Rather than a traditional sequel, Twisters is more of a remake or reboot, since it does not feature any of the original characters from Twister (1996).  However, there are all sorts of references, in-jokes and thematic nods to the first tornado adventure.  That first film is not in any sense a great movie, but it has become highly compelling to me; I rate it three solid stars, love Mark Mancina’s score, and have seen portions of it dozens of times.  I don’t know if I will have the same long-term reaction to Twisters, but that is a possibility.

Lee Isaac Chung’s film follows the same trajectory: a young woman fascinated with and deeply scarred by the effects of extreme weather puts herself at risk attempting to study (and, in this case, prevent) a tornado outbreak, working with a team of people for the betterment of our world.  The young woman, Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is plucky, smart and very courageous, and she bonds with a rival tornado chaser, reckless self-promoting Tyler (Glen Powell), a man who shares her natural instincts for understanding the violent and unpredictable weather.  They eventually join forces to try to mitigate the effects of an Oklahoma outbreak.

I was expecting this to be a dumber and more sensationalistic version of the previous story, and I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.  While I think the science about preventing tornadoes is sketchy at best, I think that the writers (Mark Smith, Joseph Kosinski) have done a nice job of updating the view of tornado chasing, incorporating all the frenetic media coverage into the story and keeping the tornadoes themselves and the damage they do as realistic as possible.  More importantly, I like Kate’s character arc as she transitions from helping her friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) to working with Tyler, whose motives and methods are more in tune with her own.  Their relationship gives the story its heart and soul.

What this movie misses is teamwork.  The first film boasted a stalwart cast of supporting characters, each of whom was memorable in some way — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Joey Slotnick, Wendle Josepher, Todd Field, even Jeremy Davies.  This movie doesn’t have that important element, and that’s a disappointment.  All the most interesting supporting characters disappear, literally, after the first major sequence of the story.  But everything else works pretty well, the tornadoes are hair-raising, and the chemistry between the leads is strong.  Perhaps this will be enough to heighten my rating in future viewings.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  25 July 2024.