Geostorm: Film Review

Geostorm: Film Review

Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris
Director: Dean Devlin

It's not that you expect much from a film like Geostorm.

A film with definitive B-movie ambitions, born of the chaos and cash cow created by the likes of Sharknado, Geostorm has potential for CGI silliness with a modicum of emotional stakes - if done correctly.

And yet, it's so determined to squander that for something average that would barely get top billing on a very bad day on TV.

Loosely, the plot goes a little something like this - in 2019, against a backdrop of undeniable climate change, the world's united to build a series of space satellites called Dutch Boy to control the weather. But when a series of errors causes concern and threatens the world, the original creator Jake Lawson (Butler, all smirk and side-talking) is sent to the stars to sort it out. 

However, a conspiracy that threatens the globe is gradually being unveiled.

Geostorm blew most of its cinematic wad in its trailers, where it revealed most of the admittedly poor CGI and showcased some of the dull edges of the dialogue.

But this wannabe Armageddon rip-off and family squabble / rift healer piece fails to fully entertain or embrace any of its inherent silliness to great effect.

Sure, Harris and Garcia play it with earnestness and sincerity, but Butler's C-movie aspirations do little to help as Devlin moves the pieces around the board in a typically formulaic and unoriginal manner.

A massive conspiracy that seems made over-complicated to carry off scuppers any logic and soon the holes in the plot are as big as the holes in the sky as the clouds form.

With weather FX that look like they're left over from Into The Storm and a cast of people who espouse wooden dialogue and barely emote, Geostorm's hampered by even a basic failure to carry out its ambitions.

When the end comes, it's a relief because this cinematic Geostorm's done little but blow a lot of hot air, and delivered nothing more than an inane fizzer that not even your hardied storm chaser would bother getting out of bed for.