Twisters (2024) Dir: Lee Isaac Chung
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Having watched and enjoyed the cult classic original, I had plenty of optimism in regards to this Lee Isaac Chung directed sequel. Adding to my anticipation was a steady stream of positive reactions from critics and audiences alike, which usually bodes well.
The step-up in visual quality was evident immediately. Yes, there's a large gap between the release dates of each film, but that doesn't always means the quality difference will mirror that. That said, everything looked pretty solid, as far as I was concerned.
The film went at breakneck speed just about the whole way through, but still gave its characters a few down moments to focus on character development and story-building. These slower moments did risk draining the film of its momentum at times, but the damage was not too bad.
The narrative combined thrills with romance, adventure with disaster - all to great effect. Similarly to the first one, some of the plot felt a tad repetitive, and the film was definitely too long, but not to the point of irritating me. To my mind, this was a pretty exciting story.
Daisy Edgar-Jones gave a very solid account of herself in this leading role. I liked her wit and her charm, which matched up well with her main co-star, and made her all-the-more likable. I also appreciated the more emotive aspects of her performance, which grounded both her and the events of the film quite nicely.
Glenn Powell made every scene he was in so much fun to watch. He was charismatic and all-too-entertaining. I was really pleased with how he portrayed his character's evolution, and I thought he got better and better as the film progressed.
I had mixed emotions towards the acting of Anthony Ramos. He showed a lot of promise, especially in the first half of the film, but I was far less enamoured by his second half performance. It was just so much more unconvincing. What's more, I thought he suffered greatly in the charisma department opposite Powell, which did not help his case.
As far as the rest of the supporting cast goes, I thought everyone did a fairly good job, with the most noteworthy names being Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Pato, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack, Katy O'Brian and Kiernan Shipka.
Overall, while I don't think this sequel matched up to the enjoyment I felt watching the original, I still had a good time with it. It was too long and the lows choked the pacing, but the action was thrilling and the protagonist's made the story all the more enjoyable. This was a very solid blockbuster sequel.
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