Jan de Bont's "Twister" (1996) was a diverting "summer thrill ride", said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. Now we have a stand-alone sequel, directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), and a film that could have been a "faintly desperate revival of an ageing blockbuster brand" turns out to be vastly better than the original. I am happy to report that "Twisters" is a "wholehearted, warm-blooded, meticulously crafted good time".
Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Cooper, a meteorologist who is researching tornadoes in Oklahoma when one of them turns on her and her team, killing three of them. Five years on, her fellow survivor, Javi (Anthony Ramos), persuades her to come out of semi-retirement, and return to Oklahoma to monitor an especially virulent tornado season for the dodgy estate agency he is working for. But they're not the only storm chasers in town: Tyler (Glen Powell), a swaggering "tornado wrangler" with a million followers on YouTube, has also arrived to capitalise on the season. The film's formula is simple and winning: "everyday heroes you can't help but root for", enjoyable supporting turns (including from "Downton Abbey"'s Harry Hadden-Paton), and "light-touch direction" that "foregrounds" the human experience.
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