The inevitable confrontation between nature and man has never been so uneven, all because on our side is THE ROCK... "San Andreas"
Hi Hivers, we are already in the second week of the third edition of "League Of Movies" made by @wiseagent, this time the theme for the publications is about "Mother Nature", movies where humans must face the strongest enemy they can get, "The Earth", can be storms, hurricanes, earthquakes or all combined, I leave the link of the publication so you can participate in League of Movies
"THE ROCK vs San Andreas Fault"
First of all I must say that if there is one genre that I have seen few movies about and am not a big fan of, it is exactly this kind of natural disaster stories, secondly, the actor (formerly wrestler) Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as "The Rock ", is not one of my favorite actors either, but I left all that behind when I saw what this week's topic was about and thought, "If I'm going to write about a natural disaster movie. ..what else where The Rock has to deal with one of the biggest faults in the world..." That's when I started to imagine what the clash between the two would be like..."Welcome to the League of Movie WAR! today for the title of the MOST POWERFUL OF THE WORLD! We'll have the showdown we've all been waiting for...THE ROCK vs San Andreas Fault...Who will win? "
The first film I saw of this genre must have been "Twister (1996) ", a film that revived this genre that was forgotten, after this film there have been many others following this same way of telling a story, in all of them we see that character that while living a natural disaster, must do everything possible to face her fears and become that hero that in the end will do everything possible to save the people most appreciated by her or him, I imagine that in many other films they followed this base to create their stories in which we always see people having an everyday life, Few people know what is really happening, a sudden first blow, a second stronger blow that activates one more of our protagonists and then the final blow that will show how strong, intelligent and determined our hero is to save himself and others and that is why for the monotonous, predictable that these stories are what makes me not like much, but surely you wonder If not all summer movies are this way? Yes, but I think the point is that so much destruction must be shown so that people feel terrified or the tension of the suspense that if they were saved or not and sometimes these two things that are the ones that draw attention and in the end borders on the ridiculous.
"San Andreas" is a film that fulfills all the clichés you can get in a "Disaster Film", it has the hero, it has the people to rescue and of course the most important thing... The natural disaster, but there is something more important, when I said "it has the hero" I forgot to name who that character is or who plays him, nothing more than Dwayne "THE ROCK" Johnson, the San Andreas' failure doesn't know who he messed with, I think this time is where a natural disaster film is overshadowed by the hero and that means that in order for them to be on par, this failure should be mega-disastrous, not give any truce, make any possible rescue plan difficult and I think it succeeds in a good way, imagine cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles that are visited by many tourists, populated with buildings of any kind, and just one surrounded by the San Francisco Bay, as you see has all the elements for the disaster to be just that something that impacts, that is surprising to the public and that serves to make our protagonists do the impossible to stay alive.
Its young director Brad Peyton (by that time), that by 2015 this would mean its third time fulfilling that role and second time that worked with THE ROCK, next to the scriptwriter Carlton Cuse that its work is more known by series "LOST " and in spite of to have helped and participated in other films,It is precisely in "San Andreas " which is recognized as his first work as a screenwriter for a film, both created a story just to show off their protagonist and be the best attraction, The Rock, but that would not prevent the other characters have their time to find an escape route and try to save themselves, One of those characters is the one played by Carla Gugino, I think her scene when she has to suffer the ravages of an earthquake is my favorite one in the whole film, I really liked the use of the camera to follow her in several moments of terror until she is finally saved in a dangerous and stressful way, The use of time and place to make that scene is perfect and I think it makes a better impact than the other final scenes in this film, if the director were to focus more on making other scenes this way for the other characters, he would certainly be more successful than he could be.
The work of Cuse creating the background story that gave the character of Dwayne Johnson and his family, is something that I liked very much, I know it meets the requirements of this genre, but the story of a man who has all the credentials to be recognized as a hero, but who does not feel that way because he knows that all his knowledge may not help in the end to save their loved ones, I think the character of Raymond "Ray" Gaines, is well written, we see a fireman, pilot, war veteran and father who lives with a great guilt and fear, for me is very good character, this would be liked even more if in the scenes where it is necessary that there is drama and despair would have a better performance for this actor, this is my problem with **The Rock **, as an action actor and even comedy can serve and much, but if we demand a performance as such, I think I could not do it. About the other stories and characters, some of them very necessary, but there are others that are not, for example the character Daniel Riddick played by Ioan Gruffudd, it could be that he represents that group of people that does not know how to face an extreme situation and becomes selfish and only looks for his own salvation, the opposite of "Ray " and his family, but it is only an instant and his final scene is like "Right, this character, what do we do? ...Well, eliminate him in the most vile way" And that's it, without any shame or glory, forgettable his performance and character and I think even unnecessary.
"San Andreas" for sure if there were 100 The Rock, I would not be seen in the cinema anyway, not only by this actor but actually I don't think it would be as destructive as we saw in "2012" which is for me the most destructive of all, but if I see and change the characters between those two films, there would be no change, they are very similar, but the difference is a very big one, in one the disaster should be the protagonist, in this one not and I think that is the biggest criticism I have about this film, If you pay attention when the disaster scenes are focused on the characters in "Emma Gaines" or in "Blake Gaines, Ben Taylor" and "Ollie Taylor", you can enjoy them, they are stressful and even well filmed by their director, but when The Rock appears, there is no building, flood, destruction that I can with him and actually I would like that there was a real teamwork of the rescuers as you see at the beginning of the film even if the final protagonist was Johnson, maybe it was highlighted even more instead of being the main hero having his wife as "Sidekick".
Despite my criticism, I can say that I was entertained in the two hours of duration of this film, I liked to see it in my home, the use of CGI in the scenes of destruction is done well in several places both recognized in Los Angeles and San Francisco and of course that final blow and devastating that makes us think that it is impossible to save and that highlights both the personal history of all these characters especially to two parents about to lose their only daughter, That's why if you haven't seen it (which I think is impossible) go see it, enjoy an action story, fun and is that it is much better than other stories of this genre and although this is no spoiler, I must say that the winner of this great battle is without any doubt. ..."THE ROCK!"
For a next opportunity I would like to invite "League of Movies " to @amaponian and @jhonatanb, I hope you can participate, just check this Link with the rules to follow.
