Review: ‘The Quake’ combines predictability with some added intensity (Includes first-hand account)

Sequels in the disaster movie genre are infrequent since the same region being hit by a comparable catastrophe or the same person being caught in another calamity is a hard sell for audiences. Moreover, unrelated movies have enough trouble not duplicating each other’s pictures so the prospect of the same team trying to make two distinct films in this category is discouraging. With so many obstacles with which to contend, it’s not surprising so few filmmakers attempt a follow-up to even successful blockbusters. Nonetheless, Norwegian writers John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg have opted to put the protagonist from The Wave at the centre of another impending natural disaster in The Quake.

After the tsunami, Kristian’s (Kristoffer Joner) family went ahead with their plans to move to the city, but he stayed behind. Haunted by the lives he didn’t save that fateful day, Kristian spends his time alone in despair. In the meantime, one of Kristian’s former colleagues has been tracking smaller tremors for months, convinced they’re signs of a larger disaster. It’s been 100 years since Oslo experienced a massive earthquake, but many researchers believe another cataclysmic shift is imminent. Yet, no one heeds their warnings and the city is caught off-guard when the quake hits, destroying buildings and trapping Kristian’s family at the top of a skyscraper.

Once again based on a real possibility, this film is more fantastical than its predecessor and reminiscent of Dwayne Johnson‘s San Andreas in which he also attempts to save his family from a collapsing building. Kristian makes remarkable leaps, swings from unstable tethers and risks falling dozens of stories to his death, all while the building shakes and crumbles beneath him. Consequently, this movie’s melodramatic action is in line with its counterparts, but simultaneously fails to differentiate itself from them.

The evidence of the impending disaster isn’t as compelling as it was previously so the first half of the picture consists of lacklustre phone calls, computer graphs and failed efforts by Kristian to reconnect with his family. Once the massive tremor moves through Oslo, everyone scrambles to react to the dangers it creates. The most gripping scenes take place in an elevator shaft in which the main characters are trapped and injured. Bathed in red light, the urgency of the scenes is intensified. Conversely, due to some unknown floor material, the upper level of the building on which others are stuck is like a deadly slide threatening to toss careless victims over the edge.

Another young woman, Marit (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen), joins the main cast of characters, risking her life for utter strangers. The family resumes their roles competently, though the son (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) has little more than a cameo in the picture while Kristian’s young daughter (Edith Haagenrud-Sande) is entrenched in the film’s action. Nonetheless and somewhat expectedly, this film doesn’t measure up to its predecessor, but still passes for a popcorn action blockbuster.

Oslo will never be the same. #TheQuake pic.twitter.com/n83Z5yVpLZ

— The Quake Movie (@TheQuakeMovie) November 23, 2018

Director: John Andreas Andersen
Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp and Kathrine Thorborg Johansen

Similar Posts

  • Review: Hot Docs finds happiness in less than 60 minutes (Includes first-hand account)

    Happiness comes in many shapes and sizes, as do documentaries. Although the average movie is between 90 and 120 minutes long, a film is considered feature-length at more than 40 minutes. While there aren’t many fictional narratives that hover around this runtime, documentary filmmakers are seemingly more comfortable not padding a picture to reach an unnecessary but more widely accepted duration. The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival‘s “The Pursuit of Happiness” programme includes two of these shorter format movies: Dugma: The Button and Up or Out.

  • Review: TIFF 2019: ‘The Platform’ is a feast of deprivation (Includes first-hand account)

    Trickle down systems are a hierarchal structure in which something — typically information and/or money — begins at the top and is passed through to the bottom, usually reaching its final destination in a vastly reduced state, if at all. Obviously, those above a certain threshold benefit from this arrangement, while those below are keenly aware of its negatives. The goal, of course, is to climb above the line and be one of the advantageous, which can create a cutthroat environment and a by-any-mean-necessary mentality. The Platform takes this construction, but applies it to a month’s food supply in a dystopian future.

  • Review: ‘Kong: Skull Island’ gives the king due respect (Includes first-hand account)

    Before CGI and other technologies existed, filmmakers still sought ways to make the monsters of their imaginations a reality on the big screen. Thus, early creature-based narratives, such as King Kong and Clash of the Titans, were created using stop-motion animation and, later, animatronics were used. Obviously there were limitations to what was possible, particularly regarding the design’s interaction with the actors and sets, but they accomplished a lot with what they had at the time. However, technological advancements have all but made this practical art form archaic. Now that it seems simpler to make these types of movies, many of them have been made again (and in some cases, again and again). Kong: Skull Island is the latest depiction of the colossal ape that first captured audience’s attentions in 1933.