Geostorm (2017)

Geostorm is the kind of big, unabashed disaster-thriller that remembers movies can be a ride: a globe-spanning spectacle where the weather itself becomes the villain and every set piece tries to top the last. Dean Devlin leans into a pulpy, high-concept premise—climate-control satellites gone haywire—and stages it with enough momentum, ticking-clock tension, and sky-is-falling imagery to keep you happily leaning forward. Gerard Butler gives the chaos a sturdy, human center, grounding the space-station peril and political scrambling in a hero you can root for even when the science gets cheerfully elastic. If you need plausibility above all else, this may not be your storm, but if you want a loud, glossy, “turn it up and enjoy” blockbuster, it delivers exactly that kind of fun.

Geostorm is clearly aiming for big, old-school disaster-movie fun with a “man vs. machine” climate-satellite hook and a ticking-clock conspiracy layered on top. The problem is it plays like a noisy first draft: the plot lurches between space-station thriller and political sabotage without building much tension, and the characters are mostly there to shout exposition and sprint to the next crisis. The spectacle can be hit-or-miss too, with effects and set pieces that often look cheaper than the apocalypse they’re selling, which makes the stakes feel oddly weightless. If you enjoy Gerard Butler bulldozing through ridiculous scenarios and you don’t mind a cheesy, chaotic ride, you might have a decent time—but if you want sharp writing, believable science, or truly jaw-dropping disaster drama, this probably isn’t for you.