Natural disaster movie with cities all over the world being destroyed? Gerard Butler? Space action? I’m in! At the very least, Geostorm knew *exactly* what kind of movie it wanted to be.
THE BLURB:
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 Earth is attacking it, and it becomes a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything and everyone along with it.
WHAT WORKED:
Like I said in the teaser for this little review, at the very LEAST…this movie knew exactly what kind of movie it was trying to be: popcorn fare. And in that regard, both the Ho and I felt like it was successful. The action sequences were certainly nothing too innovative, but they were FUN. Running from the weather, surprisingly, can be quite entertaining. And, guys…Gerard Butler is Gerard Butler. He’s charming as fuck. You’d almost watch him in ANYTHING.
My favorite parts of the movie were the sequences in space. The international weather control space station was dope, magical artificial gravity and all. I especially loved the ubiquitousness of the shuttles they used to get up there and back – flights every single day, with rows and rows of shuttles down in Cape Canaveral ready to take off at a moment’s notice. I also thought the loading/maintenance bays for the satellites was super fun. I know…I’m a sucker for space…but I loved it anyway.
I also liked the terrestrial spy-thriller stuff on the ground with Jim Sturgess, at least for the most part. His female cyber-tech partner in crime was fun. And his escapes from the weather were fun, too. Ha! It sounds so LAME to say that, but it’s true–they’re all running from the weather! 😛 And it works. Most of the time.
WHAT DIDN’T:
I’m not sure it’s my biggest gripe, but the first thing I think about this movie and it not working is the fact that they have both Butler and Sturgess, two of the most Scottish/British actors you can think of…doing AMERICAN ACCENTS the entire time. It’s weird. They’re both so well known for their native tongue. I didn’t like it. At all.
The “family” storyline also did this movie no favors, both in the sense that they’re trying to have the two brothers not liking each other, which was suuuuper under-justified, but they also try to pull some heartstrings with a daughter that Butler is leaving behind that just never lands. It’s a waste of time because it’s poorly handled.
The final criticism, and perhaps the most important for a movie like this…the climax never really lands. The movie is very *evenly* paced. There’s not much rising action. It’s even too predictable in a bad way who the bad guy turns out to be in the end. There were a couple other options on that particular front they could have gone that I found myself wishing they had…but overall, the last act of the movie was underwhelming.
It’s no must-see, folks. There was enough for me to enjoy it, and if it’s streaming or playing on some cable channel one of these days, go ahead and pop some popcorn and give it a watch. It’s fun, but it’s not “good.”
5 out of 10 – take it or leave it