San Andreas

San Andreas

Summary

A helicopter rescue pilot who is caught up in the aftermath of the biggest earthquake in history, embarks on a death defying journey across the country to rescue his ex wife and daughter. After losing one of his daughters in a rafting accident, he wont stop blaming himself for her death, but losing his other daughter is not an option.

Thoughts & Experiences 

I think we was well overdue for a earthquake movie and 2015 has brought us one, San Andreas. As we know, San Andreas is another typical disaster movie like the rest of them, but will it be as good or worse from the rest? from the likes of "The Day After Tomorrow" & "2012." 

The Problem with upcoming natural disaster movies is that they started out from having the worst disasters possibly imagined and now they keep getting less worrying. Earthquakes, realistically are the worst thing on earth, but if you turn it in to a movie the public wont be as satisfied as from the other disaster movies we have previously seen.  

"The Day After Tomorrow" is probably the best disaster movie yet. It includes great FX, graphics, story and lots of thrilling scenes, but is it only great because they started the whole disaster trend off with the worst possible natural occurrence?

I think it could be possible be one of the best because it is one of the worst disasters to see in a movie but that's not all, no. In the movie its all about surviving the harshest weather imagined and pulling through, which the audience loved that.

 So we summed up how good "The Day After Tomorrow" was, but what disaster film will be better or just as good to watch? i introduce you to "2012." If you didn't know, 2012 was the year everyone was saying "its the end of the world," so why not make a film about it? They did!

Making a film about the end of the world is pretty disastrous if you ask me, and that's the only way they could keep on the same level as "The Day After Tomorrow." 

So lets talk about "San Andeas," the new disaster movie that has just been released in cinemas around the world. Since watching San Andreas last night i was a bit skeptical since the last two disaster movies were good, and i was thinking how will it keep up with them both? Because the last two disaster movies were so disastrous, in my opinion San Andreas struggled to be as good as them both, this is because i don't think earthquakes is as bad as say "The end of the world." Plus they kind of had earthquakes in "2012" as the earth was crumbling apart.

In the beginning of the movie, introduces us the main man of the film Dwayne Johnson, who plays the rescue helicopter hero, Ray. We first see Ray in action from the start of the movie as he is on a rescue mission to save a girl who is hanging from a cliff in her car. There were some sticky situations like claustrophobic areas for the helicopter to fly in, making the job a lot harder. 

I liked this part of the movie because it tells the audience who Ray is, what his job is and it doesn't take so long to see some action, thrilling scenes of the movie. It was cheesy at times with the ridiculous flying removers in tight spaces but very entertaining. The only thing i found stupid at the start of the movie, is the poor girl who drove off the cliff and then rescued, because she fell like 10000000ft, smashing her head and body every where & she survives it, survives it!! 

When Ray gets home back from his impossible heroic job, the movie explains to us how he is also a family man, a family man who just received a letter for a divorce from his ex wife, who he still loves i think. Ray is a man of a lot of memories, good & bad but we will get in to that later. Ray also has a gorgeous daughter named Blake, who he make plans to take her some where as she asks him to.

The First Earthquake

In the movie they reveal a Seismologist (Studies Earthquakes), Lawrence, who is out in the field studying and testing his new equipment out to anticipate future earthquakes. As Lawrence and one of his team members are at the Hoover dam studying minor earth quakes for analysis, his team member who is under the dam gets a unusual spike reading from his new equipment, telling him that a earthquake is about to happen, which did.

The first earthquake is now happening as he predicted, but he is in a sticky situation as he is under the dam whilst the earthquake is going on. He soon gets out and is now running towards Lawrence who is screaming at people to get off the dam to safety. His partner now running towards him with a little girl who he just rescued on the way, throws her towards Lawrence as the dam opens up beneath him and catches his foot, impaling him. Lawrence and his partner have a massive crack between them both, stopping Laurence from helping him, but it would of been impossible because the whole bridge just got destroyed, ripping his partner away with the fast current of the ripping water.

This part of the movie made me squint as i seen his foot get impaled straight through a metal rod. Image being Lawrence and seeing your friend in pain and not being able to do anything about it. Plus image seeing one of the biggest dams in the world get destroyed like it was nothing.

Ray has just canceled his plans with his daughter Blake, due to the earthquake, he is now required at his job to go out and rescue people. Blake fully understand the situation as she can see how horrific the earthquake was on the news. 

The Second Earthquake

Now Ray is in his helicopter on his way to rescue some people, but as hes flying a second earthquake appears and his family is caught in the disaster.

His daughter who is travelling with her mothers new boyfriend is in the building he works at. As they are about to leave the building through underground garage, they get caught in the 2nd earthquake which traps Blake's legs in the car and her new mothers boyfriend goes off to find help, but actually doesn't go back to her. What a coward! Luckily for Blake, two British brothers save her from the wreckage and the three of them stumble out from the collapsing building.

Rays ex wife, Emma, who is in a very tall building, meeting her new boyfriends sister for the first time. The awkwardness of the meeting is interrupted by a phone call from Ray but that is also interrupted by the earthquake and all panic breaks loose around the room. Emma, who is still on the phone to Ray gets told to go to the roof, so Ray can pick her up in the chopper. If i was Emma i would not run to the roof of a collapsing building, i would run the opposite way! As she struggles to get to the roof, Ray is close by with the chopper an sees Emma. Emma runs to the line from the helicopter and jumps from the collapsing building, leaving an explosion of smoke and dust which covers Rays sight of Emma, but as Ray pulls up the line up from the smoke he sees Emma hanging for life.

Phewwww! That was a close one, but i loved this part as it was very tense and thrilling to watch. Good for Emma though. if it was any other movie/character, they would of gave up and the building would of collapsed with them still inside of it. Not with Emma though, she got bashed around every where and she still came out surviving in a dramatic way. 

As Emma is safely in Rays helicopter, Ray gets a phone call from Blake asking her father to come rescue her and the two British brothers. This is where the baseline of the movie starts, and the ex couple embark on the dangerous journey to go rescue their daughter together. After Two earthquakes, a lot of collapsing buildings and a lot of deaths, it took a while to get to the main reason of the story but it was a entertaining start.

Favorite scenes

My first favorite scene will have to be when Ray rescues his ex wife, Emma. Its thrilling to see someone struggle and come out as a survivor at the end of it all. The tense part of it all was the falling building that were around Emma & Ray making it more pressure-able for them both.

I think my favorite part of the movie is when the ex couple are driving a boat together but then see the tide go out dramatically, meaning there is a tsunami about to happen. 

This next part shocked me because as the tidal wave was coming towards the city, they were driving towards the huge wave with hundreds of other people following them in their boats. I thought this is going to be silly but i was wrong as it was very entertaining and surprising as i wouldn't of thought of driving a boat over a tidal wave.

As they were going over the tidal wave, a huge container ship was coming from the other side which made things a little bit harder for the ex couple.

Conclusion

My experience while watching San Andreas was entertaining and worth the watch. Would i watch it again? probably not, as i wasn't that impressed as i thought it was going to be. San Andreas is the type of film you would watch with you girlfriend/Boyfriend if they haven't seen it yet, or if anything else isn't on TV. 

The characters were average but i don't think they could of been any better due to the personality of the movie. The best thing about the movie was the effects and the 1 original idea to drive over the tidal wave.

Don't let any of my opinions effect your judgement of the film as they are only my thoughts and not facts, so watch the movie yourself and let me know what you think.

Discussion

1. Is San Andreas a good match up against the other two disaster movies?
2. What did you think of the characters/actors?
3. Did you like the story of it all?
4. Was the effects good/bad?
5. Could anything be improved?
6. Do you think San Andreas was a good/bad movie?