Skyscraper Movie Review: Dwayne Johnson Towers Tall in This Middling Action Entertainer

Does The Rock make that jump or not? That's the one question everyone had when we saw that money-shot in the Skyscraper trailer, where Dwayne Johnson takes the leap of faith from that tall crane. After the buddy comedy Central Intelligence, Johnson and director Rawson Marshall Thurber collaborate once again for Skyscraper. Neve Campbell is the female lead. Will The Rock make an entertaining hattrick with Skyscraper after the successes of Rampage and Jumanji? Read our review to find out -

Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) was a former FBI Hostage Ops officer who lost his left leg during a mission. Ten years later, he is happily married to a military surgeon Sarah (Neve Campbell), with two twin daughters of their own. Currently working as a safety expert, Sawyer is invited by a Hong Kong-based businessman Chin Han (Zhao Long Ji) to his city. Han has opened what is touted as the world's tallest, state-of-the-art skyscraper called The Pearl and wants Sawyer to give an expert opinion on the safety measures. Trouble arrives when a few terrorists take over the building and set it on fire. Sawyer, who was out of the building at that time, realises his family is trapped inside and does everything in his power to rescue.

Dwayne Johnson has said in a couple of interviews that Skyscraper is a tribute to Towering Inferno and Die Hard, two movies every Hollywood film-lover considers as classics. Here lies the problem with Skyscraper. As you watch the movie, you can't help but draw parallels with these two films. That's why I found Skyscraper, despite Johnson's charm and a couple of thrilling sequences, to be a rather underwhelming exercise that doesn't have its own legs to stand.

Good points first. If you have not seen either of its inspirations, Skyscraper can be a genially entertaining film for you. At around 102 minutes, the runtime is decent. After a rather tepid start, the movie doesn't waste too much time to get into the action. Thurber's direction is fair enough for a Hollywood big-ticket movie like this. There are a couple of nail-biting scenes like the crane sequence and The Rock trying to rappel down the side of the building to get to some wires. The concept of having Sawyer and Sarah working together to save their family also has its moments.

But even with the family angle, Skyscraper has no heart. The whole 'infiltrators want a MacGuffin so take hostages and set fire to building' situ is just silly and predictable. The villains' description is restricted to 'mercenaries with varied accents and ethnicities'. Roland Moller's Kores Botha is menacing but is no Hans Gruber (even though his send-off is lifted straight from Die Hard). Noah Taylor, who plays Han's lawyer, has 'turncoat' pasted on his forehead the moment we set our eyes on him and he is disposed of away early. The only villain mildly interesting was Hannah Quinlivan as the beautiful but brutal assassin. But even she doesn't get much to do.

Bringing back Towering Inferno and Die Hard into the conversation (sorry, but can't help it), the buildings in these movies are normal structures which make the situations, fire and hostage respectively, sound more perilous. In Skyscraper, the complicated setups of huge turbines and mirror rooms added to make the action thrilling also make the proceedings spurious. And this is a movie about The Rock jumping from a crane to a building with one leg! (Speaking of which, the makers seems to have heeded the Twitter rant on how that jump is impossible and have reduced the distance between the crane and the tower).

There are clichés galore, from Sawyer's asthmatic daughter to a crowd of Chinese people (At least, Skyscraper knows its box office target) cheering every move of the hero. You also know that a simple conversation about cell-rebooting or a room full of mirrors will lead to something crucial later. The CGI is inconsistent. The flames may look real in close shots, but fake in the long ones.

Even Dwayne Johnson's casting is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, he brings enough charm and machismo in a one-note role. Even though there is fatigue rising from seeing him do similar kind of movies, the kind of screen presence Dwayne Johnson brings here is remarkable. And top it all, he is also a good actor. The prosthetic leg-bit is also refreshing whenever the movie feels it's important enough. But by casting him in the lead role, the movie makes the tension nil. You really don't expect The Rock to NOT come out of a perilous situation, legs or no legs. It's great to see Neve Campbell in a movie after such a long time, even though her character breaks no new grounds.

Yay!

- Some thrilling sequences

- The deft direction

- Dwayne Johnson's charisma

- Decent runtime

Nay!

- Lack of general tension

- Silly plot with generic villains

- Inconsistent special effects

- Clichés in galore

Final Thoughts

Skyscraper is a run-of-the-mill big-ticket movie made to appeal all Dwayne Johnson's fans. Nowhere as cheesily entertaining as Rampage or Jumanji, the film is a decent one time watch at best, if you keep your expectations really low.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 19, 2018 08:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).