Geostorm opens with a premise that sounds smart: a satellite system gone wrong, a president forced to save the world from his own technology. By the time the dust settles, it has become a movie about a man in a suit saving the day by hitting a button at exactly the right moment.
The film follows Max Stone, played by Gerard Butler, who joins his sister, played by Angela Bassett, in space to fix the weather satellites that are causing global storms. The setup is simple enough. The execution is not.
Trailer, via Roadshow Films.
Gerard Butler’s Problem
Butler plays Max as a man of action, which is fair enough. But he is also given lines that make him sound like a man who has never heard of a computer. He spends the entire film reacting to events, shouting at screens, and looking increasingly lost as the plot grows more complicated.
Bassett gets less to do. She runs the space station, tells Butler to follow orders, and stands around while the action happens to other people. Neither performance is bad so much as wasted. Both actors are better than this material lets them be.
The Science Is Worse Than Wrong
The central idea of Geostorm is that humanity has built a network of satellites to control the weather. When that network fails, the world faces extinction. That is a fine idea for a thriller. It is not a fine idea for a movie that takes itself seriously.
The problem is that the science behind it is never explained. We are told the satellites can stop hurricanes, but we are never shown how. We are told that a single failure can cause global catastrophe, but we are never shown why. The film simply hands us a crisis and asks us to accept it.
“We need a plan.”
That is about the extent of the reasoning on display.
The Space Walk Disaster
There is a scene near the middle of Geostorm where a space walk goes badly wrong. It is meant to be tense. It is not. The camera focuses on Butler’s face as he floats away from the station, and the tension comes from his fear, not from any sense of danger.
It is a clumsy piece of direction that shows no respect for the audience’s intelligence. The scene is meant to raise the stakes. It does nothing of the sort.
The President’s Big Speech
The film also spends a lot of time on the president, played by Ed Harris. His role is to be worried, to make speeches, and to look concerned. Harris does this well enough, but the character is a paper-thin figure who exists only to give the film its political weight.
His scenes are mostly filler, designed to remind us that this is a disaster movie with a political subplot. They add nothing to the story and take time away from the action.
The Ending That Doesn’t Land
The final act of Geostorm is a long sequence of explosions, chases, and last-minute saves. None of it lands. The film builds to a climax that feels rushed, as if the writers ran out of ideas and decided to end things quickly.
The resolution is a deus ex machina wrapped in a big reveal that nobody asked for. It is the kind of ending that leaves you wondering why you spent two hours getting there.
A Table of Wasted Time
| Scene | Length | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Opening storm | 10 minutes | Sets up the premise |
| Satellite failure | 15 minutes | Explains nothing |
| Space walk disaster | 8 minutes | Tense for no reason |
| Presidential speech | 12 minutes | Filler |
| Final act | 20 minutes | Rushes to a conclusion |
What Works, Sort Of
There is one thing Geostorm does well: it looks good. The special effects are polished, the storms are convincing, and the space sequences have a nice scale to them. This is a movie that knows how to spend money on visuals.
It just doesn’t know how to spend money on a script.
The Verdict
Geostorm is a disaster movie that never becomes a disaster. It has the pieces of a good thriller: a ticking clock, a global threat, and a hero who must act. It just fails to put them together.
The film is a reminder that spectacle is not the same as quality. Gerard Butler and Angela Bassett are competent professionals. The script they are given is not.
Geostorm is a mess, and it knows it. It tries to be serious and ends up being silly. It tries to be tense and ends up being tedious. It tries to be a blockbuster and ends up being a footnote.
It is a film that should have been better. It is a film that could have been entertaining. It is a film that, in the end, is neither.
Geostorm is a failure on almost every level. It wastes talent, it wastes money, and it wastes the audience’s time. It is a film that deserves to be forgotten.
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