Review of Geostorm (2017) by Leon B — 30 Mar 2018

Geostorm.

(2017).

Plot:

After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong - the system built to protect the Earth is attacking it and it's a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything...and everyone...along with it.

Review:

This is another mediocre movie from Gerard Butler, who hasn't really made anything that great since 300 but his movies have been watchable and his performances haven't been that bad. This movie had a decent storyline, which touched on subjects that need to be addressed but once the politics got introduced to the plot, it started to go downhill. Gerard Butler (Jake Lawson), plays a engineer, whose head of a International Climate Space Station but his abrupt attitude keeps on getting him in trouble with head officials. They decide to turn the space station over to his brother Max Lawson (Jim Sturgess) but when the powerful network of satellites, which control the climate, start to go haywire and causes tragic deaths around the world, Max is forced to investigate. Max works out that the satellites, named the Dutch Boy Program, have been tampered with, so he calls on his brother, who knows the system inside out. He manages to retrieve some records, which show that the satellites were programmed to destroy various cities around the world, and with his brother connecting the dots on earth, they work out who the culprit is behind the world devastation. To stop the satellites causing more destruction around the world, they are forced to destroy the Dutch Boy Program but with time against them, and President Andrew Palma (Andy Garcia) being threatened by the cause of the whole problem, Leonard Dekkom (Ed Harris), the Lawson brothers go through hell to save earth. Although the CGI was pretty impressive, and the whole "race against time" aspect was intense, it still seemed a bit average, compared to other disaster movies. I liked the fact that they mentioned climate change, and the problems that it can cause around the world but to create a man-made machine that can control the weather, is going a bit too far. I didn't think that the cast was that great, except for Butler, Garcia and Harris and a lot of the movie was corny but it's worth a watch because it is an original idea. Watchable!

Round-Up:

This is the first movie directed by Dean Devlin but he did write Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla. For his first big budget movie, I have to commend him for making the disaster scenes look realistic but he could have done a lot more with the concept. I didn't think that Jim Sturgess was a good choice for Gerard Butler's brother, mainly because he had a distant look on his face all the way through the film, and Harris & Garcia could have been used much more. With that aside, it did bring to light what could possibly happen with the climate, if it we don't pay it more attention but the movie did drift off towards the end.

Budget: $120million.

Worldwide Gross: $222million.

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller.

Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Daniel Wu, Alexandra Maria Lara, Eugenio Derbez, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris, Richard Schiff, Robert Sheehan, Amr Waked, Mare Winningham and Daniella Garcia. 4/10.