Despite its name, “Twisters” is anything but a natural disaster — in fact, it has all the elements to make it the most exciting summer blockbuster of the year. Star power, action, drama, romance and even some humor (as much humor as you can get from a movie about horrific natural disasters) all twist together to create a genuinely fun and engaging experience that kept me hooked for the entire runtime.  

I will admit, the quality of “Twisters” surprised me at first. From the trailers, I was expecting a generic action movie with no real substance and little to no plot. The advertisement I had seen seemed vague and confusing, focusing more on the sex appeal of leading man Glen Powell than any sort of explanation or setup for a story. 

What I found instead was a movie with a shocking start, a relatively strong story structure and some truly gripping action sequences. The movie opens with Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an amateur scientist working with her friends in Oklahoma on a project that would hypothetically stop tornadoes, saving thousands of lives a year. 

However, after disaster strikes on the field during a particularly bad storm, the movie jumps to Kate five years later, now living in New York with her work as a storm chaser behind her. That is until her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) begs her to come back to Oklahoma, claiming he needs her almost uncanny abilities to predict storms to complete his research for “Storm Par,” technology that would allow for full 3-D mapping of tornadoes and insights into their formation, power and destruction.

I went into this movie relatively blind with my expectations low, vaguely aware this was supposed to be a standalone sequel of the 1996 film “Twister”, which I had never seen before. Thankfully, the film stands on its own. 

 The best way I can describe this film is “complete” — the plot points, runtime and character choices all coalesce to create a truly cohesive narrative. This complete experience is something I find is all too often missing with modern blockbusters as our current cinematic landscape seems to exclusively consist of sequels, live-action remakes and rehashed action narratives. 

While “Twisters” technically is a sequel, it is refreshing to see the original story not just reiterated but reborn and improved upon. The quality of this movie makes it feel completely justified. There was clear direction, vision and passion behind the product, and the character dynamics were fresh and exciting.

Once back in Oklahoma, Kate runs into Tyler Owens (Powell), a “storm wrangler” popular on YouTube. He and his ragtag band of fellow storm enthusiasts with a penchant for entertainment repeatedly butt heads with Kate, Javi and their crew. While Kate and Javi’s team is there strictly for research, Tyler’s team will risk everything out on the field in pursuit of the thrill of storms. 

I would highly recommend seeing this movie while it’s still in theaters in order to fully enjoy the power of the masterfully executed natural disaster scenes. The big screen allows the audience to feel the terror of these storms and truly understand the fear of the characters that we grow so fond of throughout. 

For all its merits, “Twisters” is fairly simplistic, somewhat generic and the audience must suspend their sense of disbelief to fully engage with the premise. For example, how in the world does Kate seem to have magical tornado-predicting superpowers? Furthermore, how does her makeup stay on so perfectly through a rainstorm? Plus, if I were a meteorologist, I’m sure I would be highly annoyed with the misinformation or exaggeration of weather phenomena that undoubtedly permeates this movie. 

Still, despite “Twisters” having limited appeal to critics or plot purists, it is undoubtedly a movie for the people. It is a movie for the summer: fun, exciting, chock full of thrills and even some twists, literally and figuratively.