This Quake delivers with skill. The build-up to the disaster nicely intensifies with a feeling of dread, and some of the subtlest early effects are the most powerful.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Bilge Ebiri
John Andreas Andersen’s The Quake, a sequel to the excellent 2015 Norwegian disaster film The Wave, should be required viewing for all of today’s Hollywood franchise jockeys. It shows you how to make one of these things without sacrificing your characters’ souls (or your own, for that matter).
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Brad Wheeler
Director Andersen’s pacing is dynamic, allowing white-knuckled viewers to catch their breaths before he takes it away again. This isn’t a sequel, it’s an after-shock – and a doozy at that.
There’s nothing terribly profound or innovative about what The Quake achieves. But like “The Wave” before it, it’s just intelligent and serious enough to give you your escapist cake — deluxe popcorn perils in all their big-screen glory — without making you eat the familiar guilt of empty-calorie overload.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
The Quake offers visceral thrills.
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
When the trouble does hit in this film, it hits hard, at which point all the investment in character pays off.
When the devastating quake finally strikes, it creates a truly suspenseful scenario of vertiginous falls and last-minute saves.
That The Quake can still grab, alarm and thrill is a testament to skilled storytelling, empathetic performances and effects that rewrite the book on how disasters play out on the big screen.
San Francisco Chronicle by Walter Addiego
Joner is a capable actor, but he’s required here to remain for such a long time in a one-note condition of mental fragility that our sympathy for the character starts to give way to exasperation.
The Playlist by Warren Cantrell
With well-staged action, good character work, and believable progressions from the previous installment, The Quake is the sequel that fans of “The Wave” deserve.