In the same vein as flicks like 2012 and Day After Tomorrow, 2017’s Geostorm offers a tale of global disaster. In the year 2019, the earth’s climate reaches a breaking point and developments require a new approach.

Led by Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler), an international team creates a web of satellites that acts to alter weather and control it. Called “Dutch Boy”, this system prevents a slew of catastrophes and counteracts climate change.

For a while, at least, as after a few years, bizarre anomalies like ice in the desert occur. Dutch Boy appears to malfunction, so Jake leads a team to fix it before more massive disasters take place.

Back in the 90s, Dean Devlin made a name for himself as the producer of movies like Independence Day and Godzilla. While Geostorm acts as his first stint as director, it doesn’t display much in terms of creative development.

Except for improved visual effects, virtually nothing about Geostorm demonstrates a change from Devlin’s 1990s films. Devlin seems to take all his directorial cues from former partner Roland Emmerich, as he creates a movie firmly stuck with all their old clichés.

At their best, Devlin and Emmerich made some entertaining popcorn flicks. Sure, Independence Day and Godzilla demonstrated a high level of “brain deadness”, but they still gave us good thrills.

I hoped that Geostorm would offer another exciting effort in that vein, but it suffers from the weaknesses of the old Devlin/Emmerich movies without many of the strengths. Little more than a barely coherent compilation of action scenes, the film sputters.

More than a decade after 300, Butler continues to get lead roles in big-budget movies like this, but I can’t figure out why. Through his career, he’s appeared in one mediocre film after another, few of which attracted much of an audience.

Geostorm reminds us of Butler’s limitations. He owns one accent – “vaguely Brooklyn” – that he trots out for every American part he plays, and he simply lacks much emotional range. He comes across as a vaguely earnest semi-tough guy, attributes that don’t allow him to create a character with much dimensionality.

That said, the second coming of Larry Olivier couldn’t redeem the thin, flat roles we find here. Geostorm bogs down with forgettable characters who never make an impression on the audience.

Granted, we don’t see a movie like this for the people – we want a slam-bang action/disaster effort. While Geostorm pours on plenty of those moments, they fail to impress.

Sure, they mostly look good, as the effects seem reasonably convincing. The action simply doesn’t connect, as the scenes feel contrived and without much gusto.

Which does get back to the characters, in truth, as it’s hard to become invested in the drama when we don’t connect with the people. Live, die, whatever – who cares? The humans are pawns and nothing more.

Devlin also gives Geostorm a plot with too many complications. This should’ve been an easy script to write: just mix earth-bound disasters with peril on the space station as Jake and crew try to fix Dutch Boy. The movie doesn’t need – or benefit from – anything more intricate than that.

However, Devlin burdens us with a conspiracy story that becomes silly and borderline pointless. I guess Devlin believed this dual narrative trend would add tension and drama, but it just seems unnecessary.

Ultimately, Geostorm fails to become a good disaster/action flick. While it generates the occasional thrill, the thin characters, weak plot and cheesy dialogue make it a chore to watch.

Geostorm appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a largely strong image.

While most of the movie presented nice clarity, some wider shots looked a bit tentative. Still, the majority of the flick appeared solid, and no signs of moiré effects or jaggies occurred. The movie also lacked edge haloes or print flaws.

In terms of palette, Geostorm favored a combination of teal and orange. Those choices came as no surprise, and the Blu-ray reproduced them in a satisfactory manner.

Blacks showed strong depth, and shadows were good, with nice opacity and clarity. All of this was enough for a “B+” that lost points solely due to the occasional slightly soft shots.

I felt more consistently pleased with the excellent DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Geostorm. With tons of destruction and mayhem on display, the soundscape offered frequent room for information to emanate from the various speakers.

The mix used those chances well. The soundtrack delivered wall-to-wall auditory material that spread out across the speakers in a satisfying manner and that blended together nicely.

This meant a tremendously active track in which the surrounds worked as nearly equal partners and kept the mix humming. Plenty of action/disaster moments made this a consistently impressive soundfield.

Audio quality also satisfied, as speech was natural and concise, while music sounded peppy and full. Effects turned into the primary factor, and those elements appeared accurate and vivid.

Bass response added real depth and rocked my subwoofer. If you own a fancy-pants home theater, you spent that money for soundtracks like this.

Three featurettes appear here, and we start with Wreaking Havoc. It runs six minutes, 30 seconds and offers info from writer/director Dean Devlin, producers Dana Goldberg and David Ellison, visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun, production designer Kirk M. Petrucelli and actor Gerard Butler.

“Havoc” looks at techniques used to execute the movie’s weather elements. It mostly depends on Okun, and he adds good info despite the featurette’s generally fluffy feel.

The Search for Answers lasts four minutes, 13 seconds and involves Devlin, Goldberg, Ellison, Okun, Butler, writer Paul Guyot and actors Adepero Oduye and Eugenio Derbez. “Answers” discusses aspects of the story. While it tosses out a few nice tidbits, it remains largely superficial.

Finally, we get An International Event, a five-minute, 40-second reel with Goldberg, Ellison, Devlin, Guyot, Oduye, Derbez, Butler, and actors Abbie Cornish, Jim Sturgess, Amr Waked, Robert Sheehan, Daniel Wu, Andy Garcia and Alexandra Maria Lara. “Event” provides some comments about the cast. It lacks much merit.

The disc opens with ads for Ready Player One, Justice League VR: The Complete Experience, and the Fantastic Beasts “Virtual Reality Experience”. No trailer for Geostorm appears here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Geostorm. It includes “Search” but lacks the other extras.

As a kid, I loved disaster movies, and I retain residual affection for the genre. I hoped Geostorm would give us an exciting action effort, but it proves too witless and silly to deliver the appropriate thrills. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture along with excellent audio and a handful of supplements. Geostorm sporadically offers excitment, but too much of it fizzles.