Blown away: Combative storm chasers face Mother Nature’s wrath in spectacular disaster film ‘Twisters’
“Twisters” — 3 stars
By the time the Godzilla of tornadoes arrives during the film’s spectacular climax, “Twisters” seems to be less a sequel to Jan de Bont’s fun-filled 1996 thriller “Twister” and more of a classic 1970s disaster movie — minus the all-star cast.
“Twisters” whips up multiple storms of conflict. An estranged mother and daughter struggle to find common ground. Predatory capitalism squares off with selfless humanitarianism. A woman becomes torn between two potential lovers.
The woman’s name is Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an adorable Ph.D. candidate who chases storm systems with her college chums trying to find ways to neutralize deadly storms. When they underestimate the raw power of one, several of her teammates die, including her boyfriend.
Five years pass.
A recovering Kate now works as a meteorologist in New York City. Her former colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos), who survived that terrible storm, shows up and implores her to help him implement an experimental three-dimensional tornado scan designed to stop Mother Nature’s bad boys.
She hesitates, then offers to help him for one week.
It doesn’t take long once Kate, Javi and his dedicated crew arrive in Oklahoma for her to see the seedy showbiz side of storm chasing.
That comes in the form of Tyler Owens (Glen Powell, who borrows the cocky, self-assured charm from his “Top Gun: Maverick” fighter pilot), a self-styled “tornado wrangler” more interested in selling T-shirts with his face on them than protecting people from life-threatening weather.
He also works with a crew, his showboating pals who hoop and holler like “hillbillies with a YouTube channel,” as Javi’s partner Scott (David Corenswet) describes them.
Tyler clearly becomes smitten with smart, competitive storm-chaser Kate. And Javi clearly pines for her, as evidenced by his longing eyes and halting sentences in her presence.
But seriously, who could compete with Powell’s megawatt smile, tight jeans and TV-commercial-grade hair blowing in 200 mph winds?
It doesn’t help Javi when Kate discovers the shady goals of the mystery man financing his tornado research.
Screenwriter Mark L. Smith compensates for his pedestrian dialogue and clumsy exposition by adding surprising layers to the main characters, especially Tyler.
After playing nondescript leads in the rom-com “Anyone But You” and the World War II biopic “Devotion,” TV and film actor Powell finally found his groove in “Top Gun: Maverick,” then cemented it with the challenging chameleonic title character in “Hit Man.”
Here, Powell out-charismas his co-stars, even Edgar-Jones, who, despite her vulnerable ocular orbs and expressive face, comes off slightly dull as the principal protagonist.
Likewise, Maura Tierney turns in an oddly passive performance as Kate’s mother, alienated from her daughter after the deadly tornado tragedy.
British actor Harry Hadden-Paton supplies limited comic relief as the fuddy-duddy English reporter on assignment for a London news outlet.
“Twisters” marks a surprising choice of projects for director Chung, who gave us “Minari,” a heartfelt, empathetic drama about a Korean family struggling to achieve the American dream in Arkansas.
Chung wisely prevents the tornadoes — some rendered in utterly terrifying realistic detail, accompanied by immersive sound designs — from eclipsing his more human elements.
Nonetheless, this movie throws so many twisters at us in such quick succession that they begin to lose their power to amaze or frighten.
Curiously, “Twisters” botches a grand opportunity to underscore the effects of global warming with its crazy weather-gone-wild tale.
Following reports of multiple tornadoes hitting the Chicago area Monday night, one wonders if Mother Nature has joined the Universal Pictures’ marketing department.
But what most Chicagoans probably really want to know is: What would Tom Skilling say about all this?
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Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney
Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung
Other: A Universal Pictures theatrical release. Rated PG-13 for action and language. 122 minutes