On the same weekend this year that Barbie (2023) hit theatres last year, the summer blockbuster of 2024 brought summer crowds to theatres and is finally here. In his follow up to his 2020 film Minari, director Lee Isaac Chung brings us Twisters, a sequel (that no one asked for) to its 90’s singularly named predecessor Twister. And hot incoming storm alert: everyone is loving it. The new film follows closely the story arc of the original, tweaking characters and plot points to fit more closely for a modern audience, filling the summer theatres with extreme weather, the star that is Glen Powell, and amazing chemistry between him, co-lead Daisy Edgar-Jones, and the twisters they chase.

Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate is a young woman passionate about making a change, experimenting how to disrupt and tame tornadoes, removed from the world of chasing tornadoes after being hit hard by the loss of those close to her after a horrible tornado accident. Glen Powell’s Tyler balances out her studious nature with the wild, vlogging and live streaming as he faces the beastly tornadoes head on. After Kate agrees to return for one week to help an old friend chase tornadoes, their motivations clash and it’s up to the two of them to put their differences aside for their passions and the lives of others.

I don’t think anyone can’t help but compare Twisters with the 1996 original. I will admit, the first time I watched the original Twister was 2 days before seeing its sequel, and thus much of the 90’s nostalgia did not hit home as hard for myself as it did for others (I was also not even alive in the 90’s to be nostalgic for the time period, when watching in 2024). Even still, the lure of the star-in-the-making Glen Powell, as well as the name Lee Isaac Chung and whispering of Twisters being the new summer movie brought me to the theatre to experience the chase on the big screen.

The sequel fully succeeds at paying homage to the original without ever becoming obsessed with it. Dorothy gets her cameo, with new technology reminding audiences of the old – and just how far we have come. It is unfortunate that the new narrative arc almost exactly follows that of the old, save for character motivations and specific plot points becoming more fleshed out in the new one, but I think this works to its benefit, playing on the nostalgia for anyone around to see the original in the 90’s, while still enhancing the bare bones plot with science, star power, and action for everyone else viewing for the first time in 2024.

A lot of people talk about the overall playful nature of Twister. It really is a story to a group of pals chasing tornadoes and trying to do some good, while following the two leads as ex-lovers, pining over each other despite their history. While I enjoyed this playful quality in the original, I did finish the movie wanting more. Wanting more plot, more from the side characters, more of anything that isn’t just simply chasing tornadoes for 2 hours. So, while Twisters most definitely gives us more plot, it almost ends up overcompensating in this area, becoming over saturated with science jargon, experimentation, and clearly trying to “make sense”, while still forfeiting any more development of side characters like Tyler’s team or Kate’s friends. It sounds like all the things I wanted from the first, I am now critiquing the second one for having more of. But I think I would have just liked to see some more middle ground, having more of a plot while still preserving the overall playful and somewhat silly nature of the first.

Similarly, I appreciated the decision in Twister to keep the science and experimentation in a little black box. Somehow, before the movie started, Helen Hunt got Dorothy to work, then Bill Paxton shows up, and that’s that on that. Twisters flips this on its head, and makes sure we know that Tyler is smart, and Kate is a genius. This new development is a welcome addition, but goes slightly too far in the third act, emphasizing the scientific explanation over the plain fun of the chase. On top of this, a severe lack of anything more than a longing glance and some exchanged words about feelings between the two leads almost left me wondering, what was all this plot for, if I don’t even get to see the pay off and a moment of passion.

Even still, while the newest instalment suffers from a swing-and-a-miss at correcting the wrongs of the first film, it still succeeded at keeping me enthralled throughout, and in the edge of my seat during the action packed twister scenes. I did miss the visual effects of the tornadoes from Twister that screamed 90’s, but loved how the plot of Twisters was enhanced with regards to the tensions between the two competing groups of storm chasers, forcing Kate to make a decision between a friend, and thus her past, and the right thing to do, after a reveal about both groups’ true motivations. I loved how there was sprinkles of commentary on climate change, land ownership, and how we behave in the aftermath of destruction throughout, but these never took away from the very clear, and at times very silly, premise of passionate people chasing tornadoes.

I can’t say I left the theatre convinced that Twisters is a great movie. I can say that it was a heck of a lot of fun to watch in a packed theatre on a Tuesday evening, and is the movie we needed this summer. It fixes some of the missteps the first one took, while failing to right some others, but overall is a wonderfully fun time at the movie theatre. I can’t say it will go down as a Legacy sequel as acclaimed as it could have been a la Top Gun: Maverick (2022), and I would be surprised if it still has any buzz in October, let alone in a year from now a la Barbie (2023). But it will get people of all ages and backgrounds into theatres this summer, wanting to leave listening to country music, donning a cowboy hat and some boots, and celebrating the movie star that is Glen Powell, and the fun performance from Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones. I had a smile on my face as the credits rolled, and left hailing this as the true film of the summer of 2024.

Twisters (2024) is now playing in theatres across Canada.