Twisters review: Daisy Edgar-Jones’ action adventure hailed as the ‘blockbuster of the summer’ and ‘best cinematic experience’ since $1B box office smash Top Gun: Maverick

Twisters has been called the “blockbuster of the summer” by critics, as the tornado film hits theaters nearly 30 years after the original.

The sequel stars Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Top Gun Maverick’s Glen Powell as competing storm chasers. The film has been hailed as the “best moviegoing experience” since 2022’s Maverick, which grossed $1 billion at the box office.

In her five-star review The standardMaddy Mussen described Twisters as ‘as exciting as it is emotional’ and called Daisy and Glenn ‘natural leads’.

She wrote that while the film didn’t address climate change, it was nevertheless a “thrilling, smarter-than-it-looks blockbuster” that left her “wanting to know more.”

In the meantime The independent’Clarisse Loughrey was also impressed, giving the film four out of five stars, saying the story was “so intense it was almost terrifying.”

Twisters has been hailed by critics as the ‘blockbuster of the summer’ as the tornado film hits theaters (L-R) Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Glenn Powell

The sequel stars Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Top Gun Maverick’s Glen Powell as competing storm chasers.

The film was named the “best theatrical experience” since 2022’s Maverick, which grossed $1 billion at the box office (Tom Cruise pictured in Maverick)

Writing: ‘The callbacks [to the original] Thankfully, they’re fairly minimal – but it’s still a reassuringly old-school affair, with the CGI feeling right at home alongside a host of traditional practical effects.

In The Telegraph Robbie Collin was full of praise, calling the film “the best cinematic experience” since Top Gun: Maverick.

The formula is so simple it’s surprising it ever went out of fashion: everyday heroes you can’t help but root for (Edgar-Jones and the never-again Tom Cruise-esque Powell are both magnetic).

‘Again and again, [the film] uses the classic Spielbergian trick of spending more time watching his actors’ reactions to danger – slack-jawed and lantern-eyed – than actually lurking for the danger itself.

The guardPeter Bradshaw also noted that the “nice film” was too shy to address climate change and its effects on our weather.

He concluded that the tornado was in fact a metaphor for an orgasm in the budding romance between the two main characters.

richBeth Webb gave the film four stars, saying the action film had the “stakes and tension of a horror film.”

“Simply put, Twisters wears its Big Summer Movie heart on its sleeve.”

Maddy Mussen of The Standard described the action film in her five-star review as “as thrilling as it is emotional” and called Daisy and Glenn “natural leads.”

Meanwhile, Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent was also impressed, giving the film four out of five stars, stating that the story is “intense to the point of terrifying”

In The Telegraph, Robbie Collin was full of praise, saying the film was the “best cinema experience” since Top Gun: Maverick

Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton pictured in the 1996 original

‘At one point, our heroes literally lead the crowd into a movie theater for shelter. And you’d do well to join them.’

Brian Viner of the Ny Breaking wrote in his four-star review: ‘I laughed harder during Twisters, so over-the-top are the attempts to turn it back into a monster movie.’

The deadly tornadoes ripping through Oklahoma are clearly the equivalent of Godzilla, alien invaders, or the Great White Cat in Jaws. Especially since no one, not even top meteorologist Kate Cooper (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones), tries to explain them away as, perhaps, a result of climate change.

That said, Lee Isaac Chung’s film is impressive and energetic as Kate, who seeks redemption after a tragedy five years earlier by trying to show that tornadoes can actually be made smaller through scientific intervention, and who teams up with a charismatic, self-styled “tornado wrangler” named Tyler Owens (Glen Powell).

It may all be nonsense, but it’s a lot of fun to watch, with a nice comedic turn from Harry Hadden-Paton as a hapless English reporter assigned to write a story about the phenomenon of chasing tornadoes across the American plains.

It could also be plausible nonsense, if you are one of those people who, like me, believes that anyone who drops “superabsorbent polymers” into a sentence probably knows what they are talking about.

By the way, I saw Twisters last week at its European premiere in London, where it was introduced by Chung himself. ‘I hope (after seeing it) you Londoners will never complain about the weather again,’ he said.

I don’t think we can make that promise. Asking us to stop moaning about the weather is like asking us to promise never to drink tea again or praise Sir David Attenborough; we would be raping our national identity.

But I got his point. We don’t live in a country (yet) where you can end up in the next country without leaving your living room, so thank God for that.

Twisters: What Do the Critics Say?

Daily mail

Judgement:

Brian Viner: ‘This may all be nonsense, but it’s still a lot of fun to watch,’

‘Director Lee Isaac Chung’s film thunders forward with impressive verve and energy’.

The standard

Judgement:

Maddy Mussen: ‘Powell and Edgar-Jones are natural leads, with enough charisma to go it alone’

“It’s a thrilling, smarter-than-it-looks blockbuster, not necessarily in its science, but in its writing, action and austerity. So much so that people at my screening applauded at the end — something I haven’t seen in years.”

The independent

Judgement:

Clarisse Loughrey: ‘There is such a sense of solidarity and resilience in the air that it provides a surprising spark of hope in an otherwise chaotic spectacle of disaster.’

The recalls [to the original] Thankfully, they’re fairly minimal – but it’s still a reassuringly old-school affair, with the CGI feeling right at home alongside a host of traditional practical effects.

The Telegraph

Judgement:

Robbie Collin was full of praise, calling the film the best cinematic experience since Top Gun: Maverick.

The formula is so simple it’s surprising it ever went out of fashion: everyday heroes you can’t help but root for (Edgar-Jones and the never-again Tom Cruise-esque Powell are both magnetic).

‘Again and again, [the film] uses the classic Spielbergian trick of spending more time watching his actors’ reactions to danger – slack-jawed and lantern-eyed – than actually lurking for the danger itself.

The guard

Judgement:

Peter Bradshaw noted that the “nice film” was too shy to address climate change and its effects on our weather.

He concluded that the tornado was in fact a metaphor for an orgasm in the budding romance between the two main characters.

BBC

Judgement:

Nicholas Barber: ‘Despite having charismatic actors and suspenseful scenes, Twisters doesn’t have much of a plot – instead, like its predecessor, ‘there are just dull characters who keep getting into bad weather’

“It’s a missed opportunity. Twisters isn’t bad, but a braver film might have acknowledged that addressing the causes of extreme weather would be more useful than throwing diapers at it.”

Variety

Owen Gleiberman: Twisters I felt like I had seen something exactly like it. And when it comes to real tornado footage, I had seen something even more incredible.

While Twisters is fun in some ways, it’s a film where reality ultimately takes a lot of the wind out of its sails.

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