Review: 'Twisters' delivers nearly the same visceral thrill as its 1996 predecessor, though the script is more whiny than windy

Like the storms mentioned in its title, “Twisters” hits hard, fast and often — delivering nearly the same visceral movie thrill that its predecessor, “Twister,” did back in 1996, with better visual and sound effects.

Those storms, and the state of Oklahoma, are the only characters that carry over from the first movie to this one, though.

We begin with a ragtag crew of weather scientists, led by Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a Ph.d. candidate trying to show that tornadoes can be tamed — if you release enough of a “super-absorbent polymer” into a cyclone to deprive it of moisture. The pseudo-science explanation that one of the team (Kiernan Shipka) gives is it’s the same stuff found in disposable diapers. The team ends up in a massive tornado, and not everyone survives the experience.

Cut to five years later, and Kate has left tornado chasing for a job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices in New York, predicting weather patterns from the safety of a computer screen. One of her old teammates, Javi (Anthony Ramos), convinces her to come back to Oklahoma, to help him and his high-tech storm-chasing enterprise try out their new radar array. 

Once back in Oklahoma, Kate is reminded of one reason she left this world behind: The circus atmosphere of reckless storm chasers. The most reckless of the bunch is a group of scruffy YouTube-posting storm chasers, led by self-described “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell). 

Because character development hasn’t changed much since “The Taming of the Shrew,” it will surprise no one that screenwriter Mark L. Smith (“The Boys in the Boat”) shows us Kate and Tyler dislking each other at the get-go — though in short order, both develop a grudging admiration for the other’s tornado intelligence. And, admittedly, both Edgar-Jones and Powell are easy on the eyes.

Smith’s script plays like a fancy cuckoo clock, where things pop out at regular intervals to make a lot of noise. In between, there’s some heavy-handed messaging about the double whammy poor Oklahomans face from harsh weather and rapacious capitalism.

Director Lee Isaac Chung, moving up in budget level from his Oscar-winnng “Minari,” keeps the rhythm of the action sequences, pitting tech-augmented pickup trucks against unceasingly loud and blustery nature. He also finds in his leads, Edgar-Jones and Powell, an action-movie power couple, both so determined and heroic that they barely have time to cast suggestive glances at each other — but both charming enough that audiences will imagine a wind-whipped romance anyway.

——

‘Twisters’

★★★

Opens Friday, July 19, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images. Running time: 122 minutes.