I’m a sucker for disaster films like The Day After Tomorrow and if you can throw in some space action like Armageddon, I’m a happy camper, so I placed Geostorm in my queue. The movie stars Gerald Butler as an ill-tempered scientist who saves the world from climate change and The Truman Show’s Ed Harris as Secretary of State. After Butler’s brother fires Butler for not showing appropriate deference during a moment of political theater, he has to beg Butler to come back when his invention begins to cause worst weather anomalies than it was created to prevent.
Geostorm begins like a trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. I don’t know which is sadder: when the movie lost me because it imagined a world where people believed in science and worked together or that an adequate disaster film has more integrity than the real world. We’re all going to die. Anyway the good news is that Dean Devlin’s talent is taking the political pulse of the US even if his movies leave a lot to be desired. In Independence Day Resurgence, the world needed a madman as the leader whereas in Geostorm, the Scots are the heroes (think about the Scots hate of a certain person’s golf courses), and a Mexican man and German woman are the genius’ main allies. The British are suspect (Brexit). Power hungry white guys can’t be trusted to think of the greater good and are only interested in America First. Our POTUS is Andy Garcia. Gas guzzling cars are jerks and will get destroyed in the apocalypse.
Geostorm’s best disaster scene occurs fairly early in China. I hope that the cat is OK, but considering kitty’s silent warning, I think so. I thought the younger brother was annoying so I was completely uninvested in anything that happens to him, and he is half the story. I sided with Butler on this sibling rivalry dispute. You can’t fire your brother and expect him to be cool with it, especially when no one is actually smart enough to do the work. You can advance in your career, or you could have a good family life, but you can’t have both in this scenario, sunshine. You should have left with your brother. It felt like his specialty was screwing up people’s careers without hurting himself. I had a hard time buying Butler as a genius. Does drinking help with science?
Geostorm is entertaining, but barely and is mostly forgettable. If there is a way to watch a cut without the younger brother and just shuffle other characters around, I think that it would improve dramatically. Butler just lives at the space station and figures out that there is a saboteur. He contacts the scientist in China who also has his suspicions and contacts Zazie Beetz, but without dying in this version. Beetz realizes that she needs POTUS so she contacts Secret Service lady. No kid, no ex-wife, no brother, all action, better movie! I know that the point of disaster movies is to bring families together, but I think that they should not be working together.