The prologue that opens “Twisters” introduces a bunch of characters and kills them off, somewhat dramatically but coldbloodedly.

It takes the film a whole hour to raise the stakes as high a second time, hurling characters into a rodeo and then destroying that rodeo, and much of Stillwater, Oklahoma in the process. But the anonymous victims are, in most scenes, mere effects, in this disaster movie.

Such effects, simulating the vast scope and menace of a tornado and the immersive terror of being trapped in one, have vastly-improved in the 28 years since “Twister,” this film’s inspiration if not its prequel. But as summer popcorn movies go, this one has a hard time finding its heart.

British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones (of TV’s “War of the Worlds”) is Kate, our perky weather sciences student whose notion that tornados can be “tamed” with chemicals is tested in a chase that goes terribly wrong and kills most of her undergrad “team.”

Glen Powell, in his third film of the year (“Anyone But You,” “Hit Man”) steps further into that “New Brad Pitt” spotlight with a grinning, hunky turn as a swaggering, cocky Tyler Owens, all teeth and stubble and hat and catch-phrases that can be summed up on a T-shirt on his Youtube-dramatized chase videos.

“If you feel it, CHASE it!”

Years after college Kate carries survivor’s guilt and works at the National Weather Service, where an old classmate, Javi (Anthony Ramos) tracks her down for a week of using her “instincts” to help his scientist-chasers find promising Oklahoma storms to 3D radar map.

Tyler and his motley Arkansas crew are more thrill-seekers, self-promoters and gut-followers. Spying Kate use a dandelion to test the breeze, Tyler drawls “Sometimes the old ways are better than the new.”

So the new version of tornado chasers vs. “Twisters” sets up a conflict between people of science and attention-grabbing/merchandise-selling Youtube yahoos, and then upends the expectations inherent in that dichotomy. In a deeply divided America where science is under attack by yahoos, with or without Youtube channels, there’s something to be said for forcing people to consider the character and motives of people not like themselves.

But not tying the film’s science “profit” angle to sinister efforts to “privatize” The National Weather Service suggests the picture’s agenda is dumber. And the script lacks the nerve or the depth to worry over that fundamental struggle, or see past “She’s cute and scientific, he’s cowboy cute and reckless.”

Kate’s “new ways” might make the steadily-shifting and climate-change-widening Tornado Alley a little safer for folks. Tyler, who has some meteorology in his background, is content to anchor his ancient Dodge truck in a twister’s path and shoot fireworks into it to make pretty pictures for the TeeVee.

The idea here is to suggest the chance for romance for still-grieving Kate and “Wooohooooooing” Tyler. Kate’s Oklahoma native priorities rub up against the agenda of this sponsored team of paid scientists Javi runs and Tyler has to consider something deeper and more consequential than performing for the camera, his adoring RV-and-pickup driving team and the British reporter (Harry Hadden-Paton) shadowing them for a story.

That’s not as interesting or entertaining as seeing a couple of towns dramatically trashed, feeling the pulse-pounding urgency of racing to shelter or trying to grasp the suicidal bravado or those who have turned Tornado Chasing into a no-holds-barred/no-license-required get-famous-or-rich-quick hobby.

One of the more amusing subtexts introduced and left hanging here is how tornado chasing is now a seasonal sport, with legions of amateurs and semi-“professionals” tying up motels and roads where legitimate scientists are trying to study and understand these deadly storms and find new ways to predict and even counter their effects.

Filling the soundtrack with Oklahoma country and “Ghost Riders in the Sky” tornado chasing music underscore the film’s uncompromising shallowness. It’s as if everybody involved watched the original “Twister,” said “Philip Seymour Hoffman was the best actor to come out of that,” and pitched their performance of whoops, hollers, high fives and ENTHUSIASM to match his.

It was Hoffman’s worst performance on the big screen.

Maura Tierney shows up as Kate’s apparently widowed mom late in the second act and adds an earthy warmth that the film otherwise utterly lacks. It’s a soft-spoken jolt to be treated to the humanity this eye-popping time-killer thriller rarely reaches for.

That underscores Edgar-Jones’ frustratingly unemotional performance. Even moments meant to convey pathos have a muted quality. She practically shrinks in her scenes with the increasingly Larger than Life Powell, whose performance eventually overwhelms how repellent the character is, at first.

“Twisters” is set to be one of the biggest hits of the summer, with a budget that convinced two studios to share the cost and distribution. But that lack of the human touch lowers the stakes, minimized the suspense and left me cold.

The effects are next generation impressive, but they’ve been getting steadily better in the tornado movies between “Twister” and “Twisters.”S

See it in the theater to get the full RPX/Imax or whatever impact. But if you’re waiting to see “Twisters” streaming, I’d suggest you go back and stream the much-lower-budget “Supercell” from last year. It’s not “chase a tornado” and “wrangle it” gonzo, just a vivid and immersive depiction of the terror these increasingly-common storms pack and the wrenching human toll they take in towns all up and down Tornado Alley.

Rating: PG-13 for intense action and peril, injury images, some profanity.

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Sasha Lane, Brendan Perea, Tunde Adebimpe and Maura Tierney

Credits: Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, scripted by Mark L. Smith, based on characters created by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin. A Universal/Warner Bros. release.

Running time: 2:0