1 of 5 | Glenn Powell holds onto Sasha Lane in “Twisters.” Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures & Amblin Entertainment

Five years later, Kate is working for the National Weather Service when Javi returns with a new project. His current team wants to place military-grade tracking equipment in the paths of Oklahoma tornados to create 3D models of the storms.

The actors in Twister movies bear the responsibility of shouting lines like “Go, go, go!” and saying just enough science to justify the catastrophic scenes. The backstories of Kate and Javi are so formulaic they make the divorce papers subplot of Twister look like Chinatown.

Kate has lost her edge since she feels guilty for putting her friends in harm’s way years ago. Twisters gives her a redemption arc so perfunctory it’s hard to feel inspired.

Javi has a mysterious corporate sponsor with whom he has several secret meetings. By the time the sponsor’s true intentions are discovered, they are absurdly villainous. Yet it takes a minor screaming a mustache-twirling villain speech suddenly at the end to drive it home.

As Kate regains her storm-chasing fortitude with Javi’s team, they compete against Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his team of “tornado wranglers.” The wranglers pull stunts like launching fireworks into tornados and film it for YouTube, so the film can also incorporate webcam footage of Tyler speaking to the camera.

Tyler is a charismatic rival, if not outright villain, and the only character with personality beyond their plot function. The film becomes a battle of science vs. reckless sport rather than science vs. nature, yet the film is not interested in exploring either dynamic in depth.

Kate continues Helen Hunt’s character’s motivation to use science to create warning systems for advancing tornadoes, taking it a bit further to possible prevention. That was a thin way to adapt nature into a three act structure in 1996 and Twisters‘ screenwriters felt little compunction to update it.

Unfortunately, the storms in Twisters have less personality than the landmark sequences in the original. Now it’s just people running from wind, occasionally large objects drop near them and some get sucked away to their off-screen deaths.

There are no flying cows to distinguish the storms in Twisters.

Occasionally, the characters pause their efforts and stop to help victims of tornado disasters. It feels a little disingenuous when the film is disaster porn but purports to sincerely care for victims of catastrophe.

So Twisters is a faithful sequel in that it prioritizes spectacle over character and story just like its predecessor. Only now the spectacle isn’t what it used to be and the opportunity to improve was forsaken.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.

Given the ambition he showed with his Mad Max-meets-Dawn of the Dead B-grade genre piece Wyrmwood (and its respective sequel), it makes sense that Australian director Kiah Roache-Turner would continue his genre mash-ups for his follow-up.  What proves surprising, however, is that for Sting, an ode to the creature feature (and, fittingly, Australia’s fear of the venomous arthropods), he’s blended such a mentality with a family drama, resulting in an occasionally unbalanced, but no less enjoyably camp horror effort that backs its gross effects with some emotional heft.

At the centre of the eventual lunacy is Charlotte (Alyla Browne, recently seen in George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga as the younger iteration of the titular character) – and yes, that name is suitably on the nose given the actions that take place – an artist-in-waiting who’s taken a particular shine to her stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr).  Just why their relationship is as important as it is is one of Roache-Turner’s emotional pivots throughout the brisk 91 minutes, but more pressing is her unorthodox “adoption” of a rogue spider she comes across one night as she sneaks through the vents of the New York-set apartment complex overseen by her wicked great-aunt, Gunter (Robyn Nevin, clearly enjoying herself as the archetypal human villain of the piece).

The opening credits clue us in that this spider is alien in nature, which explains why in a matter of hours it increases in size, and how it’s able to vocally mimic particular sounds it hears; Charlotte is all too excited to showcase Sting’s “feeding call” to inquisitive downstairs neighbour Erik (a wonderfully deadpan Danny Kim), who, in return, is rightfully concerned about just what type of species she has willingly let into her house.

As much as Erik warns Ethan and Heather (Penelope Mitchell), Charlotte’s mother, about this 8-legged-monster-in-waiting, we all know it will ultimately be for nought as we eagerly await the moment it outgrows its containment and proceeds to feed on whoever (or whatever) enters its path; note, for those that don’t respond well to the idea of animals hurting other animals, Sting doesn’t play well with others.

The final act of the film is suitably exciting and squirm-inducing as Sting terrorises Charlotte and her family, but Roache-Turner wisely peppers enough gory set-pieces throughout so that we aren’t simply waiting for the horrific conclusion.  Some of the family drama works in between (the dementia setting in for Charlotte’s grandmother, played by a delightful Noni Hazlehurst, is sweet), but there are a few too many moments that stall momentum, which could potentially see audiences check out.  This is a knowingly mindless horror feature and Charlotte’s fatherly woes won’t necessarily hold interest to those who want to see a giant spider crawl into a downstairs neighbour’s mouth and then bust out of their stomach; there’s a reason such an example is specific.

Ultimately the good outweighs the bad when it comes to Sting‘s temperament as a film, mainly due to how much fun it’s having, how heavy its winks are at the audience, and that Jermaine Fowler (who was most likely still hanging around our fair country following Ricky Stanicky‘s Melbourne wrap) adds suitable humour as a put-upon exterminator.  A little Evil Dead, a little Arachnophobia, and a lot of gooey, practical effects, Sting is Roache-Turner’s most accomplished film thus far.  And if this leap in quality between the zombies of Wyrmwood and the bite of this is indicative of his directorial trajectory, his turn as a genre mainstay is only increasingly going to prove more exciting with every shed of blood he gloriously unleashes on screen.

THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)

Sting is screening in Australian theatres from July 18th, 2024.

Sting was originally reviewed as part of last year’s Gold Coast Film Festival coverage.

Young Thug’s high-profile racketeering case will lose a key participant: the Atlanta judge who has presided over the trial since November.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville will no longer oversee the court proceedings in the RICO trial, a different Fulton County Superior Court judge ordered Monday, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times. Judge Rachel R. Krause said in an order filed Monday that the “‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor” of excusing Glanville from the case, despite the court’s belief that he would continue “presiding fairly over this matter” if the motions were denied.

Glanville’s recusal comes weeks after defense lawyers for Young Thug and defendant Deamonte Kendrick, and attorney Kayla Bumpus, filed motions demanding that the judge remove himself from the case. The motions accused Glanville of holding an “improper” meeting with prosecutors and a prosecution witness, which did not include defendants and their attorneys.

In June, Glanville met with prosecution witness Kenneth Copeland and his attorneys. Bumpus previously represented Copeland but he relieved her of duties during his testimony on June 11. The June 10 meeting swiftly became a point of tension in the already stop-and-go trial.

Brian Steel, the defense attorney for Young Thug (real name Jeffrey Williams), accused Glanville of holding the alleged secret meeting but did not disclose how he knew about the gathering. As a result, Glanville found Steel in criminal contempt of court and sentenced him to spend 10 weekends in Fulton County Jail — though Steel was quickly cleared of the sentence.

Glanville said in a hearing earlier this month that he would release the transcript of the June 10 meeting. He also said that he would cancel a then-upcoming hearing “indefinitely” and would send the motions demanding his recusal to another judge.

“So this written order is entered, I will enter the order transferring it. Until such time that those things are decided, then we’ll be in recess until that time,” Glanville said at the time.

The case will be reassigned, according to the order, potentially posing yet another delay in the months-long trial. Young Thug’s racketeering trial began with opening statements in November, a year after Georgia officials accused the rapper in a sweeping 2022 indictment of being a founding member of the Atlanta criminal gang Young Slime Life, or YSL.