Review of San Andreas (2015) by Harry W — 20 Jan 2016

Any Dwayne Johnson star vehicle warrants a viewing in my eyes, and an overblown mindless disaster film sounded like an ideal distraction.

Any sensible fan of a disaster film knows that there are two major factors in the generic contract: big name stars in archetype roles and plenty of special effects-enhanced disaster. Ultimately, San Andreas offers mixed results.

The intro cleverly plays with audience expectations as the character present is caught up in two distractions which could have caused her to crash her vehicle before she ultimately faces her downfall as a result of unprecedented results. This soon turns into a rescue sequence reminiscent of Cliffhanger (1993), ensuring that San Andreas recognizes its role as an old-fashioned disaster film.. Some of the later scenes prove to borrow from Titanic (1997). However, this doesn't mean that it is aimed at a market trapped in the past. With contemporary stars and some of the best effects offered by such a huge budget, San Andreas works its way to delivering on its promises to a modern audience, for better and for worse. One of the lesser elements in this regard is the fact that within the predictable abundance of visual effects as the primary hook of the film, it attempts to add to that with faltered use of 3D effects. 3D films have to be very specific in technique to justify their existence to me, and though San Andreas may have made better use out of the gimmick than countless other Hollywood productions, but it is still insufficient in quality.

When not trying to be 3D, San Andreas does boast incredible visual effects. With the film being so heavily reliant on them, the dedication to detail in the production crew ensures that all the disaster is eye-catching. Establishing the film with a combination of naturally appealing scenery and some practical world-building, San Andreas reinforces itself beyond just CGI. Of course, that remains the finest part of the film. San Andreas uses a lot of impressive wide-long shots to establish the massive scale of disaster being simulated, and the detail in animating the catastrophes serves as a throwback to some of Roland Emmerich's finest forays into the disaster film genre. When he retired from working within that particular field of film after making 2012 (2009), he left the genre in the hands of others. With San Andreas leaving it up to Brad Peyton to deliver the goods, I can certify that his eye for imagery ensures that he knows the smart way to make use of the film's budget while backing it up with strong sound effects and a decent musical score. However, his preceding filmography suggests that he is no man of brilliance when it comes to choosing the right script which is a notion reinforced by the resulting writing in San Andreas.

Since its clear from the beginning precisely what will happen in San Andreas, the narrative success of the film is predicated based on how it makes use of a familiar plot. Unfortunately, San Andreas too often fails to take a stand in this area. The script in San Andreas film oscillates between being bland melodrama, tedious sentimentality, generic filler, simplistic scientific language and some occasionally cheap attempts at humour. In essence, it is hard to find a single line of dialogue which does not succumb to one of these flaws which proves that the script is consistently poor form. It is hardly ever cringe-worthy, but it is clearly very thinly scripted as a cheap excuse to throw a lot of money around. Any time that the film actually focuses on script honestly offers nothing to the film, so between them moments of spectacle is very little else to hold the film up.

There aren't as many notable stars or character archetypes as I would have expected in San Andreas, and unfortunately the select few that there are prove to achieve meandering results.

Dwayne Johnson has his talents as an actor, but he is surely no Academy Award nominee. His talents rest on the shoulders of his muscular frame and his ability to use them to the benefit of playing an action hero. In San Andreas, these qualities are used to minimal extent while there is greater focus on on putting him behind the controls of vehicles and having him deliver dialogue which encapsulates all the sentimentality and melodrama plaguing the script. He has moments where he does channel strong emotions into the role with restrained humanity, but San Andreas is neither a challenge or an appropriate fit for the actor. Dwayne Johnson's presence provides the needed hook for San Andreas, but the film provides him with nothing to do and serves heavily as a waste of his time.

As big-named as the cast of San Andreas may be, nobody can boast the same level of genuine dramatic talent that Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti has. The actor easily brings his natural charm to any role he plays, but the clear spike of skill hits the film when he is first there to witness an earthquake destroy a dam and his screams of aggressive emotion convey actual terror. There is a feeling he is actually scared of everything that is happening even though the actor is simply standing in front of a green screen, so it is arguably him who is the first actor to channel humanity into the disaster. When he does this, he never does it with melodrama but simply with a very direct manner of speaking. And when he talks about earthquakes he does it with such a rich understanding of them that he actually brings the role to life, easily convincing us that he genuinely has expertise in.

And Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario lack any real hook in San Andreas outside of being attractive stars, but I will admit that they offer sporadic moments of dramatic flair.

So San Andreas has some powerful moments of visionary excellence, but its predictable formula, generic dialogue and the failure to utilize Dwayne Johnson's presence render it a meandering throwback to superior disaster films at best.