San Andreas (2015) Movie Review

San Andreas is disaster movie gone wild

Director: Brad Peyton

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi and Paul Giamatti.

Studios: New Line Cinema, Flynn Picture Company, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment

Distributed by:  Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Dates: May 29, 2015(United States)

Plot: In the aftermath of a massive earthquake in California, a rescue-chopper pilot makes a dangerous journey across the state in order to rescue his daughter as the rest of the state crumbles to pieces.

I don’t know about disaster films but they always love destroying the whole United States with different sorts of weather disturbances. From tornadoes, snow storms, tsunamis, and this time, a massive earthquake courtesy of the real-life San Andreas fault line across the country. What’s with this place that people always love watching it being destroyed, not only on disaster films but in other movies in general,  like other Michael Bay films.

Anyways, I was quite excited to see this film, especially in 3D and so, here is my review of this latest disaster film to destroy America again.

The Familiar Disaster Film Plot

So just like every single disaster film, from The Day After Tomorrow, Into The Storm, and 2012, this film follows the very familiar plot of a family surviving this tragedy. This time, we have Dwayne Johnson as Raymond Gaines as a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter rescue pilot. Of course, he is not in good terms with his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) as the two of them are on their final stage of divorce, putting all the pressure on their daughter Blake (played by Alexandra Daddario). While all this family drama is happening, a seismic activity is detected- an unknown fault nearby ruptures, triggering a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that collapses the dam and kills a lot people. This sets up the rest of the film s more movement of the fault lines across the whole state send everyone on panic mode.

A turn of events sends Blake getting stuck in his step dad’s building where he is rescued by her new friend and possible love interest Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt), an engineering student from the United Kingdom seeking employment at the same office owned by his rich step dad, and his little brother, Ollie (Art Parkinson). The film then focuses on Raymond as he and his wife tries to rescue their daughter during the earthquake.

There’s really nothing special about this story line as it basically just follows the usual road that every disaster film has gone through. Same old, same old storyline that Hollywood never gets tired of.

Boring Characters

There’s really no problem with the cast. Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino are good actors and they really tried their best to be interesting. The problem is that their characters are just so boring. They don’t  really get much of our affections nor our sympathy. We don’t feel anything towards them. I guess its probably because of the way their characters were thinly written., There’s little characterization involved with their personas, so we ended up not caring for them at all.

The most interesting characters were Blake, Ben and Ollie. I don’t know but their characters were the ones that really got my attention. Probably because of the possible romantic aspect that is going on between Blake and Ben. Or because these two English brothers looked so adorable together. I don’t know. Maybe its because their characters were given a more natural and realistic personality that each one of us can really relate to. So we start to love these three characters. And we were so eager to follow them going around the city as the earthquake continues to give more aftershocks. We feel scared for them every time they are caught in trouble. And we really feel worried for them whenever they are faced with danger. They made the whole movie a roller-coaster ride for us.

And when *spoiler alert* Blake was about to die, I was literally kicking the front seats (luckily no one was seating there) and screaming. I want her to live. I want her to be with her family. I want her to be with Ben. I want her to survive. Because I already feel some sympathy towards their characters. And it really affected me a lot.

Groundbreaking Special Effects

Yes. No pun intended. The special effects of the film was just totally groundbreaking. It was so amazing to watch even if we know that it’s all CGI. So despite the fact that the film doesn’t really have a unique story to tell, it compensated with it’s gloriously crafted special effects. The effects are just so good that it looks so scary to watch for it feels so real.  One of my most favorite scenes that really used the special effects to amazing use was when the Hoover Dam was destroyed by the quake early in the film.  Another was when Emma is having lunch with Daniel's sister Susan (Kylie Minogue) when the quake hits Los Angeles. That scene was one of the best set pieces of mayhem and destruction among others in the film.

From the destruction of the Hoover Dam to the shaking of the whole city, with skyscrapers crushing down at every corner, the film uses it’s budget in all the right ways.

Verdict:

Well, despite the fact that the story and some of its characters weren’t really that interesting, some characters were able to get our sympathy towards them. They gave the film the excitement that it should have. Aside from this, the film is ladden with outstanding special effects making it really worth the price of admission. With all of this, San Andreas still manages to be entertaining.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

San Andreas (2015) - Official Trailer # 2 [HD] by alikamrannpt