Monumental fault-lines

Johnson Thomas

This one is a disaster in the making. A disaster movie made in the Hollywood tradition of 'bigger the better' doesn't quite cut it emotionally. The effects are all huge. In terms of disaster subjects you can't get bigger than this. The San Andreas fault-line that shakes up a frenzy and puts several of the states' property and lives at risk. 

Earthquakes have been featured as disaster movie subjects before, so there's nothing new in this one either. California gets bludgeoned much like what the former wrestling professional Dwayne Johnson does to his rivals in the pro-wrestling arena. The San Andreas fault-line is the culprit here. There are some scientific explanations and some fair bit of predictions as well as warnings before the major disaster can take place. And to start with a landslide and rescue, establishes search and rescue chief Ray's (Dwayne Johnson) credentials. Thereafter it's all FX mayhem with Ray donning the mantle of super-hero, albeit only for his family. His estranged wife (Carla Gugino) is on the verge of moving in with a real estate and construction magnate. His daughter is on a 'getting-to-know-your-stepfather' trip with the guy when the shakes happen. She gets trapped in a car and he runs away from the scene. Super-hero Ray flies around first rescuing his wife, caught in a slowly dismantling skyscraper, and then going on to his daughter and her two young friends. The rest of the victims were just background fillers! 

The script deserved many more rewrites I guess. Such a big disaster movie and only a handful of people are at the centre of it all. Takes some imagining I guess. There's no audience involvement at all in spite of the gigantic effects given to the quaking scenarios. The crumbling of the Hoover Dam, snapping of the Golden Gate bridge; destruction of monumental and iconic towers — all look good but there's no effect.  The handful of characters at the centre of it all, while likeable, don't seem all that worthy though.