'Twisters' Blew Away My Already Soaring Expectations

I loved every second of Twisters, summer blockbuster filmmaking at its very best. Seems like plenty of other people felt the same, too, given the opening weekend box office.

I loved every second of Twisters, summer blockbuster filmmaking at its very best. Seems like plenty of other people felt the same, too, given the opening weekend box office. There’s something just so satisfying about watching a good movie blow past the highest box office expectations, especially these days.

Twisters is a monster movie much like its predecessor, but it holds more of a reverence for the beauty of this powerful natural phenomenon, whereas the tornadoes felt more like beasts from hell in Twister.

That said, this quasi-sequel/reboot/whatever you want to call it clearly understood the elements that made the first film so good. In Twisters, we’re treated to another perfect ensemble cast, anchored by charismatic leads and supporting members of the team who all get their own little quirks and time to shine. The thrilling tornado mayhem doesn’t hurt, either.

It’s also so utterly clear that Glen Powell is an emerging movie star. Obviously he’s got that charisma oozing off the screen, but it was the striking amount of vulnerability he shows as Tyler Owens that elevates the character beyond being a one-note leading man. And in the climax of Twisters, that vulnerability shines and elevates what ends up being the most exciting sequence of the film.

The same can be said for Daisy Edgar-Jones, channeling her inner Jo Harding in both look and spirit. Like any great hero, there’s vulnerability there and perseverance through terrible adversity. She and Powell have palpable chemistry as well, which really appears to be a running theme with Powell and his costars. He’s got the juice.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Twisters does a great job of convincing us the science of what they’re suggesting - trying to “tame” tornadoes - totally holds up. It’s the Star Trek effect - it doesn’t matter what you’re suggesting or explaining so long as you properly sell it to the audience.

Beyond the characters we're rooting for from the very beginning, Twisters is beautifully shot. Sweeping landscapes, the endless horizon of the American Great Plains - again, like the original, we feel that grand scale of our surroundings, a vast world haunted by these unpredictable beasts and hunted by our beloved storm chasers.

Twisters’ Destiny Is on Cable TV

Twisters is great summer blockbuster fun, and I suspect it’ll ultimately be a streaming favorite to many, though it deserves to take its rightful place on the throne of cable TV, where I once became obsessed with the original.

There was something so thrilling about channel surfing on a summer Saturday night and you’d realize that you just caught the beginning of Twister on TNT. Your plans were now set and you could settle in for another viewing. By now you’d lost count of how many times you saw Twister, but it didn’t matter; you were locked in from the start, seeing those ominous weather reports and the wind beginning to pick up, and couldn’t wait for those giant set pieces.

Watching Twister like this was special, because it felt like it was gifted to you. This was a treat you weren’t expecting and that made it all the better. Movies that played on repeat like that on TNT, HBO, etc. became communal, an impossibility in the streaming age. Every movie we watch now is born of conscious choice - you never get to have the decision made for you. Despite what anyone tries to tell you now, it was actually nice when that happened.

You could form a deeper relationship with movies like that instead of watching them immediately disappear into the ether, buried under the next immediate wave of content sludge streamers pile on top in the ever-expanding chase for subscriber growth.

Maybe this will all happen for Twisters on, say, HBO. It’s got all the ingredients needed to be a modern blockbuster classic. Hopefully we can make that happen.

In the meantime, I’m feeling it, so I’m going to go chase it.