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“September 5” Review 
I recall the biggest draw of the original Twister was the special effects. You didn’t go to the theater because of the compelling dynamic between Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton; you went because you wanted to see if either of them got sucked up into those massive tornadoes. Twisters, on the other hand, has more than big, destructive winds to be entertained. You’ll get all that with this sequel, complete with a firey tornado demolishing a power plant, but also a solid dose of romance between the charismatic leads. If the midwest chaos is considered dumb fun, consider the casting the smart side.
It helps that the leads have some intelligence in their reckless road trips into the heart of storms. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays meteorologist Kate Cooper who needs to balance out her trauma to get back on her weather-researching horse. She figures her former associate Javi (Anthony Ramos) might make that happen, but his goals have shifted. She instead forms an unlikely kinship with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a viral storm chaser who looks like a cocky cowboy at first glance. It’s only when Tyler shows as much cunning with his storm knowledge that Kate starts gravitating towards him, beyond finding someone to latch onto when the tornadoes get rough.
The selling point of this picture remains solidly pleasing to the eyes. If you love watching tornadoes rip up buildings, suck people into the air, and crash cars, you’ll eat well. There’s plenty of memorable moments, from the nail-biting rush for safety under an overpass to a rodeo being evacuated. There’s also an earnest level of trust placed in certain tropes that never tries to too hard to be amusing. With a handful of people getting sucked into the wind, there’s a few victims that are telegraphed, from the pushy customer of a motel to a skeptical woman who thinks the tornado sirens are false. It’s also just cool to watch as the stormchasers narrowly avoid getting crushed by cars and watertowers.
Of course, none of that chaos would be as compelling if the characters weren’t worth caring about. Director Lee Isaac Chung puts enough thought into making the trio of Edgar-Jones, Powell, and Ramos not only likable leads, but wise ones as well. There is a romance that forms between Edgar-Jones and Powell, but it forms more out their enthusiasm and interest in understanding and taming twisters. Their dynamic becomes more interesting when it goes beyond Kate’s analytical focus and Tyler’s boisterous attitude towards storms. They play off each other in a way where it doesn’t feel like busywork in between all the crashing and smashing.
Chung also has a firm focus on making the collateral damage sting after spectacle has eased. There’s never a moment when the chasers treat the destruction with a shrug. The majority of them seem to care so much about the people affected by these tornadoes, going so far to shirk their research and merchandising if it means ensuring safety. So many disaster films tend to glaze over these aspects. While Twisters doesn’t exactly go the extra mile in criticizing the climate change that led to these events or even the profitting from this misery (though it is addressed), the seriousness of the storms remains present. That said, it’s pretty amusing to watch the cocky Glen Powell drive into a tornado and launch fireworks inside it.
Twisters is a summer treat that doesn’t feel too much like junk food, making all the more enjoyable. The drive of its characters is as strong as the winds they encounter, nearly dwarving the amazing sight of a movie theater getting ripped to shreds from the inside as the lit screen shutters. As the film progressed, I found myself more engrossed with the trauma portrayed by Edgar-Jones and the effortless charm of Powell. The big storms that rumble the speakers end up being more of a bonus than the saving grace of a film where the town-destroying cyclones are the only returning characters.
