‘Twisters’ Review – Glen Powell And Daisy Edgar-Jones Shine In Thrilling Fashion

The Tennessee Volunteers offense under head coach Josh Heupel has frequently and aptly been described as fast, fun, and real. With the ability to score from anywhere at any time, their offense has put up consistently high numbers over the past few years. It’s exciting, thrilling, and very much a threat to opposing teams. The same could be said of the film Twisters, a thrill ride that is immensely captivating and surprisingly emotionally effective.

Directed by Academy Award nominee Lee Isaac Chung and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos, Twisters is a legacy sequel with no real connection to the original outside of the storm chasing the main characters partake in. There are a few nods and callbacks to the original, most notably the inclusion of a new version of the Dorothy invention at the beginning of the film. Fortunately, though, none of these characters are related to or have anything to do with characters from the 1996 version. They are their own people with their own stories.

The film begins with a bang as Kate (Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Ramos), alongside their college friends, chase a small storm to gather data and use chemicals to try and dissipate the storm. After the events of this storm leave the group torn apart, Javi tracks Kate down years later to recruit her help as an unprecedented storm season is decimating Oklahoma. Just before their first chase back together, in comes Tyler Owens (Powell), YouTube storm-chasing sensation and his loud crew and band of followers. The story takes a few minutes to get going, but once Powell appears on screen we don’t slow down until its conclusion.

Glen Powell will be the story coming out of this movie and probably rightfully so, but Daisy Edgar-Jones must not be forgotten. Powell’s magnetism and charisma are more than just his character as a YouTuber, it’s just who he is at this point. He oozes charm like nobody else in the game right now. His over-the-top confidence is likely to overshadow Edgar-Jones’ more internal work, but they are both pretty equal in my eyes. Kate is dealing with the ramifications of her decisions from years ago that are causing her to second guess herself and hesitate in a way she didn’t before. You can see the fear and emotion in Edgar-Jones’ eyes the first time she comes face to face with a tornado after her return to Oklahoma. Just because she’s not necessarily matching the energy of Powell’s Tyler doesn’t mean she’s getting blown off-screen by that performance. It’s the balance of the two characters that makes them such an indomitable team. They both have the scientific knowledge and natural instinct it takes to chase these storms, and the combination of Tyler’s confidence and Kate’s conviction is impossible to take down.

An interesting and welcome departure from the original Twister is the emphasis that most of the characters have on helping people in the path of any given storm. Save for a few of Javi’s Storm Par crew, most everyone else chooses to abandon the science or any personal gain from engaging with the storm to go and assist those that will be or have already been impacted by the storm. It’s a nice reminder that while our characters are definitely risk-takers and are fascinated by tornadoes, they are incredibly dangerous and leave nothing but destruction in their wake. Lee Isaac Chung brings his sense of humanity and empathy to blend both the beauty of nature and these storms and the reality of what they bring. It’s this equilibrium between the two that makes the latter half of the film so thrilling and urgent. There’s no time to slow down or think. They can only attack the storms as they come and hope their solutions work to protect people.

Twisters is a film worthy of praise both for its spectacle and star power. Anyone lesser than Glen Powell would have made the Tyler Owens character annoying instead of endearing, and the film rests a lot of weight on his shoulders. Edgar-Jones brings a much-needed emotional bent to the story that makes everything just complex enough to not be a run-of-the-mill blockbuster with bland, nothing characters. It deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

Twisters is currently playing exclusively in theaters courtesy of Universal Pictures. 

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