‘Skyscraper’ Review

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has become one of the ultimate movie stars of the 21st century. His movies perform extremely well at the box office to the point that many studios will put Johnson in their film just because they know that people will go see a movie that has Johnson in it. 

However, when an actor is appearing in so many different movies, eventually some of them are going to be forgettable. That happened with Rampage earlier this year, and unfortunately, Skyscraper is a similar case.

Plot

A huge skyscraper has been built that is the tallest in the world and has a ton of cool, unique features. Will Sawyer( Dwayne Johnson) has been hired to operate security for the building, so he and his family come to live within the building. When terrorists take over the building and trap Will’s family inside the building, Will must figure out a way to climb inside the building and save his family.

Characters

The characters in this movie are really just archetypes of other characters that I’ve seen before. The performances are fine, it’s just that their characters do not feel very unique. Johnson is good in his role as usual. He uses the traditional charisma and charm that makes him such a star. 

However, his character is basically just super dad. He needs to save his wife and kids, and luckily since he is The Rock, he can do whatever it takes to do it. His character does have a prosthetic leg and the film actually does find some interesting ways to use this element.

Neve Campbell plays his wife and she is good. She and Johnson have really good chemistry throughout and they actually provide a good relationship that you want to cheer for. She is given a good amount to do and has some of her own moments to shine. I also thought the kids played by McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell both gave very good performances. The family dynamic in this movie is actually pretty good.

The other characters in this film are very forgettable. The villain is played by Roland Moller and there is nothing really interesting about his character. He feels like any basic villain from any other action movie. He has no complexity nor any interesting motivations. 

He also doesn’t feel very menacing since there is nothing unique about his character. There is another assassin character who basically feels like a typical John Wick villain. Nothing is interesting about her, but she has some cool scenes.

Direction

Skyscraper is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, but there’s nothing really unique about his direction. The action scenes are very standard and there isn’t enough to keep you gripped to the edge of your seat. This film felt like it copied from a bunch of other films but didn’t do enough to make it feel original. Most of the film is Johnson trying to get up, down, or into the building and it started to feel repetitive.

I will say that the CGI in this film is actually pretty good. The effects throughout are decent and do a good job at making you feel that you are as high up as Johnson is. The building itself is really cool. It has an interesting design and a lot of unique features, however, Thurber fails to utilize them until the end of the film. 

The final fight is the only sequence that feels unique, but there isn’t much tension because it’s easily predictable and the villains aren’t drawn out enough to feel threatening.

Final Thoughts

Skyscraper is an entertaining movie, but it is very standard. There are not enough unique elements in this film to make it feel different and the characters are very plain. The film does do a good job at making you care about Johnson and his family. 

However, the villains are extremely cliche and don’t do anything interesting. The action scenes can be cool at times, but still feel subpar to other action movies that do it better. I enjoyed myself while watching it, but I don’t think I’m going to remember it in a year.

2.5/5