High concept films are always a favourite of the Hollywood scene mainly because they are always very popular concepts but also because Hollywood has the necessary facilities, man power, budget and space to make high concept films work really really well.
One such concept is Man Vs Nature in a city life setting. With natural calamities such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves and earthquakes, the plot is always very similar in that the emphasis is on conflict and survival.
Nature certainly gives the team a few challenges in San Andreas, starring the Rock in one of his favourite types of films it seems; i.e: the action adventure film genre. (Journey to the Centre of the Earth for example).
He is very well suited to such roles as the defender of the people with his bulging muscles and inner teddy bear.
The story is familiar: a family with the main characters having their own conflicts to resolve, accompanied by supporting sub-plots. The conflict as always in such natural calamity films is resolved through working together for the common goal of survival. The good become better and the cowards show their true colours under duress. It's reminiscent of Dante's Peak, Titanic and other such films in terms of re hashed story lines.
The conflict resolutions and endings are predictable here but the emotions are powerful and empathy/sympathy is easily drawn out with such plots involving family 'get togethers' and saving the world.
The entertainment value in the film presents itself in the form of rolling falling buildings, explosions, fire and smoke, high water waves, rushed scenes of escape and bright scenes of survival.
The edginess comes from resolving problems as they pile up on our heroes and we are involved as spectators in thinking hard to see what the solutions might be at every calamitous turn.
One original scene at the start of the film involves a hanging high floor door opening as it where to nothingness once the quake starts and once the floors ground and ceiling and all topple to the ground along with the sceptics who refuse to trust the heroes, and who decide instead to go their separate ways into the abyss, instead of following the protagonists to advised safety.
Trust is key in the film and comes up a lot; whom to trust and whether to follow your instincts despite what your head tells you to do.
The emotion climaxes when an old painful memory and a past loss is almost relived by the family and when another member of the family is under the same risks as one already lost. This amplifies the emotions and keeps us at the edge of our seats even if we may guess the ending.
I recommend this film in 3 D as the highlights are the special effects during the action scenes as well as the graphics and the escape stunts which are all well edited.
No gaps in filming and the devil is in the detail so to speak as we see things in small detail from all angles: from above, below, sideways, centre frame most of the time or from a bird's eye view perspective quite often. Things, objects come at us at incredible speed to add to the believable value of fiction filming.
Man Versus Nature brings us back to basics. What matters are people, family survival, character and most of all Love. What matters less are objects even whole cities which are made but can be remade.
Moses had the mountains, villages had a few wooden saloons and cities or future cities can be brought back to essentials too when Nature reminds people of how far they have gone but also of what's important and of how fragile city structures and the abstracts really are.
Basically, basics are where it's at and people make cities, not the other way round. Nature Rules!
(I am tempted to do a Rolling Stones gesture here with both face and hands to emphasise that scary as it may be Nature Rocks!)
One such concept is Man Vs Nature in a city life setting. With natural calamities such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves and earthquakes, the plot is always very similar in that the emphasis is on conflict and survival.
Nature certainly gives the team a few challenges in San Andreas, starring the Rock in one of his favourite types of films it seems; i.e: the action adventure film genre. (Journey to the Centre of the Earth for example).
He is very well suited to such roles as the defender of the people with his bulging muscles and inner teddy bear.
The story is familiar: a family with the main characters having their own conflicts to resolve, accompanied by supporting sub-plots. The conflict as always in such natural calamity films is resolved through working together for the common goal of survival. The good become better and the cowards show their true colours under duress. It's reminiscent of Dante's Peak, Titanic and other such films in terms of re hashed story lines.
The conflict resolutions and endings are predictable here but the emotions are powerful and empathy/sympathy is easily drawn out with such plots involving family 'get togethers' and saving the world.
The entertainment value in the film presents itself in the form of rolling falling buildings, explosions, fire and smoke, high water waves, rushed scenes of escape and bright scenes of survival.
The edginess comes from resolving problems as they pile up on our heroes and we are involved as spectators in thinking hard to see what the solutions might be at every calamitous turn.
One original scene at the start of the film involves a hanging high floor door opening as it where to nothingness once the quake starts and once the floors ground and ceiling and all topple to the ground along with the sceptics who refuse to trust the heroes, and who decide instead to go their separate ways into the abyss, instead of following the protagonists to advised safety.
Trust is key in the film and comes up a lot; whom to trust and whether to follow your instincts despite what your head tells you to do.
The emotion climaxes when an old painful memory and a past loss is almost relived by the family and when another member of the family is under the same risks as one already lost. This amplifies the emotions and keeps us at the edge of our seats even if we may guess the ending.
I recommend this film in 3 D as the highlights are the special effects during the action scenes as well as the graphics and the escape stunts which are all well edited.
No gaps in filming and the devil is in the detail so to speak as we see things in small detail from all angles: from above, below, sideways, centre frame most of the time or from a bird's eye view perspective quite often. Things, objects come at us at incredible speed to add to the believable value of fiction filming.
Man Versus Nature brings us back to basics. What matters are people, family survival, character and most of all Love. What matters less are objects even whole cities which are made but can be remade.
Moses had the mountains, villages had a few wooden saloons and cities or future cities can be brought back to essentials too when Nature reminds people of how far they have gone but also of what's important and of how fragile city structures and the abstracts really are.
Basically, basics are where it's at and people make cities, not the other way round. Nature Rules!
(I am tempted to do a Rolling Stones gesture here with both face and hands to emphasise that scary as it may be Nature Rocks!)
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