Geostorm review round-up: Is this the worst film of the year?

'Uses digital technology to lay waste to a bunch of cities and hacky screenwriting to assault the dignity of several fine actors'

Ah, the icy expanse between summer's blockbuster heat (not that this year's been particularly fiery) and Oscar season - the dumping ground of many a tragic misfire.

Which is precisely what Geostorm may be doomed to become, roping in Independence Day's producer Dean Devlin for a feature film debut that is predicted to flop hard at the box office.

The film sees Gerard Butler star as the architect behind an elaborate natural disaster defense system, which sees a series of climate-controlling satellites surrounding Earth, centered around the International CIimate Space Station.

But, is Geostorm truly the worst film of the year, especially with the (also) disastrously received The Snowman lurking in the shadows of cinema complexes everywhere?

Here's what the critics thought.

Peter Debruge - Variety

Devlin’s ill-timed destruct-a-thon (already delayed more than a year from its intended March 2016 release) succeeds in being even more callously insensitive/offensive than our president’s response to your plight. Then again, the only thing more reliable than bad weather is bad movies, and in that respect, Geostorm is right on forecast.

Mike D'Angelo - AV Club - D+

In the tradition of KFC’s Famous Bowl—famously described by Patton Oswalt as “a failure pile”—comes Geostorm, which attempts to be every possible apocalyptic weather-based disaster movie at once.

Anna Smith - Time Out - 2/5

All in all, Geostorm is a watery blend of Armageddon and 24, with enough action to entertain on a basic level. It’ll probably be most appealing to scientists looking for a good laugh.

A.O. Scott - The New York Times

Directed by Dean Devlin from a script he wrote with Paul Guyot and discreetly installed in theaters without advance screenings, Geostorm uses digital technology to lay waste to a bunch of cities and hacky screenwriting to assault the dignity of several fine actors.

John DeFore - The Hollywood Reporter

The planetary disaster film equivalent of a two-hour call to tech support, Dean Devlin's Geostorm boils down to that classically annoying hail-mary bit of advice: Have you tried shutting it down and rebooting? Big, dumb and boring, it finds the co-writer of Independence Day hoping to start a directing career with the same playbook — but forgetting several rules of the game.

Robbie Collin - The Telegraph - 1/5

Some spectacular or imaginative set-pieces would help make amends for the above, but Geostorm’s disasters are just barrages of drab, anonymous digi-porridge, with a very occasional unhinged flourish thrown in, such as a stadium that’s struck by lightning and immediately explodes.

Chris Hewitt - Empire - 2/5

Yes, Geostorm is bad, but it’s not a stinker for the ages. In fact, given its torturous production history, it’s often strangely competent and even, in its geostorming final third, moves somewhere towards being entertaining for a movie that essentially boils down to ‘Gerry Butler versus weather’.

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