I was not a fan of the original Twister film with Helen Hunt. I had only watched it once so I decided to give it another viewing about a month ago and I found out that I still did not like the film. So continuing the series with a new Twisters felt unneeded for me.

So imagine my surprise, I thought Twisters was way better than that original film and it was a film that I really liked.

According to IMDB, “As storm season intensifies, the paths of former storm chaser Kate Cooper, lured back to the open plains after a devastating encounter years prior, and reckless social-media superstar Tyler Owens collide when terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed. The pair and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.“

Why does this work more for me than the original. Fact is there is not too much different between these two stories. The actors are all decent in those roles.

I think part of reason is that I felt more for these new characters, especially Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who I really liked. She had a truly tragic past that I felt that they used during the film. I do think they could have gone into more of this tragedy than they did, but I felt like Kate was a deeper character than anyone from that first Twister movie.

Glen Powell continues his run as a huge star in movies today. I liked this character a lot too though he felt more like Glen Powell playing himself than anything else. I liked the relationship between Powell and Edgar-Jones and I thought the movie did a good job of taking it slowly between them.

The action in the film was solid and the tornados looked great. The tension of the situation was well built and the anxiety of seeing individuals being pulled away into the tornado was always effective.

It is not a perfect film by any stretch. There are holes in the story and some weaknesses in the characters, but none of them were major issues for me. This was a fun, summer movie watch with some good action, some exciting special effects and a couple intriguing characters. I like this more than I expected to.

3.8 stars