Review: Even the Rock can’t rescue ‘San Andreas’ from disaster

Posted on June 5, 2015

By MARK VIOLA

The latest mega-disaster movie is “San Andreas,” which like its name would suggest, is about a series of extremely potent earthquakes striking metropolitan California. Directed by Brad Peyton (“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore”), written by Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and starring Dwayne Johnson (“Furious 7”), the film suffers from a lack of interesting characters and an overabundance of disasters, resulting in a loud, but ultimately uncompelling two hours. Because for a movie like this, more deadly than a 9.8-magnitude earthquake is a disconnected audience, because they will notice all of the smaller problems they might otherwise miss because they’re engaged with the story too much to notice.

Even though I don’t expect a lot from these mega-disaster movies because as far as I’m concerned the basic premise is flawed, but even based on that standard, “San Andreas” is simply a disaster that not even Dwayne Johnson can rescue us from no matter how hard he tries.

Now, admittedly, the earthquakes sequences are pretty intense, although we ultimately get so many of them that by the time the third and largest one hits–which we’re told is the strongest earthquake in recorded history–it’s pretty much, been there, seen that, got the t-shirt.

The movie is rated PG-13 for intense disaster action and mayhem throughout, and brief strong language.

(This is a shortened version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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