The movie “Twister” had an outsized cultural impact on me. Not only was it released just days before I graduated from high school, it also was filmed entirely in my home state.
The idea that a big-budget Hollywood disaster movie, or really anything of any major importance, could be happening in Oklahoma was almost inconceivable to me at the time.
It also dealt with a subject matter that all Oklahomans are all-too familiar with – tornadoes.
We Oklahomans all have our junior meteorology badges, hard earned from hours of regularly-scheduled springtime programming interrupted by hyperactive weathermen.
While “Twister” as a movie was – let’s be honest – not that great, it did, somehow, make Oklahoma look kinda cool. For that reason, it will always have a special place in my heart.
So, when I heard they were making a sequel oh so many years later, I felt, sure, why not.
“Twisters” may not wind up being as culturally relevant as “Twister,” but it does wind up being a slightly better movie.
The credit for the improvement can be drawn directly to two people: director Lee Isaac Chung and actor Glen Powell.
Chung is best known for his personal family drama “Minari” about growing up on his parents’ farm in rural Arkansas. Watching “Minari” may not make you think “This guy should be making big-budget disaster movies” but his focus on characters and connection to nature shine through in both movies.
“Twisters” feels like a throwback in more ways than one. It’s got all of the thrills and fairly decent special effects that made the first movie enjoyable, and it is built around an honest-to-goodness movie star.
Gone are the days when people will go to see a movie just because of the name above the title, but it used to be a tried-and-true formula to throw a charismatic movie star into an action spectacle and just let the magic happen.
“Twister” actually dodged this formula (and I mean that with no disrespect to the late, great Bill Paxton), banking on flying cows and mayhem to draw people in over A-list talent.
But into “Twisters” swaggers Powell as outlaw, YouTube storm chaser Tyler Owens. Tyler leads a rag-tag group of thrill seekers that run afoul of the movie’s other lead Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Kate Carter, a trauma-filled, straight-laced scientist with a passion for weather and a dream of being able to stop tornados in their tracks.
The focus of the story is clearly on Kate, and Edgar-Jones is fine in the part, but Powell steals the focus of every scene he is in to the point that you can feel the movie start to sag when he’s not in it.
Powell and Edgar-Jones are good together, but since the dude could have chemistry with a houseplant, I can’t really give her all that much credit.
Looking back through rose-colored glasses, it felt like a movie like “Twisters” came out every weekend in the 90s. A solid B-plus movie that didn’t change your life, but didn’t make you regret paying money to see it in the theater. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.
“Twisters” is rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images.
