Phillip Ellis
<a href="https://www.lightbox.co.nz/movie/geostorm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
Star – Gerard Butler
Genre – Action> Sci-Fi
Run Time – 1 hr 50 minutes
Certificate – PG13
Country – USA
Awards – 1 Nomination
My Rating 3/5
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Sci-Fi is one of very few film genres you can still get something from if a generally very low critic’s rating is awarded, the case with Geostorm. They are silly, over-the-top action packed hokum, ideal for an evening’s viewing after a long days work and so brain not required. This one is so formulaic its only film festival nomination was by the Imagen Foundation Awards(one of those events where if you show up you will win something), an event that rewards Latinos in film, Andy Garcia the lucky recipient for his role as US President here, which was not remotely challenging.
The concept is weather has gone crazy and Gerard Butler (of all people) has invented a machine that cloaks the Earth and can control that weather. This type of concept movie just needs a big cheque and for a studio to green light it, the idea selling itself, not aimed at you and me. Why? For its $125m budget it did $225m back. This stuff sells way better than a weepy indie from Wisconsin.
===Cast===
Gerard Butler … Jake Lawson
Jim Sturgess … Max Lawson
Abbie Cornish … Sarah Wilson
Alexandra Maria Lara … Ute Fassbinder
Daniel Wu … Cheng Long
Eugenio Derbez … Al Hernandez
Amr Waked … Ray Dussette
Adepero Oduye … Eni Adisa
Andy Garcia … President Andrew Palma
Ed Harris … Leonard Dekkom
Robert Sheehan … Duncan Taylor
Richard Schiff … Senator Cross
Mare Winningham … Dr. Cassandra Jennings
Zazie Beetz … Dana
===Plot===
The world got rather hot and extreme weather ripping it apart and so they united to fix it and scientist Jake Lawson (Butler) has invented a matrix shield of satellites controlled by the International Space Station to protect the Earth and zap bad weather, as and when required, code named Dutch Boy.
Up and working, after a while, the Americans would rather like to see it privatized and moved away from UN control and send more of their guys and girls up there under US jurisdiction to run it, as the Americans are paying for most of Dutch Boy. Lawson isn’t happy with that and his ‘why fix it if it aint broke’ attitude gets him booted off the project, his own brother Max (Jim Sturgess) given control by an oversight committee in Congress.
Three years on and Jake is living in a trailer with his cute 13-year-old daughter (Zazie Beetz), long since divorced and his relationship with his brother on the floor. But Dutch Boy is beginning to malfunction, incidents around the world and a scientist sucked out into space. The oversight committee decides to send Max to get Jake and send him up into space to fix it. He agrees. It’s his baby and it may help to heal his reputation with his brother, let alone save the earth once again.
<a href="https://www.cinematographe.it/recensioni/geostorm-recensione/amp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
Up in space he is soon getting into scrapes with rogue satellites and suspicious looking international scientists. The problems are growing with the system and people on Earth are dying once again through extreme weather. The clock is ticking and its clear rogue elements have a separate agenda up there, and on Earth. Agent Sarah Wilson (Abbie Cornish), Max’s hot Secret Service girlfriend, a likely suspect.
===Results===
Well it’s OK and not a lot more, as much money sent on the silliness as on special-effects. It looks good and more San Andres than Gravity and from Dean Devlin, the writer of Independence Day 2, similar bonkers Sci-Fi.
Gerard Butler is delightfully dumb in the lead and reports from people on set suggested that Butler did not seem to know his lines and was late a couple of times. Even Butler’s acting skills are not stretched in this one.
It’s predictable in every way and if you want serious science in space then Life (2015) with Jake Gyllenhaal is the much better option. There is nothing sensible or possible in this movie. The controlling the weather thing has no validity what’s so ever but fairplay for the expensive effects. The film style reminds me a lot of Volcano and 2012.
This type of movie is not aimed at anyone with a good education and should be treated accordingly. It’s aimed at the people who often get killed first in these world-wide disaster movies, the poor Indians and bustling Chinese billions. But if you keep the script simple and the action and special effect sequences big then you can pull a crowd in those third world cinemas. When Hollywood make big budget movies South East Asia is increasingly their audience, hence franchises like Jurassic Park and Star Wars having big stars from those countries in those movies. The dumber you are the more you will like this.
===RATINGS===
Imdb.com – 5.3/10.0 (70,324votes)
Rottentomatos.com – 13% critic’s approval
Metacritic.com – 21% critic’s approval
===Trailer===
https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi3311122713?playlistId=tt1981128&ref_=tt_ov_vi
