‘Twisters’ review: Surprisingly good reboot is a bona fide summer blockbuster

movie review

TWISTERS

Running time: 117 minutes. Rated PG-13 (intense action and peril, some language and injury images). In theaters July 19.

“Twisters,” the disaster movie starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, is an oddity in 2024: a reboot that’s actually worth your time.

Maybe it’s strange to call a film depicting the enormous devastation wrought by tornadoes a pleasant surprise. But, like the weather phenomena these rebellious scientists chase, this summer smash whooshed in out of nowhere.

After all, why would ticket-buyers assume that a follow-up to 1996’s “Twister” is any good?

Usually when Hollywood cravenly defibrillates franchises to make a buck, it ignores what audiences loved about the originals in the first place.

Rather than embracing their virtues, studios formulaically try to recreate old blockbusters’ magic by repeating worn-out catchphrases and cramming in day-player cameos from past stars.

Not “Twisters.”

Director Lee Isaac Chung’s bracing movie, with no labored connections to its predecessor, starts with a strong story and rich characters — and, yes, cool cyclones — and rightly goes down a storm.

A gutsy and tragic opener introduces us to Kate (Edgar-Jones), a chipper meteorology student in Oklahoma with big dreams.

Her head’s in the clouds in every sense. Obsessive Kate believes she’s invented a method to stop tornadoes dead in their tracks, but the technology isn’t finessed yet. She finds out the hard way.

Five years later, the shell-shocked woman is working at a TV station in New York — where the most fearsome Cyclone is on Coney Island — when her old pal Javi (Anthony Ramos) begs her to rejoin him in the Great Plains during a record-breaking season.

Javi is endeavoring to capture a sophisticated 3D scan of a whirlwind, much like Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton did in the original using the aluminum-balls sensor “Dorothy,” to better predict the storm’s behavior and keep people in the destructive path safe.

Mentally prepared, she thinks, Kate flies back to Oklahoma, where there’s no surrey with the fringe on top, but rather muddy trucks with satellite radar. She doesn’t need fancy devices — Kate relies on instinct alone.

So far, “Twisters” largely tracks the Hunt-Paxton film. How is it updated? There’s a lot less denim, for one, and I didn’t spot any silly cows mooing through the sky.

Most 21st century are its digital touches. For instance, we meet a pack of popular social media stars who shoot death-defying live streams from the eye of the storm.

The only cellphone in the original, you’ll recall, was owned by Bill’s extremely annoying therapist fiancée, Melissa, to whom I say good riddance.

The hottest YouTube star of the lot is Tyler (Glen Powell), a cocky cowboy who competes for dominance with Javi’s straitlaced crew, one of whom amusingly is DC’s future Superman, David Corenswet.

Without a doubt, these characters’ backstories and drives are vastly more compelling than those of 28 years ago. And the main trio’s opposing auras — Edgar-Jones’ damaged soul, Powell’s sensitive jock and Ramos’ heart of gold — marry beautifully.

There’s greater moral complexity this time, too.

Screenwriter Mark L. Smith has cannily reworked the research vs. profit angle from the 1996 film into something newly pressing. And it’s not just sober data collection battling vapid social media clicks. He throws a curveball.

Chung was a bold pick for “Twisters.” Indie directors can flop big-time when handed the reins of big studio tentpoles burdened by high expectations (see: Chloé Zhao and Marvel’s “Eternals”).

The Oscar nominee turns out to be an ideal match. Chung brings the same skillful style he used to shoot the green meadows of Arkansas in “Minari,” at once serene and dark, to the action-packed cornfields of Oklahoma. He mines depth in the most unlikely place — millennials sprinting after tornadoes.

And, for those of you who couldn’t care less about character arcs, nuanced acting and unique views of nature’s majesty: Thanks for reading and, yes, the twisters are badass.