Review of San Andreas (2015) by Justin S — 28 Dec 2016

San Andreas is not a great movie, but it is the kind of disaster movie that I enjoy. Yes, it's far-fetched and downright ridiculous at times, but I didn't care. What this film does that works so well for me, is it takes a massive event that affected millions of lives, but it makes it feel smaller and more personal by focusing the story on a handful of people we care about.

The cast is what really drew me into the story. Dwayne Johnson is great as the heroic father figure, and Carla Gugino is perfect as the protective mother. Alexandra Daddario is charming as their daughter, and her companions on the journey (played by Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson) were easy to connect with as well.

The weakest parts of San Andreas were the scenes with Paul Giamatti and the Caltech team. I see the purpose of them in the story, because it gives us perspective on the scope of the devastation, and also sets up the impending danger.

However, their actions didn't affect the main characters in any significant ways, so I struggled to see why we would pull away from the people we care about to hear from some people who are actually safe from the destruction.

I also had a slight issue with the ham-handed way they pointed out symbols in the movie. At a certain point I wanted to say to the screen "We get it, these events are a metaphor for their crumbling relationship, stop over-explaining yourself!" But my biggest complaint in the movie was in the climax.

Throughout the film Dwayne Johnson is basically a superhero, but I don't mind because he is the star of the film. But there is a scene where they could have empowered another character, and made this person a more vital part of the story, by allowing him to aid Johnson.

It wouldn't have diminished our hero in any way, and would have improved the ending significantly. However, they decide to leave the heroics entirely in the hands of the star. It was a poor choice that annoyed me right when I was most invested in the movie.

Still, I think San Andreas is a fun disaster film that should entertain a lot of people, and I'd probably recommend it.