This film has some solid acting performances, good action, cool stunts, but suffers from an average plot.
Skyscraper is the newest Dwayne Johnson action movie directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the action/thriller debut. The official plot is as follows:
Former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) now assesses security for skyscrapers. He’s on assignment in China when he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze, and he’s been framed for it. A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family, who are trapped inside the building, above the fire line.
Looking at the director’s background with movies such as Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and We’re The Millers I assumed that Skyscraper would be an action comedy, though while there is some humor sprinkled here and there the focus of this movie is the action and story. I was not a fan of Central Intelligence (Thurber’s last film, also starring the Rock) and was happy to see that this movie had gone in a different direction. Skyscraper aimed to be a serious action thriller and it came pretty close to succeeding. The concept of the plot is pretty solid, a tried and true story and I have no complaints with that, it was an interesting idea. The performances across the board are good to acceptable there were no actors that I thought did poorly. Dwayne Johnson was a great lead, he was charismatic and fun to watch throughout the film. Though where this film went wrong was its plot outside of the concept. Things just seem to happen without reason, characters have goals without explanation, the overall plot just didn’t make a lot of sense.
For example, at the end of the movie, I still couldn’t tell you who the terrorists were and why they were attacking this building. It is explained that Zhao Long Ji (the billionaire who built the skyscraper) had some sort of data drive that the terrorist’s employer wanted. Though we do not know anything about the employer or what was on the drive. Another thing that didn’t make much sense, as mentioned in the official plot above, Sawyer was framed for the attack. Though it seemed to have come completely out of left field, we don’t know why the authorities suddenly believe that Sawyer is the one behind the attack. For one brief action set piece Sawyer being framed poses as an issue, though in the very next scene involving the police they decide that he isn’t being it. The framing subplot was so short that I don’t believe it was truly necessary. Throughout the film, there were moments and choices that I just didn’t understand the reasoning behind. There was one scene early in the film that revealed that a hall of mirrors could rise from the floor on the top floor. This feature seemed to make no sense in the context of the film, I did not understand for what reason a skyscraper would have a hall of mirrors in it. But it served as the setting for the most entertaining scene of the movie.
*Slight spoilers* For the final showdown, Zhao Long Ji, Will Sawyer, and Will’s Daughter are separated from one another trapped inside of this room of mirrors along with the remaining terrorists. No one knows where anyone is and no one can tell if they are looking at an actual person or a reflection. This entire scene is full of high tension suspense and was very well done. Suspense is one thing Thurber did pretty well in this movie. There are a few scenes in which we see the Rock perform some incredible stunts and despite knowing that he isn’t going to die, the scenes are still suspenseful and fun to watch.
The CGI in this movie was pretty fantastic. It wasn’t quite like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom which looked just breathtaking. Though the CGI was completely immersive. Despite there being multiple scenes of CG environments, not once did it take me out of the experience. The quality of the Blu-Ray was really good but the picture quality of the 4K disc was great. I really don’t have any complaints about this movie other than the plot occasionally not making the most sense.
Overall: This film has some solid acting performances, good action, cool stunts, but suffers from an average plot.
