SKYSCRAPER

Film Review by FIORE

Like movies with impossible stunts, continuous action and a strong message in support of the traditional family unit?  If so, SKYSCRAPER, the latest endeavor from Dwayne Johnson, is for you.  This is the epitome of popcorn movies.  Forget gaping holes in the plot, nonsensical building climbing escapades and the ability to shrug off fatal wounds with a shaking of the head and shoulders.  This movie isn’t meant to make sense.  Its meant to keep you on the edge of your seat, elicit screen calls from folk who don’t get out too often, and have everyone rooting for the good guys and booing the bad guys.  In all those categories, SKYSCRAPER succeeds. 

If you are old enough to remember the Irwin Allen disaster flicks of the 1970’s, then you’ll recognize many of those same elements in SKYSCRAPER.  Johnson plays Will Sawyer.  He is an ex-special ops, ex-FBI agent who now heads a small security business.  He is asked by his longtime friend Ben, played by Pablo Schreiber,  to report on security measures for a new building construction in Hong Kong which promises to be the world’s tallest, yet most efficient structure.  Naturally, while he is inspecting the building, a group of nefarious no goods decent to stage an all out assault on the structure.  Will must deal with treachery, save his family, and get out of the towering inferno (sorry, could not resist).

The acting is fairly standard for this genre of film.  Johnson is The Rock, his in ring persona, mixing bravado with smarminess.  Neve Campbell is finally screaming for different reasons as Will’s wife, Sarah.  Roland Moller is Kores Botha, the antagonist.  He displays all the necessary evilness, and nothing more.  Also along for the adventure are:  Noah Taylor; McKenna Roberts; Kevin Rankin; Byron Mann; Matt O’Leary and Hannah Quinlivan.  Movies like SKYSCRAPER do not require amazing thespian skills.  Most of the characters are second fiddle to the stunts and this holds true as the cast offers yeoman duty on all parts. 

Rawson Marshall Thurber, a member of the dreaded three-name people,  pens a script that forces the viewer to leave logic in the back pocket.  Will may be ex-special ops, but that certainly doesn’t explain how, when disaster hits, he is an aerial rescue specialist.  Nor does it explain how he can read the Chinese symbols on the control units, but can’t speak the language. 

Will continuously needs to perform Herculean tasks outside of the burning building.  Why?  It is never explained, other than to give the SFX guys multiple orgasms.  And the lack of explanation is crucial, because the outside building thrills have different feels.  This is due to the use of two editors, Julian Clarke and Michael L. Sale.  There is a different texture and structure to these scenes, depending on who did the editing.  How they are assembled makes the difference between tense action and ridiculousness. 

The camera work by Robert Elswit is top notch.  I saw the film in standard 2D, but an IMAX 3D version is available, which certainly would be more impressive. The fight scene in the apartment has the least amount of photographic magic but is without doubt the best scene in the film.  Go figure.

Ever since Bruce lee fought Han in the room of mirrors in ENTER THE DRAGON, the mirror finale is a staple in action films.  Even John Wick utilized it.  No surprise, therefore, that the conclusion of SKYSCRAPER gives a nod to the King of Kung Fu.  The climax occurs in a room filled with mirrors, TV cameras and digital screens.  It’s an upgrade, but somewhere Bruce is smiling.

Leave credulity at the door.  Grab your popcorn and be prepared to gasp, cheer and yell at the Silver Screen as Johnson makes a mega-hit out of a mediocre script.  SKYSCRAPER is a summer hoot.  See it on the big screen.