Tornado sequel offers maximum roar

Mindful of original's winning formula, film is as much about human storms as atmospheric ones

- PETER HOWELL

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a storm chaser in "Twisters." She and co-star Glen Powell grapple with emotional turbulence alongside computer-created weather eruptions that assault the screen with pulse-pushing realism.

Lee Isaac Chung's tornado thriller "Twisters" doesn't try to reinvent the whirl, which is mostly a good thing.

This stand-alone sequel to the 1996 blockbuster "Twister" is still as much about human storms as atmospheric ones, Chung being mindful of the original film's winning combination.

This time, the tornado chasers are led by Daisy Edgar-Jones ("Where the Crawdads Sing," "Normal People") and Glen Powell ("Hit Man," "Anyone but You"). They grapple with emotional turbulence alongside computer-created weather eruptions that assault the screen with pulse-pushing realism.

Edgar-Jones' NYC meteorologist Kate and Powell's rural "tornado wrangler" Tyler are a new generation of storm sleuths. They follow trails blazed by "Twister" stalwarts Jo and Bill Harding, an estranged married couple played by Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton in the original film.

Kate, a weather scientist haunted by her role in a windy catastrophe seen in a harrowing prologue (shades of Jo Harding's tragic past), and Tyler, a social media showboat, first meet through a typical romcom pairing of opposites resisting attraction.

She's as serious as he is reckless.