A spiritual sequel with everything but the flying cow.

While testing her theories about “taming a tornado,” Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) puts a voluntary team of university students in harm’s way, resulting in tragedy. Years later, Kate’s former colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) has formed a company able to gather three-dimensional data on the ground by surrounding a tornado… and he needs her help to chase them down. Still haunted by loss, Kate eventually agrees to help for a week, but once she encounters “tornado wrangler” YouTube star Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), her competitive nature takes over. During a record week of storms becoming more frequent and more powerful destroying communities where she grew up, Kate will have to decide who’s doing good, who needs help, and if it’s worth the risk trying to beat Mother Nature at her own game.

Mandatory recap of the original 1996 tornado-chasing disaster film Twister to follow. Directed by Jan de Bont — who had just previously directed Speed — it was headlined by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as a near-divorced couple reconciling in the middle of a race to prove a weather data collection system’s viability… and constantly putting themselves (and Jami Gertz) in harm’s way. Featuring cutting-edge VFX and a plot that ran out of steam faster than their effects budget, what it lacked in story it made up for in spectacle. Note: many classic disaster films follow the tried-and-true formula of “the film ends when the disaster’s over”; they can’t all be The Poseidon Adventure. Flash forward almost three decades for Minari director Lee Isaac Chung to helm the similar but reinvented idea, this time dabbling in science fiction mixed with a bit of romantic entanglement. With improved special effects technology, a bad-boy attitude, and some unhealthy PTSD, Twisters picks up the chase where the last one left off, but can audiences be convinced to brave Tornado Alley once more?

Weather scientists have weighed in on the details of Twisters, saying the lingo is on the money… even if the tech is still the whimsey of science fiction. There are no radar systems portable enough to surround a tornado nor polymers portable enough to suck the moisture out of one, but if either thing was true, it might look a lot like this. Unlike the broken relationship that saw Hunt and Paxton reconciling throughout Twister, Kate and Tyler are strangers slowly learning their similarities while trench bonding. It’s a playful romance amid dire circumstances avoiding any social pitfalls to put off potential viewers, coupled with state-of-the-art weather effects and mass destruction: the ideal conditions for a great summer blockbuster to manifest at the box office.

Much of the film is predictable — especially with the burgeoning relationship — but in a good way; sometimes you just want everything to go right for characters because everything else is going to hell in a handbag. Edgar-Jones’ Kate wears her heart on her sleeve, but she’s as determined as she is haunted; you can feel her emotion as she endures. Powell’s Tyler exudes charm and confidence while quietly passionate, evident when torn between what he wants to do, what he can do, and what he never says. Ramos’ Javi mixes compromised values into the storyline while David Corenswet’s Scott is far less heroic than his soon-to-be comic book counterpart as the future Superman for James Gunn. Genre favorites Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, and Katy O’Brian all lend their talents to the production, and you really don’t want a bad review from Bill Paxton’s son James. If you remember “Dorothy” from the original Twister, the rest of the Oz characters get their due in the sequel… including the deep-cut demise of a wicked witch (ruby slippers not included).

Speaking of social pitfalls, the production avoids words like “climate change” (although Kate’s mom played by Maura Tierney wasn’t subtle mentioning the increasing frequency and power of the storms) and there’s nary a controversial flag in sight. In other words, the story is sanitized of controversy in favor of being united against tornados and Scooby-Doo villains (“It was the greedy land developer, gang!”) and that’s okay. As the great beast humanity shouldn’t have poked, Mother Nature is awesome, terrible, and absolutely cannot be reasoned with… but from the safety of the biggest screen and best sound system you can find, enjoy the show.

Twisters is rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language, injury images, and middle school science projects.

Four skull recommendation out of four