TWISTERS (2024) MOVIE REVIEW
For as fun as this movie feels on the surface, it is built on such a flimsy foundation that the whole film teeters on the edge of collapse under just a light breeze.
by Nate Lemann
Before we get into the movie and the plot machinations, I feel like I need to discuss something up front: Tornados are nothing to scoff at. Having grown up in tornado alley myself, they are an all-too-real, merciless boogeyman. They have no conscience. They can’t be reasoned with. They are unpredictable. Above all, they only destroy and without a second thought. The film doesn’t really depict how gruesome death by Tornado can be (they have to get their PG-13 rating): if you aren’t ripped apart limb-by-limb from the winds or the thousands of pieces of flying shrapnel, you will suffocate as all the air in your body will be sucked out from your lungs. Its gruesome, barbaric, and unfeelingly random. Storm chasing for scientific purposes can be noble when done right and with proper precautions. For fun…that is now foolish, reckless, and selfish as real first responders will need to put themselves in harm's way to be your safety blanket. “Ride your fears”…don’t. Your life is worth more than that.
Now that we got that out the way, let’s dive in on the movie: We open with Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an Oklahoma University PhD student chasing storms with her tight crew and boyfriend (Daryl McCormack in a pretty thankless role). Kate is going for a grant to study the effects a solvent can have in disrupting a Tornado by robbing it of its moisture. While Kate and team go chasing a small tornado to drop the solvent in the air, ne'er-do-well Javi (Anthony Ramos) stays behind to study the data. Kate, who has an otherworldly feel for judging the weather, however miscalls the size of this tornado and things go bad very quickly, with not everyone on the team making it out alive.
Cut to five years later and Kate has left Oklahoma for the Big Apple, working at the National Weather Service. Javi, of all people, shows up one day with a proposition: after getting his life together in the Army, he has gotten his hands on some cool new tech that will help build a triangulated model of a live tornado and help study what causes them...maybe even help build a better warning system that can save lives. A hesitant Kate agrees to return with him for a week to chase tornados and set up his tech.
Once she gets home, her crew butt heads with ammeter storm chasers who are following the lead of cowboy chaser Tyler Owens and his wild YouTube crew. At first, Kate seems to have picked the right team, surrounded by grown-ups with PhDs. But as they go storm chasing and reckon with the damage in the area, Kate starts to realize that Javi’s business partners have some nefarious intentions.
As leads go, Powell is really in the pocket, building on his recent success and starting to cement himself as a genuine movie star (especially given how well this film ended up doing opening weekend). Anthony Ramos is also quite good in his second fiddle role, a more innately empathetic and conflicted character. He really has the best arc of the film and rightfully nails its payoff. Edgar-Jones is where I get conflicted: She is a great performer and has just an inherit warmness she emanates. That said, I feel she lost the accent, coming in and out of the twang. I also feel the role was underwritten as her character makes impulsive decisions that don’t feel earned. Her budding romance with Powell's Tyler also feels rushed, instead hoping audiences will just go along with two hot leads making googly eyes at each would work (Kate just seems too messed up for love, if I'm being honest). Spielberg’s now famous note to remove a kiss from the film was the absolute right move…I’m sorry but that man knows exactly what he’s doing.
The rest of the cast is, for the most part, pretty good. Brandon Perea (from “Nope” and “The OA”) continues to shine; I hope this movie is the spring board to him getting a leading role. Sasha Lane and Katy O’Brien are underserved in their supporting roles: those two actors are stars in their own right and are better suited for the limelight. Harry Hadden-Paton as an out-of-his-depth Guardian reporter following Tyler’s crew is really great and a source of many laughs. That leads me to David Corenswet: the man taped to open James Gunn’s DCU with next year’s “Superman” is a black hole of charisma in this movie. Granted his part is meant to be a wet blanket but he was so thoroughly bland in this, I have some pause about his next big blockbuster.
The tornado sequences are pretty well-staged but if I’m being honest, felt lesser in comparison to the original film. That picture breathed genuine menace into the tornados but that felt all but robbed here until the final act of the film. The first film absolutely terrified me from minute one. This film just didn’t have that same level of staging and set-up to make the proper impact. While direct Lee Isaac Chung is very talented and has a real feel for intimate scenes (see his great film “Minari” for proof), he feels outmatched by this blockbuster level event.
I’ll say that this is still a fun watch in theaters and worth a fun night out. I just felt left wanting, feeling like all the pieces were here to be a truly transcendent blockbuster event but we got more cookie-cutter tropes than I’d hope for.
FINAL RATING: 3.5/5 Stars (Fun but generic popcorn film)
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