Review of Skyscraper (2018) by Donald R — 20 Jul 2018

The man, the myth, the legend is back for the second time this year and like Rampage, Skyscraper is another dumb but fun action movie starring Dwayne Johnson, however a little less amusing than his previous outing.

Visually the movie is pretty good, the cinematography is well done and helps the intensity of scenes when flames close in; the fire seemed realistic. Also, there is one room in the skyscraper utilized plot-wise late in the film that has an interesting effect, visually it is a cool idea. Another plus for the film were its stunts; there are some moments where our main character Will Sawyer (Johnson) is shown doing some pretty crazy stuff to get to his family and he also has a fight scene between Pablo Schreiber's character early on which is fun to watch. And of course, my favorite part of the movie was Dwayne Johnson himself, he is obviously the true draw of the film. Sure, the movie has an interesting concept it plays with (but is never smart enough to truly tap its potential) but getting to watch 'The Rock' is what I actually paid for; Johnson delivers his fair share of one liners and plays off his fictional family well, but unfortunately the script doesn't allow him to show off his charisma as much.

Where the movie fails or is subpar is in about every other aspect. The writing is lacking, the stakes aren't close to high enough, the antagonists are throwaways, and the movie takes forever to reveal why everything is happening only to develop a forgettable plot device which the bad guys are after. I never believed anyone important was in danger and why should've I? The movie fails to take any real risks. There is also one scene when Johnson is climbing on the building that totally reminded me of the one from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Skyscraper is dumb fun but fails to ever reach its sky-high ambitions.