread of humanity runs through the picture, prevailing against its summer blockbuster glibness. While it lacks the goofy charm of the original – Paxton’s comedic timing was immaculate and the flying cow was an inspired bit of silliness – it makes up for that with its warmth.

Hot take: This take on the 1996 original is a faithful do-over of the main story elements, but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in heart.