Weather warning: Artificial tornadoes are more fun than real ones

In real life, you hear a freight train just before a tornado hits you. TwistersJust before a tornado hits you, listen to Shania Twain. There’s only one way in which tornadoes in movies are worse.

In a hundred thousand years, no one who could have captured the almost perfect, calm, haunting Minari would ever think, “This director’s next film will definitely be a sequel to a 28-year-old movie best known for a flying cow.” And yet somehow it makes sense? Director Lee Isaac Chung brings the same reverence for nature and depth of humanity to this superficial but oddly effective blockbuster. It’s a superhero movie about meteorologists, with only Al Roker in spandex and a cape missing.

Instead, the heroine is Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Kate’s entire character is “knows the weather.” Plus, she has 100% magical abilities. She’s basically Storm from the X-Menonly that she cannot control the weather, but only knows what will happen. This is far less useful against Magneto. Magneto does not appear in Twisters.

In the opening sequence, Kate and her friends chase a tornado in the hope of “taming” it. This happens very scientifically. They have filled barrels with the contents of diapers. The stuff absorbs the moisture and kills the tornado. That doesn’t end well!

Five years later, Kate has left her rural home in Oklahoma and moved to the asphalt metropolis of New York City. But her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) lures her back to Tornado Alley. He wants her to help his new company create a really good 3D model of a tornado using high-tech radars.

Javi’s team hates storm chasers on YouTube. And that’s fair. Tyler (Glen Powell) is an internet sensation and “tornado wrangler,” a job that sounds frighteningly plausible in our capitalist hellscape. If you not If you think heartbroken Kate and smug but nice Tyler go from feuding to flirting, please let us know how you’ve avoided the Hallmark Channel your entire life. There can’t be any real plot in a movie where the villain is quick to flail around in the air, but the whole thing builds to a remarkable disaster climax that’s genuinely suspenseful.

It is exciting because Twisters remembers how incredibly compelling it can be to watch people help other people survive a terrible situation. As fun as it is to watch superhero brawls, there is something deeply and compassionately satisfying about seeing non-superheroes risk their deaths to help strangers. The film contains several lines of dialogue that go something like this: “We must not do selfish things and instead stop and help people.” Is that dialogue clunky? You bet it is. But it’s also kind of great.

The extent to which Twisters is about not acknowledging that climate change is real. Several times, characters describe how tornadoes are getting worse and more frequent. At every moment when it seems as if the several meteorologists talk to each other will acknowledge global warming, a country song full of small-town fetishism kicks in. Nobody expected Twisters as a political statement, but the cowardice probably demanded by the studio executives is still annoying.

Also annoying: Glen Powell. Or maybe not? What a strange aura this man has. He is perfect cast here as a character who is meant to be loathed and loved at the same time. He may have achieved global heartthrob status this year, but his wickedly charming grin is unsettling. Daisy Edgar-Jones also appears in the film.

Ignoring moments of convenient and blatant stupidity, such as storm chasers going to an outdoor rodeo during a tornado outbreak without checking the weather forecast, Twisters has too much country music. Even ignoring country music, Twisters is a sympathetic disaster epic full of compassion. So maybe it’s worth putting up with a little gloom.

Grade = B

Other critical voices to consider

Sarah Gopaul of Digital Journal says, “From the first scene, this film is thrilling and pulls no punches when it comes to portraying the incredible and destructive power of these tornadoes. But it also captures the thrill of storm chasing and shows the adrenaline rush through energetic performances and a country-rock soundtrack. It then juxtaposes that energy with the serious aftermath of casualties and devastation, as the characters rarely miss an opportunity to help survivors.”

Jenn Adams of Strong Female Antagonist says, “None of these stories feel particularly novel. Uniform technology versus grassroots altruism is a hallmark of the disaster subgenre, and as common as the esteemed From enemies to lovers Trope. But we don’t buy a ticket for a film like Twisters for history.”

Allison Wilmore of Vulture says:Twisters strangely insists that the morally right thing for his characters to do is to hurry to communities about to be hit by a tornado, even as it takes pains to show exactly how to help once they’re there. There’s no sadder sign of the times than a film whose moment of triumph is an individual figuring out how to defuse a single storm – a supposed step toward saving the world – but which refuses to acknowledge the larger problems that buffet its characters like whirlwinds.”