Review of San Andreas (2015) by Roger C — 19 Sep 2015

Dwayne Johnson is, by all accounts having a great year, so it's no surprise that he's moving into a territory where he can carry a film without a "universe" constructed around it, like his turns in "Hercules," the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" franchise, or, of course, the "Fast and Furious" films.

"San Andreas" attempts to bring the disaster film genre to new heights, but like the earthquakes that focus the film, it sort of falls instead. Unlike classics in the genre, like "The Day After Tomorrow," everything feels impossible to overcome.

Johnson, his ex-wife, and his daughter all manage to live through seemingly dozens of natural disasters, despite their insistence on being in the middle of each one. I'm all for characters living to see a happy ending, but come on- shouldn't one of them have actually perished? The story was pretty basic, just a normal "family torn apart before the disaster comes magically back together after everyone is safe" kind of story.

Nothing new, nothing original, and all-in-all, pretty bland. The effects were good, but again, I've seen better- when many films are being shot with 3D cameras, you have to step it up a bit more than this.