SAN ANDREAS (12A, 114 mins) Action/Thriller/Romance. Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Paul Giamatti, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Archie Panjabi, Will Yun Lee, Kylie Minogue. Director: Brad Peyton.
RATING: TWO STARS
IN THE closing moments of the computer-effects-heavy disaster movie San Andreas, a tattered Stars And Stripes unfurls proudly on what remains of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It's the final, heavy-handed image of undaunted patriotism in a cliche-laden battle between puny mankind and mighty Mother Nature on the west coast of America.
Recent events in Nepal are still fresh in the mind as director Brad Peyton reduces cities to twisted rubble with a series of record-breaking earthquakes. Any discomfiting shivers of real-life tragedy are quickly dispelled by the hoary dialogue in Carlton Cuse's script and increasingly outrageous action sequences.
The best examples of the disaster genre, including The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Titanic, balance spectacular stunts with heart-breaking human drama, recognising that audiences need to feel emotionally attached to stricken characters in the midst of the sound and fury.
Screenwriter Cuse short-changes us here, hastily sketching a fractured family that is destined to reunite in the eye of the storm.
That rebuilding of bridges is best summed up by one scientist's blunt assessment of impending doom: "It isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when." The San Andreas Fault, which runs for more than 800 miles through California, gives way, triggering a magnitude 9 earthquake.
Search and rescue helicopter pilot Chief Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) hunts for survivors including his estranged wife Emma (Carla Gugino), who has filed for divorce so she can pursue a new relationship with wealthy real estate developer Daniel Reddick (Ioan Gruffudd).
Reunited in tragedy, Ray and Emma head to San Francisco to save their daughter, who has joined forces with a handsome Brit and his 11-year-old brother to survive the devastation.
San Andreas opens with a daredevil rescue sequence to emphasize Johnson's selfless heroic credentials before the destruction begins in earnest at the Hoover Dam. The leading man looks physically pumped, taking to land, sea and air to reach his beloved daughter, while Gugino simpers with pride at his gung-ho antics.
Just when it seems the worst is over for the Gaines family, a doom-saying professor (Paul Giamatti) at California Institute of Technology predicts a bigger earthquake and a massive tsunami from which there will be no escape.
