Glen Powell is such a big movie star right now that men are wondering if he’s already too big a movie star. He flew onto the A-list, and Tom Cruise's Christmas list, thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, an absolutely massive summer blockbuster in 2022, and now, two years later, he’s back with another legacy sequel that, based on the initial response from critics, could be nearly as big. It sounds like Twisters is everything you’re expecting it to be.
30 years after Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton blew us away (almost literally) in Twister, Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones lead the Twisters cast. The first film brought us massive spectacles in the form of its trademark storms, and for those who are looking for something similar from the sequel, it sounds like you won’t be disappointed. As Digital Spy journalist Ian Sandwell put it…
Whether or not it lives up to it might depend on your personal connection to – and nostalgia for – the original movie. But Twisters still delivers where it counts with thrilling huge-scale set pieces which are very wet and very windy.
Twisters is the biggest role to date for Glen Powell, a formerly obscure actor who is now the lead in a major summer blockbuster. He’s quickly become a highly in-demand star and looking at the Twisters reactions, it doesn’t appear that’s going to change anytime soon. Variety's Owen Gleiberman seemed to be as taken by Powell as they were major setpieces, saying…
Powell, with that squint, that coif, those complex dimples, confirms his old-school movie-star magnetism (think the young Clint Eastwood as a highly evolved brainiac), and there are moments of spectacle that hook you, like a water tower crashing down, or the sequence that starts with Kate and Tyler’s date at a rodeo and climaxes with a fearsome twister that has them clinging to the corner of a motel swimming pool.
Summer is traditionally the time for large-scale action blockbusters. The sorts of movies that “must” be seen on a big screen to be properly appreciated. If they have a fault, it’s that the story can often take a backseat to the visuals. GamesRadar's Jamie Graham admits the plot may be little more than an excuse to generate the action, but in the end, the total package comes together…
But thankfully Twisters was worth the wait, its swirl of large-scale spectacle, likeable characters, and heartfelt sentiment excusing a plot that’s really just a washing line on which to peg set-pieces… if such a metaphor is wise, given that an EF5 tornado would likely take the line, your clothes, the shed, the whole back garden, and your house too.
This is not to say that every review thinks that Twisters lack of story can be easily excused by the wow factor. THR journalist David Rooney says that Twisters simply “meets the requirements” as a summer blockbuster, but ultimately feels lacking because the story and the characters are too predictable…
But something’s missing. Mark L. Smith’s screenplay — working from a story by Joseph Kosinski, who was originally slated to direct — settles into a routine pattern in which one whirlwind follows another with too little incremental buildup. The character dynamics are entirely predictable, which tends to soften the drama.
While it’s a bit early to tell what the general consensus on Twisters will ultimately be, the early word would seem to be that while the movie isn’t perfect, it’s got everything that it needs. Expectations for Twisters box office have been high, and that’s unlikely to change following these reactions. As IndieWire's David Ehrlich seems to indicate, people are going to come out of this one happy…
Still, it’s always wonderful to see a big summer movie that simply works as well as this one does, let alone a $200 million tentpole that never allows that scale to get away from it.
Twisters just works, and it’s hard to want more out of any movie than that.
