Most movies about natural disasters are pretty easy to make fun of; most of the time it is because of horrible special effects, lazy writing, bad performances, or it’s not really a natural disaster but someone manipulating it in some twisted way. That being said this 2015 film is actually not too bad of a disaster film as this does hold little possibilities of this happening (little but possible). Spoilers ahead as always.
Raymond “Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) is a former army pilot now working with L.A Fire Department as a rescue pilot. He plans on traveling up to Seattle with his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) to drop her off at college, and an excuse to see his soon to be ex-wife Emma (Carla Gugino) who he is still in love with. Unfortunately Emma has a new boyfriend in Daniel Riddick (Ioan Grufford) who owns a civil engineering firm. It is obvious that Emma still cares deeply for Ray, but he still blames himself for the death of their other daughter who drowned. At the same time Caltech seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) along with his team including friend Dr. Kim Park (Will Yun Lee) are at Hoover Dam using equipment to predict earthquakes and discover a fault in the dam. Within seconds a massive earthquake happens; destroying the dam and killing Park. Ray is called into work and Daniel offers to take Blake to school, but must stop in San Francisco for a meeting. While there Blake meets brothers Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and Ollie (Art Parkinson) on vacation from England with Ben applying for a job with Daniel’s company; he also becomes smitten with Blake and vice versa.
Dr. Hayes, grieving the death of his friend, soon makes a horrible discovery: the entire San Andreas fault is shifting; which will cause earthquakes and more natural disasters destroying cities in the entire fault line. Another massive earthquake happens in San Francisco with Emma, Blake, Daniel, Ben and Ollie right in the middle of it. Ray, having called Emma, hears it and flies to where she is; rescuing her as she is the only survivor of the building. Blake is abandoned in a parking lot by Daniel after being trapped in his car, but Ben and Ollie rescue her. Blake, sticking with the brothers, calls her parents and the three come up with a plan to reunite, but it may be impossible. Dr Hayes, along with his team and news reporter Serena Johnson (Archie Panjabi) warn the public a much more powerful earthquake is coming, and sadly it will only get worse. About at far as I can go without giving away the rest of the movie.
As I said earlier disaster films are usually easy to poke fun at, but this film actually isn’t bad (it’s not great either but it could have been worse.) Dwayne Johnson is a good actor; while I have seen him in much better films I thought he did a pretty decent job in the film as a man just wanting his family back. Carla Gugino was great with her performance, knowing what to do when a disaster comes and helping Ray when she can. She and Johnson have done two films together so they have excellent chemistry together; while it wasn’t their first time as love interests I believe it was the first time the two shared a lip lock. Daddario could have easily played the part of the daughter who freaks out alone, but instead she came off as smart, knows what to do and when it goes to hell is quick to readjust. Johnstone-Burt and Parkinson’s characters were awesome, Parkinson providing just a little comic relief in a disaster film, and finally Giamatti was fantastic. The special effects were very realistic as the audience watched buildings crumble, a tsunami and the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge knowing while we can’t see every death we are certain the number is in the high thousands. Admittedly the plot outside the disasters does feel a little all over the place and the characters don’t develop, but I think having all of the action around it kinda shadows it so it isn’t really noticed until everything is calm. I wouldn’t call San Andreas a must watch, but if you like disaster movies, Dwayne Johnson or action this just might be a great film for you to watch.
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