San Andreas

Ever since the inception of the motion picture we've seen a plethora of disaster films come our way--even as far back as 1934's "San Francisco". But certainly since the film "Airport", we've seen countless disaster films. The list is endless: "The Poseidon Adventure", "The Towering Inferno", "Earthquake", "The Hindenburg", "Twister", "The Day After Tomorrow",etc. So, after enough years have gone by, it should be of no surprise that a film like "San Andreas" would be released.

In this high-octane thriller, the infamous San Andreas Fault gives way, producing a devastating 9.1 earthquake across California. A highly skilled search and rescue helicopter pilot, Ray (Dwayne Johnson) races to save his ex-wife Emma (Carla Gugino) in Los Angeles before the complete destruction of the city. After one daring rescue, Ray and Emma fly north toward San Francisco in search of their daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario), racing against time and the inevitable aftershocks that promise to devastate the coastline. As Ray and Emma approach San Francisco, they have no idea that Blake isn't alone--she had inadvertently met Ben Taylor (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his younger brother, Ollie (Art Parkinson) right before the initial quake. All this was predicted by seismologist Lawrence (Paul Giamatti) and his team who attempted to let the appropriate people know this information, but to no avail. How is California going to make it?

Others to round out the cast are Ioan Gruffud as Daniel Riddick, boyfriend of Emma, Archie Panjabi as Serena, an investigative reporter, Will Yun Lee as Dr. Kim Park, Kylie Minogue as Susan Riddick, Daniel's ex-wife, Carlton Haynes as Joby, Todd Williams as Marcus, Matt Gerald as Harrison, Alec Utgoff as Alexi and Marissa Neitling as Phoebe.

Before I went to view this film, my trepidation was at an all time high, because, com'on, the majority of disaster films are fraught with predictability, unoriginality, and bordem at least storyline-wise. So, considering the visual effects and miniatures would be stunning, and they were, I decided to just get into that aspect of the film and yawn through the rest. Well, one could have knocked me over with a feather, because even though the story wasn't great, it was certainly much better than I could have ever imagined. It still had that element of predictability, but since people react differently given extreme adversity in their lives, these disaster films probably give a fairly realistic take on the human psyche. It seems that we see things from a different vantage point given a pressed situation--it kind of keeps us in check. So since this aspect is used in so many disaster flicks, I suspect this characteristic would be predictable. So the writer, Carlton Cruse saw people as they actually are. Amazing that he has no other experience but TV to his name, as where this was as well written as most seasoned writers out there. It was effectively directed by Brad Peyton ("Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" '10, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" '12).plus shorts and TV. Again, not a ton of experience, but this guy will definitely receive more work because he keep his actors perpetually in peril and their emotions were realistically played out well.

This is one that one must see on the large screen for obvious reasons, but since the story is played out better that you'd expect, all the more reason to plunk your money down, chow down the popcorn, put your 3D glasses on and enjoy this incredible ride.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                 Rated: PG-13                                   114mins.