San Andreas [sort of a review]

The actors were great, and the story might have been good without the over-the-top attempts at doing science. I have read articles that suggested that the science was all wrong - as if they never bothered doing their research anyway. Apparently you couldn't have > magnitude 9 earthquakes in San Francisco, and the resulting Tsunamis would hit the Pacific Northwest rather than California. Also you would have expected more buildings in California (not to mention the Hoover Dam) to be earthquake-proof. California isn't really unfamiliar with the concept of earthquakes. If they had consulted even one seismologist of the kind that was going around making doomsday predictions in the movie, they might have done the science better. But maybe they never wanted to get the science right, and just wanted the world to blow up around The Rock, which is a noble enough goal. It was rather like 2012, with less annoying actors. The similarities struck me immediately when I watched the trailer for the first time. I hadn't realized how far the similarities went. In both movies the principal character's wife is estranged from him, in both movies the wife's new boyfriend dude gets killed, and in both movies they get back together in the end. I did like the two British brothers, even though they did lack a little for verisimilitude. I don't suppose they're ever going to visit the United States again, after what they've been through. Unless the older brother has already got together with Dwayne Johnson's daughter.

I find the portrayal of scientists in this kind of movie weird and unsettling. First there's the assistant dude who forces out an awkward and uncomfortable, "We're going to Vegas, baby!" or something of the sort. It wasn't in keeping with his character at all. Of course there was a little girl who needed saving when the Hoover Dam collapsed like it wasn't even trying to resist the earthquake, and of course he manages to save her, and gets killed in the process. The chief scientist is all gravity after that as he looks straight into the camera, and intones in a voice barely above a whisper, "God help us." It seemed to me that they were making the San Andreas fault out to be greater than it actually was. At least in 2012 the whole world got destroyed.