Universal Pictures
I was a kid during the ‘Golden Age of Disaster Movies’© of the 1970s. Airport really launched the all-star disaster epic, but it was The Poseidon Adventure which took disaster movies to the next level. That was followed by The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, but a succession of cheaply-made disaster movies with B-level stars (or badly slumming A-listers like Paul Newman and Sean Connery) helped the genre quickly peter out. There wasn’t another really good disaster movie until Daylight in 1996 (a very underrated film with a great cast that captures the spirit of the best of the 70s epics). Of course, in the 70s they had to create disaster effects on set and with models. No CGI then, but the rise of CGI effects that allows filmmakers to create just about anything has helped revive the disaster movie genre (and movies that feature intense scenes of disaster). But putting together a disaster movie with eight or more of today’s biggest stars would probably be a budget buster.
So we have Dwayne Johnson now, and he’s apparently the only star a disaster movie needs. He saved his family from ‘the big one’ in San Andreas (while conveniently overlooking the millions of others who apparently perished during the quakes and floods), and he probably should have been on hand for Geostorm. But he’s back in a new disaster film — of sorts — with Skyscraper. Johnson plays Will Sawyer, a former SWAT team member whose leg was blown off during a hostage situation. Another survivor, Ben (Pablo Schreiber), puts in a good word for Will with his employer to check out a new skyscraper’s safety systems to confirm it is safe to open. Will and his family are the only occupants on the 97th floor, actually the only occupants of the residential level at all. The building’s owner, Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han), lives in the penthouse above the 200th floor.
After Will confirms the building is safe to open, he finds himself double-crossed by his friend who is actually working for Kores Botha (Roland Møller), an ‘associate’ of Zhao who had helped get the tower financed through very shady means and was shaking him down until it go to the point where Zhao stopped paying him off. So, of course, the only way to get him back is to burn down his billion dollar building, all in an effort to get his hands on Zhao’s flash drive that contains all of the names of the shady investors. The only problem is Will’s family was supposed to be at the zoo to see the pandas (the movie takes place in Hong Kong) but his young son ate something and got sick so they came home early and found themselves caught in the inferno. But with the bad guys using Will’s log in information to turn off the safety measures, he becomes the prime suspect … even though he’s going to great heights to save his family. But some bad planning and a not very well thought out plan traps not only Will’s family, but Zhao, a few of his associates and the bad guys all above the fire line. The question is who will make it out alive?
Skyscraper isn’t a terrible movie at all. It’s ridiculous at times because Johnson is an Energizer bunny that never stops and can seemingly defy gravity. But you don’t go to see a movie like this for scientific accuracy. Do you? I go to turn off my brain for a little while and marvel at the effects and stunts. On that count, the movie scores an A+. You know that it’s all done with sets, green screens and CGI, but there are still some moments that will have your heart leap out of your chest. It is a bit like The Towering Inferno, just with far fewer people.
Of course the movie also has a Die Hard aspect to it as well with Johnson in the Bruce Willis role and Møller a less sophisticated criminal than Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. The whole plot to steal Zhao’s flash drive seemed really far-fetched, especially knowing that he did have an escape plan. The real head-scratching part of all this is why Zhao doesn’t use that escape plan when it becomes very clear the building’s fire suppression system is not working. He doesn’t believe the fire will climb 100 floors but any rational person would have gotten out of there at the first sign of trouble. To have a character make a bad decision just to serve a plot point is just lazy writing. It was also aggravating to have the police constantly questioning Sawyer’s integrity as he attempts to get back into the building. Even after it’s made clear to them that he didn’t set the fire and shut down the systems, they still have their doubts.
That aside, Johnson does what he does best as far as the physicality of the role. He doesn’t have any snappy one-liners here, he’s more a straightforward action hero. Neve Campbell plays his wife Sarah and she also does a nice job of being the loving wife and mother, but she’s never a damsel in distress. When the going gets rough and the bad guys come calling, the tiger mom comes out and she’s not someone you want to mess with (and it helps that her character is given a military background). Everyone else is fine, they do their jobs, but Møller is more a henchman than a criminal mastermind. When your character immediately makes audiences think of Hans Gruber, you have a lot to live up to and Møller just isn’t given that much to work with.
But, Johnson and the effects team are the real stars of Skyscraper and they deliver enough action to help you forgive some of the movie’s more implausible moments. It’s definitely worth a look if you’re into this kind of movie, and I have to add that it really feels like a movie that should be seen in 3D. Unfortunately the press screening was not, but I could tell that the effect would have added so much more to the tension as Johnson is dangling high above the streets of Hong Kong.
Skyscraper has a run time of 1 hour 42 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of gun violence and action, and for brief strong language.
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