
The film follows the story of Ray (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). He's a rescue chopper pilot with more than 300 confirmed rescues, although beneath all that, Ray is nothing more than a family man. Not quite over the death of his eldest daughter, Ray decides to spend more time with his other daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario), but their time together is cut short after a series of ground shaking earthquakes occur. They're the largest ever recorded earthquakes and the result is whatever a $100 million budget can make. His family split all over the city, Ray takes action, going in search of his wife (Carla Gugino) and daughter.
It's a ridiculous, cheesy and over the top movie that, thanks to the Rock, actually manages to be occasionally entertaining. Don't get me wrong, this film can be god-awful at times, bringing in all the worst dialogue imaginable, but when the destruction is on screen, the film can also be a lot of fun. It's cheese at its finest and this cheese is topped off with a bit of muscular charisma. The film is nuts, but it knows its nuts and it embraces that, bringing us a breath taking scene involving a tsunami. The action is fun, even if the special effects are of varying qualities.
As for the characters, they're just as bad. Literally every character in this movie is a character from another movie. We've got the scientist who knew this was going to happen, the big, badass dad, the daughter going off to college, the wife who's dating a douchebag but doesn't realise it, and a random love interest the daughter meets just before the destruction. Sound familiar? That's because it's from every disaster movie ever made. Nothing about this film screams original. Not even the disaster sequences do, and that's saying something.