Skyscraper ascends alongside Will Sawyer, a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran who assesses security for skyscrapers after a traumatic event leads to his leg being amputated. While on assignment in Hong Kong, the tallest and safest building in the world is suddenly set ablaze. Since Sawyer was entrusted with evaluating the building's security system, he's framed for the arson. Determined to clear his name, Sawyer scales the building to find those responsible and somehow rescue his family who are trapped inside the building.
Concerning performances, there's obviously no awards-worthy acting on display, but they ranged from okay-to-good. These days, every character played by "The Rock" is basically a slight variation on Johnson's public persona. In Skyscraper's case, Johnson doesn't do much to differentiate Sawyer from himself, but he's incredibly charismatic and demonstrates some dramatic acting rarely seen from him. Opposite Johnson, Neve Campbell plays Sawyer's wife Sarah and refreshingly was not a damsel-in-distress like I suspected. She actually gets to mix in the action and contribute to the plot a bit beyond being Sawyer's primary motivation, and I felt Campbell performed admirably with what she was given. I also bought into her relationship with "The Rock" on account of their chemistry.
The young actors McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell portraying Sawyer's children did a solid job, although I didn't quite believe their connection to Sawyer. In their scenes together, it came across as "The Rock" interacting with random children whom he had no previously established connection. So basically what it was actually like when he met them for the first time in real life... Otherwise, just about every other actor plays a fairly forgettable part. The villain in particular was quite underwhelming due to lacking screen time and a delayed revelation of his motivation.
As you probably expected, Skyscraper is yet another ridiculous action movie that coasts on the Rock's charisma. There's certainly fun to be had, provided you turn off your brain beforehand, but you'd be better off waiting to stream or catch it on cable in a few months. Perhaps, it would simply be best for you to stay home and watch Die Hard in honor of its 30th anniversary rather than drive to the theater to lose brain cells seeing this riff on beloved action classics.
Hot off the heels of Central Intelligence, Skyscraper stands as the second collaboration between writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber and sensational movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I don't know if it's just me, but I often see the term "comic-book movie fatigue" thrown about when a new superhero film is set to release. Said film winds up performing admirably at the box office and the articles stop till the next comic-book adaptation comes around. Well, I think I might have "Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson movie" fatigue... "The Rock" has headlined 16 films in the last 5 years (3 of which were released within the last 7 months), and I've noticed that most of these films have proven to be sub-par and rely almost exclusively on Johnson's star-power. Maybe this could be helped if he picked better projects or at least worked with more exciting directors, but I suppose it's all dumb PG-13 action flicks in the foreseeable future.
Ever since the marketing campaign kicked off at this year's Super Bowl, comparisons have been drawn to action films from the '70s and '80s. Whether this was planned well in advance by the marketing team or not, the marketing embraced these films as sources of inspirations and released posters homaging both Die Hard and The Towering Inferno (The Meg has done the same thing with Jaws, but we'll get there in a few weeks). This did not really help Johnson's case because I've expected Skyscraper to merely be a dumbed-down Die Hard for the last five months. While I was certainly right, Skyscraper wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. The most aggravating bits are its derivative copy+paste plot structure, uninspired action, and its insistence on throwing logic out the window.
There's a lot in Skyscraper that didn't make a lick of sense, and this review would be excessively long if I were to discuss it all, but Thurber likely expects the audience to suspend disbelief based on their affinity for "The Rock." Therefore, I'll narrow it down to Johnson's two most unbelievable feats. These being how quickly Sawyer climbs a crane to get into the burning building (accomplished in mere minutes) and the infinitely inconceivable uses of duct tape. Yes, duct tape plays a major role in Skyscraper... So substantial that I'm surprised it wasn't able to negotiate second billing underneath "The Rock" on the poster. I'll just say I'm unsure that I've ever seen more overt, misleading product placement in a movie because it's brought up quite frequently in dialogue and utilized by "The Rock" even more often.
Speaking of marketability, Skyscraper is clearly designed to flourish in the Chinese market on account of the country's rapidly growing population and increased contribution to the global box office. Not only is the flick set in Hong Kong, but there are quite a few recognizable Chinese actors starring as well. Legendary Pictures and Universal Studios must have had a huge say-so in the early stages of Skyscraper's pre-production at the very least.
In regards to action, it's mostly close quarters combat or some sort-of shoot-out. This can be quite repetitive in addition to all the jumping, dangling, and hanging off buildings that "The Rock" partakes in. Thurber admittedly makes good use of the setting to intensify Sawyer's miscellaneous set of circumstances, but he never pushes the boundaries to do anything particularly new or noteworthy with the premise. Thurber mostly rehashes action beats popularized by other films, but fails to improve upon them or differentiate at all. Skyscraper's lack of originality is truly its biggest letdown.
One area that was frustratingly unexplored was Sawyer's disability. Sawyer's prosthetic leg rarely challenges him, and is actually a hand-dandy tool for "The Rock" to wield on occasion. Till the leg is shown again, you almost forget it's a part of Will Sawyer's character due to its underplayed importance. The prosthetic leg mostly functions as a means to draw out tension from time-to-time and doesn't really have much bearing on the character.
On that note, the narrative is riddled with paper-thin characters and contrived scenes. Over the course of the hour and forty two minute runtime, the characters hardly experience any growth and end almost exactly as they started. There's also one scene towards the beginning which showcases a technological innovation with no practical purpose. Of course, it later circles back to serve as an exciting setting to the third act showdown, but was otherwise pointless.
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