Twisters (2024)

Watched 7/21/24 (theater)

Much like an actual storm, with the most legitimate excitement coming at the beginning and end, the storm of a movie that is Twisters definitely has an eye in its center where not much of interest happens. It’s got the right budget and credible effects for its action sequences, but there are too many problems to call it a “good” movie. A script full of nonsense events and ludicrous dialogue ails everyone but Glen Powell, who continues to be the most reliable actor in Hollywood in terms of making the most of a situation with the least amount of help. Even the editor blunders, consistently lessening what is obviously very able-bodied photography and direction. Still, if oft-impressive visuals, big sound, and Glen Powell are enough for you, catch this one in a theater.

One of the best parts about Twisters is that it opens with a really taut, horror suspense setup scene. A group of teens idiotically chase a tornado that they have no real sense of scale for. Tragedy of course ensues and it’s one of the few scenes in the movie that’s truly frightening. Of course our main character is then unfortunately saddled with the killed-to-death-these-days trauma storyline for the rest of the film, but she’s not really given much else anyways and, besides, this scene is some of the most effective filmmaking here, so it’s worth the trope-iness. Plus, it’s not like you’re really coming to a movie called Twisters for originality, are you?

When the dust settles after the opening twister, our main character, Kate, played by a shockingly bland Daisy Edgar-Jones, has moved from Oklahoma to New York and it’s several years later. She’s got a meteorologist desk job and she’s got plenty of hesitation when asked after literally five minutes to head back to the south to chase more natural disasters. Daisy Edgar-Jones isn’t necessarily “bad” in this movie, but she’s not credibly intelligent and she has zero chemistry with anyone. She just doesn’t bring much to the table.

The friend asking her to come back down is Javi, played by Anthony Ramos, whose entire role is built around getting cucked by Glen Powell for 120 minutes—yes, that’s as awkward to watch as it is to read here. Javi and Kate get down to Oklahoma for what promises to be a weekend chock full of giant twisters and various groups of people chasing them. And that’s when we’re first introduced to Powell’s Tyler Owens, AKA The Tornado Wrangler.

Owens is a YouTuber who has carved out a niche on the video platform taking a badass tricked-out Ram truck and driving it into tornadoes to do cool shit like drill into the ground and shoot fireworks while blasting country music. In all seriousness, I cannot do justice to how much legwork the cool car does to elevate the Powell scenes. It has more chemistry with Powell than his co-leads. Powell even has a little band of cultists that follow him around—fun character overall. The Tornado Wranglers are set up as the bad guys, although Kate is of course immediately met with flirting from their leader.

Glen Powell is by far the best part of this movie and it’s not even close. When he’s onscreen the movie is effortlessly watchable. Swaggering through every line even when Edgar-Jones can’t keep up, it’s a strange romance as Tyler chases after Kate for no reason. And the whole thing is peculiarly bundled with Anthony Ramos’ Javi having to slowly, sadly watch as his longtime crush is stolen out from under him by one of the most testosterone-fueled alpha male characters that has been allowed to be in recent movies. There’s zero tension to it. No sexual tension between Edgar-Jones and Powell. No violent tension between Ramos and Powell. It’s like Challengers if it was about idiotic tornado chasers with zero brain cells and negative sensuality.

The other big problem with the movie is that, although the effects look great and the sound design is mean in the best way, the editing of the action scenes is often choppy and the ideas on paper lack for creativity. The entire middle of the film, in which 3-4 twisters are chased, is without a memorable set piece or action hook. I couldn’t tell you a difference between any of the twisters encountered in this middle chunk. While the opening twister features several vicious kills and the final twister features some kinetic object destructions and seat-shaking sound design, the twisters in the rest of the movie just kind of blend together. Way too much time is spent on Kate and Javi arguing about her trauma or his weird side-plot involving being in bed with an evil real estate mogul. And when we do get to hang out with Powell’s Tyler, it’s not for long enough and there isn’t enough charisma from Edgar-Jones to create something truly special in the chemistry department.

This review may sound very negative. But the movie isn’t unwatchable. In fact, I would recommend checking it out in theaters. Sure, it has unthinkably dumb dialogue and only one worthwhile performance. Sure, the action scenes are only intermittently propulsive. But they get there at a successful minimum and Powell in tornado cowboy mode is enough fun to justify Twisters as a whole. And maybe I haven’t given them just enough credit; the well-tuned VFX provide some really solid moments. Go see it and decide for yourself. It’s a big positive in the landscape overall that this kind of “original” movie with an emerging young(ish) star is getting such traction.

5.5/10