Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Geo-Disaster'

Written by Scott Edwards

With all of the resources that we have put towards it over the years, it is still amazing that we know little about the stars that we see on a nightly basis. Not even being able to escape our own galaxy yet, there is a vastness to outer space that we may never fully understand in our lifetime. While we continue to explore and find the possibility of life within our own solar system, we are also looking for the threats that could compromise our planet. But what happens when we find one that we cannot stop? Do we just sit back and watch the world come to an end or do we have a secret plan to launch some lucky people into space? No one has the answer to this just yet, but I hope that our top minds have a plan when this day comes, because it would suck to see the human race come to an end without a fight.
​
Keeping an eye on the satellite feed, Noah and Rajesh spot something strange hitting Mars and quickly making its way to Earth. Calling in Dr. Picciotto to take a look, she quickly comes to the conclusion that it is Dark Matter and it will hit the planet within a few days. Not being able to do anything to deflect it from its path, as there is little known about this element, no alerts are sent out to the public and her team will just need to sit and watch the event take place. As the space anomaly arrives at Earth and plunges into Alaska and exits through Africa, a chain of events start to take place that no one should survive.

Being left alone with her new stepdaughters, Johanna has no idea what it takes to be their mother, but will do her best. Getting woken up by an earthquake, she rushes out of her room to try and keep young Cassie and her older sister Kaley free from harm, but it is apparent that the quake will not stop. Rushing out of the apartment and making their way into the stairwell, the building starts to give way and traps the women inside. Making their way down the stairs, they find a couple of neighbors that need help and finally make their way out of the building before it crumbles. Seeing that the city is falling apart around them and needing to wait for Matt to return from picking up his son Rick, Johanna decides to be proactive in her efforts at trying to make sure that the men in her life are alright as well.

---

After getting into a little spat on their long drive, Matt is trying to defend his marriage to Johanna to his son Rick who is not having it. Being embarrassed by his father overall and seeing that he is nothing more than a middle-aged cliché, Rick would like nothing more than to get the trip over with. But being the convincing parent that he is, Matt is able to find some common ground with his son and the two are looking forward to going fishing in the morning. Before the sun comes up, the two are awakened by violent shaking of the ground and before they are able to exit the tent, they find themselves being hurled down a newly formed hill. Being able to escape the tent before it falls into the depths of the earth, they are stuck on a new incline, but are lucky enough to be spotted by a passerby who only wants a ride in return. Getting on the road and hearing what happened to the city, Matt has nothing else on his mind than getting to his girls before something bad happens to them. 
​
Usually I tend to love these types of disaster movies, but this one took its shot and missed badly. I could focus on shoddy camera work or poor effects, but there is no point since it was made to rival Geostorm’s release and it really felt rushed. When there is a small budget for a disaster movie, I can understand that many areas will suffer in the movie, but the story is what is supposed to keep you intrigued, or at least the characters, and this movie did not even deliver on either of those fronts. The kids Rick and Kaley were just bitchy, for no good reason, and it really took away from anyone not wanting to see them perish, which is sad, because they could have been great. It appeared that a lot of the character development scenes, if they were there, hit the editing room floor, because based on what the dialogue told us, we were missing a ton.

Now what could have made this a better movie, since there was no way that it would be close to the world ending event that Geostorm brought to the big screen, is pretty easy, since you won’t be able to destroy the world, have some fun with it. There was a line that said, ‘Don’t fear the dead’, and nothing was done with it, you could have had zombies come out of nowhere, because we don’t know that Dark Matter would not cause a zombie apocalypse. Another line, ‘You were my superhero’, um, kind of goes without saying that there could have been a cape and some flying, because once again, Dark Matter could have that effect on the living. Those are just two quick examples of what could have made this movie a little more memorable, because I will admit that the realism it brought to the screen was pretty lacking overall.

---