It will be impossible to chase after logic and sense once the Earth ruptures open in “San Andreas”.
This doesn’t mean there’s plenty to find, because the truth is, there’s barely any, but “San Andreas” doesn’t really need to be logical for it to be able to deliver its sense-juddering capacity. The film works with eye-popping visuals alone, and this is why the film, amidst of all its shortcomings, is still worth seeing.
“San Andreas” is exactly the film you would expect to see from a big-budgeted disaster movie. It teems with ground-cracking quakes, earth shattering explosions, and gigantic earth-wiping tsunamis.
Through these visual tactics, the movie keeps the audience’s attention glued onscreen, that it would be impossible to ponder whether what’s happening is still logical or not.
This makes assessing the performance of the actors not an easy job, and I’m not saying it’s necessary. Dwayne Johnson charms his way through his thinly structured character by appearing someone with heroics written all over him, that you may have your eyes the entire time following him as he saves both his family and the world. Carrying such responsibility would, of course, give way to making stupid and brow-arching decisions (like when characters take pauses to have tender moments, cry, hug, and play the emotional blame game, in the middle of what could be an apocalyptic doom), and you would be incredibly happy laughing about such preposterousness, while also thrilled, watching the characters defeat the impossible. But its hard to appreciate such effort of putting emotional touch on the characters when they rarely go in congruence with character development.
In the end, the film is nothing but one powerful quake that has just passed by before abruptly ceasing to exist. What is left after drowning entirely in the imminence of cataclysmic dangers and horrors of apocalyptic annihilation, is a feeling of voidness.
“San Andreas'” greatness is as seismic as any cgi-packed disaster movie can be, and it’s epic in such way, but it hardly leaves a sense of emotional satisfaction, making it a forgettable entry to the disaster category.
RATING: 6/10 (JE)
