The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Shot and then again reshot almost two years after the initial production began back in 2014, before finally receiving a late-October 2017 release, Geostorm, is unfortunately, nothing to rejoice about. Being the directorial debut feature from Dean Devlin the producer and co-writer of classics, like Independence Day and Godzilla; Geostorm supposedly has all the right elements for a compelling and an entertaining disaster movie experience. However, the effects of its tedious production schedule shows in the film’s final edit, resulting in a seemingly joyless, formulaic disaster that could have been easily avoided.

The film starts with a prologue, in which we learn that in 2019, our beloved planet Earth has been hit by a series of catastrophic weather conditions, which resulted in the complete destruction of several cities. In order to avoid any future catastrophes; the US government, along with the support of other world leaders, has decided to build a massive weather-controlling satellite system, strangely entitled the ‘Dutch Boy’, which will be able to combat the forever-changing weather conditions.

The man behind the creation is Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler, of course); a persevering scientist and apparently a world leading meteorologist, who, after falling out with his superiors, soon gets fired from his position and gets replaced by his brother, Max (Sturgess). Three years later, the inventor is called back into duty, when a strange weather occurrence takes over the Afghani desert and the streets of Hong Kong, leaving the American government, led by President Palma (Garcia), with no choice but to send Jake up to space to investigate, before the real threat of a gigantic weather storm hits Earth.

 Considering its premise of choice, Geostorm could have been an important and a compelling cautionary tale on the impacts of climate change on the world and humanity as a whole. The relevance of the picture is astounding, making it one of the movie’s redeeming qualities, however, the film never cashes in on its potential. Reportedly budgeted around 100 million dollars, the movie turns out to be one of the most expensive flops in history, considering the amount of absurdities that are found within the poorly constructed plot lines, including a government conspiracy inside the White House, as well as taking itself a little too seriously to be taken as a genuine offering.

Derivative and sloppy, Geostorm relies heavily on the visuals to do all of the talking; scenes of sheer mayhem should have been the movie’s big seller, however, they are ridiculous, looking like they’ve been pulled out of any of the Sharknado features. There are moments of visual awe to appreciate here and there, so not all of course is a complete disaster, but watching Butler, with his scruffy-looking beard, playing a world-renowned scientist who singlehandedly solved the problem of global warming whilst in space, most definitely is.