San Andreas (2015) - Brad Peyton

Brad Peyton's San Andreas is a film that is very loyal to the tropes of the disaster movie subgenre.  The opening scene of the film quickly establishes our hero, Ray, with Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson rescuing a woman outside of Los Angeles who whose car was dangling off the side of a cliff.  Lets be honest, people who enjoy these types of films don't see them for the narrative, more the destruction and special effects.  The human interest aspect of San Andreas' carnage is centered around Johnson's character, Ray,  who is getting divorced and finds his ex-wife is already moving in with her new boyfriend, a wealthy land developer? from San Francisco.  The film's narrative finds him rescuing his daughter and saving his marriage in the wake of an absolutely terrifying earthquake scenario that I'm sure is excessively unrealistic.  San Andreas is essentially a variation of The Day After Tomorrow in narrative structure, though I'd argue San Andres is far more exciting in the way the destruction is created.  A fan of disaster films, one of my biggest concerns going in was the quality of the CGI, and San Andreas does not disappoint with some eye-dropping visuals of destruction.  I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with Peyton's direction, the use of long takes and tracking shows to create the sense of terror to great effect.  One scene in particular, where The Rock's ex-wife is in a high rise restaurant during the quake is absolutely memorable, being a long take that lasts several minutes and really captures the terror and intensity of this frightening situation.  I totally understand how some people have problems with the coldness of mass destruction but it has never really bothered me, as San Andreas is simply about one family's struggle to survive that inevitably fixes their broken family.  One aspect I really liked about San Andreas is how the film is essentially a cheesy critique of the blue collar vs white collar mentality, withe catastrophe having Blake's soon-to-be stepfater, an extremely wealthy building designer?, who abandons her as soon as castastrophe strikes.  This leaves the union man, Ray, as the opposite, a man who routinely attempts to help people in need, traveling to great lengths to save his daughter, after losing his other daughter in a white water rafting accident (hahahahaha) a long time ago.  Intentional or not, San Andreas seems to almost be a commentary on Los Angeles vs. San Francisco (Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley), taking shots at the greedy tech companies.  Obviously Brad Peyton's San Andreas is the type of film you have to check your brain at the door, but for those who are a fan of destruction and dumb fun, it delivers solid entertainment. 

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