Geostorm: Movie Review

Geostorm is a hokey environmentalist science fiction movie. In it, global warming leads to benevolent weather control taken over as a weapon by villains wanting American domination. It contains massive destruction, some foul language, and more than enough silly dialogue.

Geostorm opens with a girl explaining that in 2019 global warming led to a series of monumental natural disasters, and so the nations of the world came together to create and deploy a massive benevolent weather control system from space under the leadership of her father Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler). Jake is called into a senate hearing where he is castigated by the lead senator for being disrespectful and disobedient. He is replaced as head of the program by his estranged brother Max (Jim Sturgess).

Jake retires to a beach trailer in Florida with his daughter, but is called back into action when what was thought to be a technical malfunction turned an Afghan village into an icebox full of frozen bodies. Jake and Max must overcome their animosity and unravel the mystery, which turns out to be a worldwide takeover by using the weather system to attack enemies.

Sadly, the special effects in Geostorm that would have been seen as miraculous in 1975 are now so predictable they're boring. If you've seen a city flooded by tidal waves in 12 movies, you've seen them all. Rows of space shuttles at Cape Canaveral are almost laughable when we're on the verge of things much more advanced. There's so much scientific silliness, it's almost an unintentional comedy.

The villain's motivation is to see the United States a dominant "city on the hill". This motivation is both unrealistic and offensive. Ronald Reagan loved to speak of America as a "city on a hill", which refers to Matthew 5:14 which reads, "Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid." This was what Reagan desired, a nation that lived as an example the world could admire.

It's unfortunate to see so much money wasted on something so predictable and political. The greatest threat to America, and the world, is not the weather; it's worldviews that oppose the good, the true, and the beautiful. Jesus Christ didn't come into this world to take power with storms or nuclear weapons. He came to share the light, which made a nation like the United States a place where people from all over the world come to live.

Geostorm is a waste of time and talent, and warrants extreme caution because of its mass destruction and politically-correct content.