July 17, 2024
Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) had been fascinated by tornados since she was a child. In college, she led a "Tornado Taming" team with her boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack), and friends Addy (Kiernan Shipka), Praveen (Nik Dodani) and Javi (Anthony Ramos). She wanted to prove that decreasing the moisture inside the tornado using their super-absorbent polymer can make a tornado collapse. An unfortunate outcome left Kate scarred.
Five years later, Kate was now working as a meteorologist in New York City. Her old friend Javi met up with her, and told her that he had access to technology that could create a 3-dimensional scan of tornados. Javi invited her to go back home with him to Oklahoma, believing that only a natural storm-chaser like Kate could bring him and his team close enough to a tornado in order to set up his radar equipment around the tornado.
The first "Twister" (1996) was a disaster-thriller film co-written by Michael Crichton (on a hot writing streak since "Jurassic Park") and directed by Jan de Bont (fresh from the success of "Speed"), starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. This film was memorable for its practical yet very realistic special effects that immersed audiences right in the middle of a violent tornado. Seeing that cow being carried off by the strong winds was instantly an iconic image.
This new film reboots the tornado experience for moviegoers 28 years after the original. The technology of special effects have progressed so much over the years, plus IMAX and 4DX screenings. We feel the exhilaration of the reckless storm-chasing, as well as the tragedy of seeing loved ones being sucked into the violent vortex of whirling winds. Director Lee Isaac Chung ("Minari") made sure that the sense of danger was never lost on us.
As she was in "Where the Crawdads Sing," Daisy Edgar-Jones has that gentle beauty that reflected Kate's sincerity. As he did in "Top Gun Maverick," Glen Powell (as charismatic tornado-wrangler Tyler Owens) exuded an effortless masculinity ladies gush over and men respect. Anthony Ramos's Javi found himself caught in a conflict between Kate's sense of social responsibility and his business partner Scott's (pre-"Superman" David Corenswet) selfish financial interests. 6/10.
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