Review of “Twisters”: Science, action and romance combined in a wonderfully mindless adventure

Each tornado in Twisters acts like a conscious entity, targeting individuals one by one and sucking them into nothingness, not unlike the shark in Jaws or the denim jacket alien in Nope or the sandworms in the Dune films. One moment you’re taking shelter under a viaduct, flooring the accelerator of your pickup truck or running for your life down Main Street – and then POOF! POW! ZING! The big, whirling, swirling beast pulls you into its grasp like an evil spirit lurking under the bed in a horror movie. You’re gone, baby, gone.

In director Lee Isaac Chung’s fantastically entertaining, if completely ridiculous and at times bombastic, Twisters, we hear a lot of technical jargon from the various meteorologists and storm chasers and doctors at NASA and FEMA, and I’m sure a lot of it is rooted in reality. (I mean, at one point an “expert” advises everyone to stay away from windows during a tornado, we all learned that in third grade, right?)

But when another massive event strikes during a “once-in-a-generation tornado outbreak” that devastates the Plains, we’re plunged into an old-school disaster movie that honors many of the central themes of Jan de Bont’s 1996 “Twister,” but is a standalone sequel. It’s only called “Twisters” because it’s set in the “Twister” universe, and there are more Twisters this time.

And there are more plot twists, but you can spot them with the keenness of a storm chaser who uses a dandelion as a barometer and predicts weather patterns instantly. And yes, that’s a real scene in Twisters and it’s based on real science, so go ahead! Grab your popcorn and your drink, settle into your seat and turn off your phone AND your brain. Twisters gives you two hours of mindless, suspenseful and action-packed entertainment.

British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones imitates a typical American accent and delivers a solid, if occasionally boring, performance as Kate Cooper, a highly talented meteorologist who has taken a secure desk job at a New York weather service after a daring, experimental attempt to somehow “tame” tornadoes ends in tragedy.

Kate is out of the storm chasing business – until her former colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) shows up and says he has acquired a new technology that could change storm research forever and save lives. Javi has assembled a sophisticated team of experts and has a wealthy backer; all he needs now is Kate and her almost magical abilities as a “storm whisperer.”

Head to Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley, where half the world’s storm chasers have gathered, from experienced crews to freelance idiots. (It’s like the landlocked version of the scene in Jaws when all those idiots set out to sea in their inferior boats hoping to land the big guy.)

The rock star of the group is Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell, aka “The Tornado Wrangler,” who looks like he stepped out of a Budweiser commercial, has a hugely popular YouTube series, and has assembled a team of rebels and misfits who always shout “Wooooo!” and “Woohoooo!” when it’s time to chase storms. You’d be hard-pressed to find rivals more different than science-obsessed, uptight Kate and renegade cowboy Tyler! There’s no chance they’ll form any kind of connection as they learn more about each other. Not at all.

Twisters has a nice little interlude that gives us a chance to catch our breath when Kate returns home after a long absence and reunites with her mother (Maura Tierney), who has apparently been running a fairly large family farm on her own and still has time to cook an idyllic sunset dinner when that rascal Tyler comes along. Mom is the real hero in this story!

Mostly, though, it’s all about the tornadoes, and while the visual effects can be almost overwhelming, there are a number of impressively rendered sequences — although it’s kind of odd that in this fictional universe, few establishments in Tornado Alley seem to have basements or shelters, and people don’t seem to realize they should “run” or “take cover” until the movie stars show up. (There are scenes where nerdy Kate turns into a proper action star, just like Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds.)

Working from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (based on a story by Joseph Kosinski, who was originally slated to direct), director Chung has a much bigger canvas to work with than he did with the beautifully filmed 1980s immigrant tale “Minari.” Here he draws on elements of American culture, with isolated tornadoes during a baseball game, a rodeo and a revival movie screening of the 1931 film “Frankenstein” that keeps playing even as the walls start to crumble. “Twisters” is cheesy and silly, but spectacular fun.