Bad ‘San Andreas’ Reviews Can’t Stop Audiences From Filling Theaters To See The Rock

The reviews of San Andreas are in. Almost every critic is giving this film a harsh, scathing treatment courtesy of a Brillo pad. Why have the San Andreas reviews been so awful? Because critics aren’t seeing things from a moviegoers perspective. That’s why they all seem to be in agreement with each other, and totally out of agreement with the scores of people turning San Andreas into a box office hit.

The reviews may just be a way for critics to communicate with each other. It’s all opinion and perspective. By giving universally bad reviews to a film praised by moviegoers, they expose how out of touch they are. If this movie sucks as much as critics say, what accounts for the steady flow of people seeing San Andreas?

Though San Andreas was the top movie of the weekend, you’ll still read critics saying things like this Wall Street Journal writer.

“San Andreas changes all too quickly from satisfyingly foolish to dismayingly dumb to genuinely stupid. The movie only looks like an epic spectacle of a nation-size state reduced to rubble.”

So what is that saying about all those who bought tickets? Rolling Stone also proceeds to look at the exercise in mental futility that watching this film became.

“I digress, mostly because there’s nothing to keep the pulse alive after the first quake. Peyton throws in a second quake and a tsunami, but after a while buildings tumbling into the ocean are just a bunch of pixels turning everything into visual mush and leaving audiences in a digital stupor.”

So who are these reviews aimed at, if not the scores of people seeing this? Perhaps all these people don’t read reviews anymore. Or maybe it’s because even bad reviews won’t keep them from The Rock.

San Andreas takes into account what is somewhat in the realm of possibility and gives it cinematic life. It makes you think what would happen if there really were earthquakes and tsunamis wrecking California. Why do we like these kinds of films? Maybe something hard to live through is enjoyable to watch when framed within a story of triumph. It could also be that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has an untouchable film presence that can’t be ignored.

Every movie has to have a focus. And in this case, that focus obviously wasn’t on the critics. Despite San Andreas‘ reviews, people aren’t listening. They’re standing by The Rock.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]