KEITH on Reels

Written and directed by Dean Devlin who is best known for writing 1996’s Independence Day and 1998’s Godzilla, Geostorm is a ridiculous and cheesy movie that tries to be an epic blockbuster disaster film but largely fails through a combination of underwhelming writing and acting and a laughably improbable premise. The story involves the cataclysmic failure of a massive space satellite program created to control the weather that has increasingly become extreme as a result of climate change. Played by Gerard Butler, Jake Lawson is a brilliant scientist and the creator of the program known as Dutch Boy but is removed from his position as a result of his reckless behavior in front of American government officials. Several years later, with his brother Max, played by Jim Sturgess, as the head of the program, Dutch Boy is to be handed over to be controlled by an international coalition of climate scientists and government officials. However, the satellites controlled from the International Climate Space Station malfunctions and results in extreme weather events that kill hundreds of people and poses an existential threat of creating what is known as a geostorm, a massive storm enveloping the entire Earth. Jake reluctantly returns to the program to help investigate the problems and travels to the space station where he works with a female commander named Ute Fassbinder. Themselves in danger as the space station self-destructs, they begin to unravel a vast conspiracy that may involve the President of the United States, played by Andy Garcia, and the powerful Secretary of State who is played by Ed Harris. The film becomes a race against time as the Earth is beset by colossal tornadoes, flooding, and other natural disasters. After a while, the obviously CGI-enhanced disaster sequences become tedious as a result of the low quality visual effects used and the preposterous situations. The movie concludes with a overly dramatic climax in which some high-ranking officials prove to be untrustworthy for self-gain. Overall, I found it to be a rather generic disaster blockbuster that never really provided the necessary thrills for a truly entertaining experience. The film could actually have been somewhat interesting because of its timely premise about climate change and the science fiction solutions that could be used to fix such a massive issue. However, it never gets past the sloppy writing and acting skills that made the movie more of a comedic disaster.