Critical Mass: San Andreas feeds our appetite for destruction

To understand the appeal of a disaster movie like San Andreas, just watch a 7-year-old spend 25 minutes carefully build and balance a towering city of blocks… and then immediately destroy it with a swipe of the arm to see everything come crumbling down. We all like to see the blocks fall down or the sand castle get swamped by a wave. That childhood fascination never goes away.
So when Hollywood pours millions of CGI into wiping out not one but two great American cities, that movie has our immediate attention—no matter if it seems familiar, lacks depth or perspective, and isn’t based in science—DID YOU SEE THAT TSUNAMI RACING TOWARDS SAN FRANCISCO?
San Andreas, directed by Brad Peyton, stars Dwayne Johnson as a heroic fire and rescue pilot who is uniquely positioned to save his almost-ex wife (Carla Gugino) in Los Angeles and their teen daughter (Alexandra Daddario) in San Francisco when a chain reaction of super-quakes unzips California’s major faultline and almost realizes Lex Luthor’s nefarious real estate dream.
Johnson is the perfect actor for this type of move, a toy-like action figure who matches the CGI crumbling blocks. “With his air of alpha-male invincibility, he’s given the chance to step out from the ensemble shadow of the Fast and Furious films and topline his own shock-and-awe laser show,” writes EW’s Chris Nashawaty in his B-minus review of the film. “And while the role isn’t exactly Hamlet, it’s a gig he seems born for.”