[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Rock’s new action thriller, San Andreas, is finally out and really shaking things up at the box office. Numbers can lie, but that doesn’t mean the public should let it slip through the cracks too soon.
Dwayne Johnson plays an emergency-rescue pilot in the midst of a divorce from wife Carla Gugino. When a massive record-breaking quake hits along the titular fault line, it’s up to them to save their daughter (Alexandra Daddario) who, along with sibling English tourists (Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson), fights to stay alive in San Francisco — which is literally falling apart.
San Andreas is a fun ride but works with a familiar formula that anyone who has seen a film by the Emmerichs would recognize (from Independence Day to 2012). The way the destruction plays out, you half expect Godzilla or an alien craft to show up.
All requisite character types are accounted for too. There is the estranged family, the young people in peril (who just so happen to be strong-willed and resourceful), and the didactic scientist (Paul Giamatti) who is the first to see disaster coming.
While The Rock is the star, his role is more or less what you expect from him minus some of the range and dynamism he has shown in recent years. The runaway performance belongs hands down to Alexandra Daddario, whose character is by far the most compelling, showing more courage as things get more desperate.
Ioan Gruffudd shows up periodically as Gugino’s would-be suitor, but his part is barely fleshed out and rings hollow — almost to the point of laughable. (It’s hard to look at him and not see Reed Richards.)
There are plenty of cameos, from Arrow’s Colton Haynes to veteran character actor Will Yun Lee and international pop sensation Kylie Minogue, by people who show up for a mere five minutes; usually to die. When Minogue goes through the wrong door only for the whole part of the building on the other side to collapse, it is somewhat funny.
All that said, San Andreas is a decent enough disaster movie with a good cast. Some of it is, yeah, kind of dumb or predictable; but the effects are excellent and it does hold interest beyond a typical setup.
