Disaster movie sequel Twisters is an engaging action thriller that especially works thanks to the performances of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell whose strong chemistry keeps things lively in-between tornado thrashing set pieces.

Eighteen years is a long time between sequels yet following the 1996 hit disaster movie Twister meant getting all those elements right to blow the audience away. Twisters succeeds in doing just that.

Twisters begins with a thrilling sequence of destruction as bubbly storm-chasing meteorologist Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) field tests her experimental formula of decreasing the intensity of a tornado on a live twister, only to see her work and close-knit team of scientists blown away by the raging howling winds of mother nature.

Five-years-later and a still traumatised Kate is convinced by her estranged storm-chaser friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) join him again in the hunt for tornadoes. This results in a trip back to Oklahoma that reopens old wounds and ignites a new flame with brash and brave storm-chasing YouTube star Tyler (Glen Powell.)

Director Lee Isaac Chung (who received Oscar nominations for his previous film Minari) successfully delivers a disaster movie in Twisters that doesn’t skimp on big spectacle VFX set pieces of wanton-destruction while also providing a dramatic grounding for his characters to provide those vital emotional stakes. Disaster movies are often too much spectacle and not enough substance. Chung – along with screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) – gets that balance right.

Another crucial reason with Twisters works so well is the choice casting of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, two burgeoning actors on the path to super stardom who deliver electric chemistry that is especially vital during those quiet moments where disaster movies usually lull their audience to sleep.

Twisters never comes close to such a fate, with Chung and company delivering a disaster movie that is as thrilling as it is charismatic.