Disaster movies work by keeping the audience on their edge of their seat, they aren’t supposed to be accurate. So, when San Andreas looks too realistic to be escapist fantasy, but gets too much wrong to avoid being criticised, it falls flat.
This is a problem that currently stares the genre in the face – in this modern age of the internet we have access to all sorts of information so we are not that easily fooled. Plus, blockbusters keep on getting bigger (if not necessarily better) so we expect ever-heightening spectacle.
The late ’90s saw a reboot of the disaster genre as computer-generated effects meant bigger and better visuals, but 9/11 cut down audience appetite for destruction of life, limb and building. At that point, invading aliens and zombies started gaining ground at the box office, but San Andreas seems to point us back in the direction of reality gone mad.
The special effects are deemed amazing by most critics, but the lack of plot and less-than-sound characters leave much to be desired. Whether it is indeed possible to have an intricate plot and deep characterisation as the world is broken by some natural disaster remains to be seen, but again, disaster movies are about the escapism.
Then again, television isn’t exactly looking for the mid-ground either. The Syfy channel’s latest disaster movies are wholeheartedly embracing the escapist fantasy aspect and creating hybrid monsters and even odder titles by the dozen.
Please note their world of campy disaster movies which draw on the creepy animal genre to make up a whole new world of weird. That would be movies like Sharknado giving us a hurricane scooping up man-eating sharks only to deposit them on the streets of LA.
Syfy has so far spawned, among others, Sharktopus, Piranhaconda, Dinoshark, Frankenfish, Sharktopus vs Pteracuda and Jersey Shore Shark Attack –yes, that would be a satire of the MTV reality series in which man-eating sharks terrorise New Jersey beachgoers partying on the shore. I am not making this up.
Coming up will be Lavalantula in which an avalanche of lava spewing tarantulas descend upon LA. Think Police Academy (1984) – because it features several PA icons – meets Arachnaphobia (1990), but through the lens of Volcano (1998).
For the sheer amazing title alone, try Sharktopus vs Whalewolf which will star Casper van Dien doing we don’t know what yet, come next month. Oh, and watch out for David Hasselhoff in Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! at the end of next month.
With its deliberately terrible, OTT-ness, this extreme end of the disaster genre fits into that space where it is so bad, it’s fun to watch.
As for the big screen, San Andreas isn’t exactly suffering at the box office, having already pulled in more than $100 million at the US box office before even opening here.
The Rock at epicentre of a faulty movie
The thing about disaster movies is that after all the destruction, thanks to convincing CGI, there needs to be a reason to care for the characters.
This is what you will miss in the new Dwayne Johnson film, San Andreas. The muscle-man stars as Ray, a firefighter who will need all of his skills when his family tries to survive a series of earthquakes.
What’s good about the setting is that California has a history of earthquakes so this story is not too far-fetched. Having The Rock play the hero was a great idea because his size and star power rake in the audiences, but upon closer inspection he was in way too deep. This is an emotional kind of film where the acting rests on reactions to the various situations the characters endure. There is sadness, fear and even triumph, all of which can happen together in a short space of time.
All of these situations demand their respective reactions. But, Johnson can’t pull off that kind of stuff because he is too aware of the camera, and of the fact that he is the hero. You don’t have to have been in an earthquake to know what a convincing reaction looks like. It soon becomes clear that the wrestler should stick to Fast ’n’ Furious kind of films.
Gugino, who plays his ex-wife and is a much better actor, tries her best to save the quality of the performances, but can only do so much with the camera facing away from her. When it’s her turn to shine she plays the mother role pretty well and given that there are two men in her life, she is quite capable of conveying the emotions of an undecided woman who is caught in between.
The story is the biggest letdown because it leaves you detached from the characters’ realities. You have the obvious favourites who all miraculously make it, while the baddies die. It’s pretty silly because life does not work like that. In films like The Day After Tomorrow or even The Book Thief, when disaster strikes, any character could die, which is pretty much how life works.
It is laughable how The Rock and his posse try to appear distressed in this mess. The film spends more time making insane graphics, but it’s 2015, we have seen it all. There is really nothing breathtaking about imploding landscapes, collapsing bridges and falling buildings. It’s what first-year students at graphic art schools do for homework so there is a need to provide more than that.
This is one of those that you have to see only if you are into cheesy material.
If you liked The Day After Tomorrow or Into he Storm you might like this.