Most disaster films have the odds stacked against them and that’s not just for its character’s survival. They struggle because their story simply becomes titular event and caring whether the main faces make it to the end credits. This forces many a clichéd subplot to be unwillingly injected in efforts to make the characters more relatable and the events more meaningful. Father issues, marital difficulties, badly timed romantic gestures are become the Jaws of Life trying to pry emotion out of the mass CG onslaught. When it’s done successfully it enhances the product for a feel of both style and content. But when if flops it can drag the whole film into a 2 hour cringe fest which San Andreas frequently demonstrates as, despite some good efforts, it can’t escape these genre pitfalls any more than a pedalo can a tsunami.
When a series of mega earthquakes wreak havoc across California, along the San Andreas fault line, LA Fire & Rescue chief Ray (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – Get Smart, Furious 7) tries to rescue his separated wife, Emma (Carla Gugino – Watchmen, Sucker Punch) and daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario – Percy Jackson, True Detective) from the destruction.
Now scientists may still struggle to predict earthquakes but they’ll have this film figured out before for lunch. Even with given awareness of the natural disaster genre in play things get way too repetitive to give the wrong kind of shaky feel; right down to the clichéd raving scientist in his lab trying to inject increasing drama into each event (Paul Giamatti is trying his very talented best but it still falls flat). The less destructive story elements don’t do much better. The opening setup scenes do an ok job of pledging Ray’s family in a recent state of separation. It doesn’t quite feel like something we’ve seen too many times before and we feel that each family member has their own interesting emotional state. The trouble is that from almost the moment San Francisco starts looking like Batman Vs Superman has come to town, this gets firmly tossed out of the ring in favour of an all too obvious heartfelt family reunion. It’s frustratingly lazy storytelling. Emma’s rich and powerful new boyfriend (Ioan Gruffurd – Fantastic Four) goes from telling Blake he won’t replace her father to a dick that smashes other fleeing survivors out the way in mere minutes. There’s no attempt at character or story development with him, just a smash change like they couldn’t be bothered. It’s almost like the writers we banking on nobody actually caring what’s really going on. However, the story does have one saving grace in the surprising form of the Brit brothers Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt – Home and Away) and younger Ollie (Art Parkinson – Rikkon Stark in Game of Thrones.... so this is where he went). At first intro their exaggerated accents induce a few groans as they form a journeying survival trio with Blake their scenes become the films most enjoyable. For all the muscle bound physicality of The Rock, watching Ben rescue Blake from a trapped car using his wits and engineering knowledge is far more satisfying. Then Ollie becomes useful for having a book which maybe the best subtle nod to kids of the year. Even with Blake’s disaster knowledge base form her father, the trio still feel like a gang of underdogs worth rooting for whereas we’re never in any doubt of Ray and Emma’s survival.
In all fairness, some who chose to see this film won’t even raise a people’s eyebrow to anything written above. It won’t matter what the story is or isn’t about, their focus is on the effects of mass destruction with their millions (and millions) of dollars behind them. Those people will not be disappointed. San Andreas does bring the property damage with all the flare of a people’s champion. Most sequences still have moments that let them down, like unconvincing running away from cracks/towards helicopters but many shots, in isolation, are quite spectacular. The isolation is important because some do incur feelings of repetitiveness but the focuses modeling the tremors rippling through cities imply there has been considerable scientific consultation behind the scenes to keep the visualized damage within the realm of believability. This is definitely a good thing. The surprising action highlight is when things get aquatic. As the tsunami wave roles into the harbour we could be watching any number of disaster films but just as we thing we’re in the clear there’s an excellent twist with incredible action thrills as a result. This also has a positive effect on the final act, with a flooded city provided much needed variation and in some cases genuine innovation and peril to the action sequences.
Ultimately, the experiencing of watching San Andreas is made or broken by one simple question; can you shut your brain off? If you can without a hitch, there’s much here to enjoy but that’s not as easy as you’d expect. Through much of its run time San Andreas throws more obvious questions in your face than cows in Twister. It’s an absolute minefield to the films escapism which even with all the blissful intent in the world may still cripple your experience. When you realise that if Ray actually did his job through the disaster instead of going rogue for his family, he could have saved dozens more people. They way electricity lines spark after all the power in the city is supposed to be out. That so much of the film is just an exercise in looting as Ray steels just about anything he can get his oversized hands on. But worst of all, that right from the start, all the main female characters are just there to be saved by the men. Even with some efforts to make Blake smart and resourceful she still becomes juts a walking damsel and an endless source of cleavage shots. This film has all the female empowerment of an 80s music video. Despite all the CG dollars, it makes the film feel comparable cheap with the amount of effort that’s gone into it. Finally, all too often this is a cringe worthy cheese fest, right down to the battered American flag waving at the end.
Dwayne Johnson has such natural charisma that it would take an epic disaster to make him unlikeable. While his scenes of abandoning his humour and charm for moping doesn’t help he’s still enjoyable enough and of course flawless in the action. Gugino however, inspires little as his wife and if anything is a bit annoying. Daddario takes the best lady crown by far as she convinces when in peril or bring resourceful and her sidekicks of Johnstone-Burt and Parkinson are equally enjoyable. Gruffurd feels appropriately loath-able but highly one-dimensional. Giamatti can often make the earth shake as a supporting actor but here he just doesn’t have the material. Colton Haynes (Teen Wolf, Arrow) sadly only hangs around a few minutes and a Kyle Minogue cameo feels equally squandered.
This disaster film is not a total disaster as it does provide some good popcorn fodder entertainment but it’s a massive case of style over content and The Rock’s worst outing in quite some time. It doesn’t offer anything new to the genre other than some outdated values it could definitely do without. 2015 has already gifted some great action films but San Andreas is just too full of faults to be one of them.
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