In a match between a supremely catastrophic California earthquake and the former wrestling star turned movie action hero Dwayne Johnson, who are you going to bet on? For movie purpose, the latter, of course. Since we are all agreed on that, I suppose it spoils nothing to inform you that there is almost nothing surprising about San Andreas. Kind of noteworthy, if not actually remarkable, then, is that the movie actually works as well as it does, offering up suspense set pieces that are genuinely suspenseful despite one’s security that everyone in the top billed cast that we are supposed to take care about will be okay. The direction by Brad Peyton is particularly effective during the brisk scenes of disaster, from the felling of Hoover Dam to the snapping of the Golden Gate Bridge. I am not sure whether it is editing or my own willing suspension of disbelief but the CGI manufactured scenes of mass destruction are among the most realistic in this mode I had ever seen.