Review of San Andreas (2015) by Filmphonic — 28 May 2015

As you might expect from a CGI-laden big-budget disaster blockbuster, ‘San Andreas’ is visually impressive with set-pieces of wanton destruction as good as anything we’ve seen and an epic score that sets a massive action scale, but even for a film of this type the neglect shown to every other aspect of the film is beyond disappointing.

‘San Andreas’ follows the same narrative you’ve seen in every other disaster movie offering nothing new and featuring attempts at emotional depth that are so cringeworthy they make Michael Bay movies seem profound, but at least Bay has the good sense to spread some camp humour over his cheesy film toast.

The entire creative talent in this film seems to be focused in the visual effects department but no amount of action and spectacular visuals can gloss over the incredibly predictable narrative and sub-par performances, not to mention the surprisingly dull hour or more between massive action set pieces.

Add to this the fact that ‘San Andreas’ exists in a California where virtually everyone looks like an Abercrombie & Fitch model with only Paul Giamatti to redress the balance, plus a PG sensibility that means no graphic consequences of the devastation and that fact that you can predict what will and won’t happen to every character from the start, the result is a film that’s barely memorable for Californians and completely forgettable for the rest of the world.

The Bottom Line….

Visually stunning and epic in scale, ‘San Andreas’ is little more than a collection of action set-pieces with no entertainment value beyond, predictable and lacking any depth, mildly enjoyable and completely forgettable.