I walked into Planet Media at Westgate expecting absolutely nothing from Geostorm and was pleasantly surprised.

Aside from conflicts that were to easily solved and what I consider Gerard Butler’s sub-standard acting (ducks to avoid rocks from 300 lovers) it was actually a pretty entertaining movie.

Geostorm is exactly what it sounds like – a geologically induced storm that will wreck the whole world if untamed. I know, I rolled my eyes too when I read the preview. It felt very 2012 like, and it was, but at the same time not so much. At the beginning of the movie, the world is having sudden debilitating geological disasters all over, wreaking havoc on huge cities and killing millions. Gerard’s character plays the chap who saves the world by inventing a system on the International Space Station called Dutch Boy – named after the Dutch boy who saved his city by sticking his finger in a dyke – to regulate earth’s climate. When the movie starts, it is time for Amurrca to hand over control of Dutch Boy to another global partner, as agreed in the arrangement the nations had when they came together to build Dutch Boy. Dutch Boy is functioning fine, but then something happens and the system starts killing people.

The movie’s characters are…well, they’re ok, I guess. Butler plays the guy he usually plays – buff, arrogant know-it-all who actually does know it all. He has a brother who he can’t stand, played by Jim Sturgess, and a kid he never sees, who isn’t convincing in her role as a genius spawn but it isn’t necessary for her to be seeing as she isn’t the focus of the movie, really. Her character felt tacked on to give the mad scientist lead a bit more meaning. But their relationship was quite a reach.

I hate that the characters are SPOILER ALERT so easily switched from their paths of what they were planning to do. Like the convincing to switch a plan of action or change up their life’s work is so quickly established, it seems, well, too easy. But, in spite of that, the movie manages to remain interesting till the end. I always like seeing Ed Harris on screen. Eugenio Derbez, not so much. I would give it a 7/10 for entertainment chops alone. But…don’t read the reviews. The reviews are awful!