GEOSTORM (2017)

Genre: Thriller
Director: Dean Devlin
Cast: Gerard Butler, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia, Abbie Cornish, Jim Sturgess, Daniel Wu, Adepero Oduye, Amr Waked, Robert Sheehan, Eugenio Derbez
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Intense Sequences)
Released By: Warner Bros 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 October 2017

Synopsis: 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.

Movie Review:

The worrying trend of climate change has provided fodder for big movies these last few years. From documentaries to epic disaster movies, the topic is a compelling one as we throw out many “what if” scenarios. Geostorm is the latest entry that places us in the future of a possible scenario, where we use tech to resolve the adverse changes.

Gerald Butler is Jake Lawson. The movie introduces him as the architect of a woven network of satellites, each aimed at a spot or city on earth to maintain the natural habitat. Built with the agreement of 17 major countries and helmed by super forces United States and China, the project is a huge success.

The thing is, there’s an agreement for the U.S. to hand the entire project over to the UN in three years, now that it has stabilised. This does not please a group of senators, who want to maintain control over the project and suggests measure which the hot-headed Jake rails against. Jake - you’re fired. By his brother Max (Jim Sturgess) no less.

Fast forward to the handover, malfunctions starts to come in in a timely manner. We see shocking scenes of frozen desert villages in Afghanistan and fiery eruptions in Hong Kong. Was it a coincidence or is something larger at play here?

You guessed it.

Leonard Dekkom (Ed Harris), the President’s aid, tasks Max to re-hire his brother to solve the issues, but the brotherly duo get increasingly convinced that someone has sabotaged the project. What the world could potentially face is a series of natural calamities that trigger off an irreversible destructive force around the planet - thus named Geostorm.

If you feel the scenes, build-up and cast is eerily familiar, you’re on to something. Director and co-writer Dean Devlin was producer for the Independance Day series and Geostorm is pretty much that but with a climate change spin to things.

You’ve got the anti-hero, the love-hate family ties, the child who symbolises hope for mankind, the betrayals from your most trusted, and yes - millions of dollars worth of effects. From tornados to electrical storms to tsunamis, the formula is transplanted, except in this case, we can afford to place these natural disasters in unexpected cities. A spectacle? Yes. Enough to justify the movie? Eh.

A strange thing is happening with the audience these days. We’re treated to so much CGI, that we’re switching off to them. Film makers keep scaling them up - taller waves, more powerful explosions - but even as faceless people get swept up by the destruction, we know that the ones we can see - cue small boy with his dog - will not perish. We never get worried, because the producers need us to see their looks of relief when they get saved. Yay humanity!

Geostorm suffers from a lack of originality, which could have been strengthened by a better script or cast. But sadly, it goes run-of-the-mill and doesn’t excite as much as it thought it would.

Movie Rating:

(Grand scale effects loses the plot and the cast fail to support the action thriller. This. Is. Spartan.)

Review by Morgan Awyong