Fault the star of faulty film
Raymond Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) is known for getting people out of tight spots.
But while the Los Angeles fire department chief helicopter pilot has more than 600 documented rescues, it’s the one he couldn’t save that has haunted him. Daughter Mallory drowned during a rafting trip, a tragedy that cost him not only her but also his marriage as he struggled to move on. So when an unprecedented swarm of earthquakes hits California along the San Andreas fault, he’s determined to get to San Francisco to rescue his other daughter Blake ( True Detective’s Alexandra Daddario, displaying plenty of charisma and chutzpah), regardless of the risks.
From the opening foreboding choral strains to the hilarious flagfluttering ‘‘now, we rebuild’’ denouement, San Andreas plays like a greatest hits package of action movies from the past quarter-century.
Taking their ‘‘estranged’’ relationship cues from Twister and Die Hard, the tragic backstory and haunted hero from Cliffhanger and wilful destruction of famous landmarks from Independence Day (here it’s the Hoover Dam and Golden Gate Bridge), director Brad Peyton (best known for sequels to kids movies Cats & Dogs and Journey to the Center of the Earth) and a trio of writers spanning spiritual sci-fi Lost to reality series I Shouldn’t Be Alive, have crafted two hours of earthmoving, citydestroying action that even the most ardent disaster porn fan might blanch at.
To be fair, as an earthquake educational video it’s actually not bad (take cover under a table, find a rotary phone), with Paul Giamatti’s (doing his best Richard Dreyfuss impersonation) CalTech scientist offering plenty of good advice for those caught up in a quake, while also delivering some slightly less credible science, as things ramp up to near apocalyptic proportions.
However, the seismology is far less offensive than the suspect morality of the main characters. Sure we understand Gaines’ motivation to get to his daughter, but surely it’s a dereliction of duty to abandon any thoughts of rescuing anyone in a devastated LA to take potentially the only working helicopter the department has on a mission to rescue one person hundreds of kilometres away. Naturally, Johnson’s character has little time for such moral conundrums, instead intent on brushing off the worst that Mother Nature (and feral residents) can throw at him and delivering the occasional cringeworthy line like ‘‘its been a while since I got you to second base’’ to his estranged wife.
Better is the use of point-of-view shots and 3D, which place the audience in the middle of the chaos, while also sadly highlighting the more singular dimensions of some of the support characters. But let’s be honest, despite Johnson’s best efforts, the fault is our star.