Review of San Andreas (2015) by Grant S — 18 Apr 2016

Incredibly bad, even by (low) disaster movie standards.

A series of massive earthquakes hits Nevada and California. Caught in the middle is a helicopter rescue pilot, Raymond Gaines (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). Flying his helicopter he must first rescue his ex-wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), and then his daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario). Meanwhile, a pre-eminent seismologist, Dr Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), is trying to predict where the next earthquake will hit.

Pretty much every disaster movie cliche and stereotype is on display here. Plot is incredibly formulaic, you could substitute "earthquake" with any number of disasters - floods, fire, asteroid, sharknado (!), to name but a few - and have dozens of other movies, most of which would be better than this.

The writers don't even bother trying to be original in the plot, or even have much of a plot. The main aim is for the director to show off his CGI skills, through collapsing buildings, large holes in the ground, tidal waves, scenes of destruction etc, all set against familiar backgrounds (eg San Francisco's CBD). Anything else is just a segue to the next CGI-generated catastrophe.

As far as the casting goes, some interesting appearances, though this movie is not going to enhance anyone's CV. Not surprising to see The Rock in the lead role - this sort of schlock is what he does. Paul Giamatti must have really needed the money as this is far beneath his abilities. A bad sign for Ioan Gruffudd as he is capable of better roles (as the Hornblower series would attest to) - I guess this means his Hollywood career has stalled. Good to see Alexandra Daddario though, and not for her acting ability...

Avoid - this is excruciatingly awful.