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GEOSTORM

The document discusses the disaster movie "Geostorm" and provides a plot summary. It notes that the movie follows disaster movie formulas but fails to deliver impressive CGI effects for the natural disasters depicted. While it aimed to show destruction on a global scale, the storms were underwhelming. The review criticizes the poor quality of the CGI representations of storms in various locations like Dubai, India, and Japan.

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65 views

GEOSTORM

The document discusses the disaster movie "Geostorm" and provides a plot summary. It notes that the movie follows disaster movie formulas but fails to deliver impressive CGI effects for the natural disasters depicted. While it aimed to show destruction on a global scale, the storms were underwhelming. The review criticizes the poor quality of the CGI representations of storms in various locations like Dubai, India, and Japan.

Uploaded by

eomo_usoh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GEOSTORM

In the wake of the several hurricanes that devastated parts of the Americas and
the Caribbean in September 2017, conspiracy theorists flooded the internet with
fringe theories that these natural disasters were being deliberately engineered
using sonic waves. While this may seem a bit far out, the premise of the recently-
released disaster movie, Geostorm, appears to lend credence to these fringe
theories.

Disaster movies are pretty much formulaic, and the formula is pretty basic;
earth/mankind is faced with the possibility of extinction from a natural disaster on
a global scale or alien attack, whilst our fate dangles precariously at the precipice,
our salvation is pretty much in the hands of a scruffy lone ranger with the
obligatory attitude and familial problems.

Between the first act setting up the global threat and the final act when mankind
is saved, there is the obligatory cornucopia of half-assed plot twists, expensive
and over-the-top CGI special effects to justify the movie’s big budget, a montage
of terrified people from all corners of the world with the obligatory animal-in-peril
insertion, corny and cheesy dialogues and the obligatory heroic speech of a hero
sacrificing himself for all of mankind.

It therefore comes as no surprise that Geostorm checks all the boxes in this
formula after all; director, Dean Devlin, is one half (the other half being Roland
Emmerich) of the duo that pretty much wrote the modern playbook of Hollywood
disaster movies.

The year is 2019 and an ill-fitting teenager narrative voice-over informs us that
following a series of devastating weather-related natural disasters, a coalition of
nations has developed a network of computer systems daubed “Dutch boy” to
checkmate natural disasters by pulling the plug on them before they are able to
wreak havoc on mankind.
Cue the next scene and Dutch Boy’s chief designer, Jake Lawrence (played by a
scruffy-looking Gerald Butler) is predictably appearing before a congressional
hearing the outcome of which goes predictably south.

Long story short; Jake gets fired as head of the Dutch Boy Project by (surprise!) his
younger brother, Max (played by Jim Sturgess) who is in a hush-hush romantic
relationship with Sarah Wilson (played by Abbie Cornish), a female member of the
secret service details minding President Andrew Palma (played by Andy Garcia).

Pretty soon, a freak weather incident in Afghanistan and a tragic accident aboard
the International Climate Space Station (ICSS), see Jake back on the ICSS after a 3-
year absence with no visible change in his physical appearance that is apparent to
everyone but the crew on the ICSS.

On a positive note though, it was delightful to know that unlike in last year’s
Captain America: Civil War where Nigeria had so fallen in status that it was a
recipient of humanitarian aid from a fictional African country, Wakanda, in
Geostorm in the year 2022, Nigeria has achieved first world status enough to earn
it a spot on the ICSS with a representative Enis Adisa (played by Hollywood-based
Nigerian Actress, Adepero Oduye).

Of course, this begs the question; who the hell did we elect president in 2019?
(certainly not the incumbent or his immediate predecessor) and what the hell did
he do to fast track us to first world status within his first tenure in office!

Another delightful observation in Geostorm is that during the obligatory montage


of disaster zones around the world, we were spared the stereotyped depiction of
Africa with sweeping shots of the Serengeti with Masai tribesmen in full
traditional gear and lions roaming in the background. This time around, India bore
the brunt of it with Tornadoes sucking up a rickshaw whilst laying waste to a
ghetto-like terrain.

Forget the incongruence of the possibility that in a timeline in which Nigeria


(despite its present morass) has jumped to first world status, India with its
present leading ICT capabilities, is still stuck in third world status.
The problem with Geostorm (and trust me; there are many) was that whilst its
pre-release trailers promised destruction on a global-scale, it was only able to
deliver what could barely pass for a storm in a tea cup. With disaster movies,
nobody is really expecting great acting or a cerebral dialogue. The epicenter of
interest really is in the expectation that the CGI representation of the disaster will
be mind-boggling realistic and fingers-and-toes-curling-and-teeth-jarring good.

But in Geostorm, whilst the CGI representations of Dutch Boy and the ICSS were
absolutely impressive, same cannot be said of the other CGI representations
especially of the natural disasters. The rising waves of the gulf in Dubai was
particularly unimpressive as it looked so unreal. Same can be said of the multiple
tornadoes that ravaged India and the ice storm that froze Brazil. The falling
dominoes-type destruction of the skyscrapers in Hong Kong and the hailstorm in
Japan’s Shibuya crossing whilst mildly impressive (the latter especially more so),
did nothing to rescue the movie from being lacklustre and forgettable.

A geostorm as described in the movie is an unstoppable chain reaction of extreme


weather patterns globally and simultaneously. That description seems apt in
describing Gerald Butler’s post-300 movie career; it has been an unstoppable
chain reaction of extreme box-office duds (with the arguable exception of
Olympus Has Fallen).

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