At what point in a film does one hit pause and question the political motives of its makers or at least raise an eyebrow at the sermon being preached under the guise of such stormy climes?
Geostorm blows in a disastrous premise alright, but the film itself is a mere storm in a teacup, using its 110 minutes to wave a red flag, signalling dissent among the intellectual community over America’s climate change policy in the Trump era.
And if the subliminal message is not clear enough, the makers seem to underscore this point further by rolling out veteran Ed Harris at one point to raise his fist with an accompanied cry to ‘make America great again.’
In the midst of this quagmire lies Geostorm, a project so ill-timed that one can’t help but feel sorry for the team involved, which — following a one year production delay — has been forced to give a PR spin on releasing a climate disaster film weeks after the US and its neighbours deal with the aftermath of two monster hurricanes.
Set in the near future, Geostorm’s world is one that is literally cocooned in a safety net hovering above the Earth’s atmosphere to govern the drastic effects of climate change by weather controlling satellites. This technical wizardry is maintained by a super international space station called Dutch Boy, named after the bedtime story of the boy who stuck his finger into a sea wall to save his village from flooding. You with me still?
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Skipping over the technical details, we are now several years into Dutch Boy’s activation when the mechanical Zeus in outer space decides to fling a few storms down to Earth. After a dramatic escape that sees Daniel Wu outrun fireballs in the streets of Hong Kong, in an electric car no less, two warring brothers put aside their bickering to save the world.
Gerard Butler’s Jake Lawson is sent back to outer space to fix the so-called glitch in Dutch Boy, while kid brother Max Lawson (Jim Sturgess) is left behind to unravel a sinister plot at play through the corridors of the US White House.
Seeped in predictable cliches that almost seem laughable, and a plot twist that you can see coming with the force of freight truck, Geostorm fails to create any emotional connect with the lead actors or mankind’s salvation for that matter. It is quite a shame considering the pool of acting talent that includes Harris and the versatile Andy Garcia.
Sparse moments of humour and some dramatic CGI-fuelled footage, which includes a Tsunami unleashing its wrath of poor ol’ Dubai, provide a handful of redeeming moments.
Indie film star Sturgess, who — by his own admission — has barely seen a disaster movie, appears to be a fish out of water swimming in a film of this magnitude. Despite his inexperience, the 34-year-old British actor puts up an earnest performance with the swashbuckling Secret Service agent Sarah by his side; the latter appears to have ripped up page out of Charlize Theron’s bag of tricks that were put to the test in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde.
The onus lands on the ever-so drooping shoulders of Butler, who stumbles off the sets of *insert the title of his last three films* and sleepwalks his way into the sunset. Just how many more times does he need to charge in as the saviour for America, ancient civilisation or even mankind, before audiences have had enough?
Director-writer Dean Devlin, who helms his first feature film with Geostorm, appears to be largely influenced by his mentor Roland Emmerich with whom he partnered with on Moon 44, Stargate, Independence Day and Independence Day: Resurgence; sense a pattern here?
A lot has already been written about Geostorm’s turbulent production schedule that was seeped in delays and required the addition of producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) to oversee reshoots after a test audience gave largely negative reviews. Judge Dredd’s Danny Cannon was roped in after Delvin was unavailable.
Despite this toss up, Geostorm’s narrative is largely streamlined; what it lacks is a crisp plot, with mature, flushed out characters who reel in the audience without the crutch of unnecessary fireworks. What Geostorm has going for it is relevance, preying on the worrisome climes that the world faces today. Who knows, this could spell a much dreaded reality for the world in the not so distant future. Until then, we chow down on popcorn and allow Hollywood to serve up the scares.
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Check it out
Film: Geostorm
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Parish, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia
Runtime: 110 minutes
Rating: PG-15
Stars: 2 out of 5
