Skyscraper

I went to see Skyscraper wanting a prosthetic-leg-yielding Dwayne Johnson version of Die Hard; instead, I witnessed Writer-Director Rawson Marshall Thurber's dull attempt to rehash Die Hard's beats without any sense of character development. This film tried to make "The Rock" seem like an “average Joe,” but also add in gun shots, fire, and fist fights to keep the audience's attention. The atmosphere and production was solidly developed, but the story had flickers of good moments that sadly could not ignite the dull picture as a whole.

How Thurber directed this film was very well done. If you are afraid of heights, there are several scenes that will genuinely make you uncomfortable, and how an action scene sets up a conflict consistently has its paybacks. Every time Dwayne Johnson’s character is trying to solve his way to find his family, that is where the directing and production excels. The way he solves problems and wings it when his plans fall through was very well done and gave a sense of realism to his motives. Thurber uses wide shots and reference shots of the skyscraper with the characters in frame so I always knew where everyone was and how drastic the situation was growing. He knows how to create the look and frame of a film, but what goes inside that frame is what is important.

The spotlight, both narratively and cinematically, is on Dwayne Johnson’s character. How the conflict wraps around him in the beginning was cleverly written, but when the story reaches the peak of its thrills, it throws away any emotional connection. The slow beginning did not engage me—especially after 29 minutes of trailers—and the opening scene failed to give any weight on a terrifying experience for the main character. The beats of the story are solid, the protagonist is clearly fleshed out with an intense performance by the actor, but there is no connection. The family dynamic is cute at best but spirals into the cliché, and unlike Die Hard, it is never in jeopardy of falling apart. The police/ detective on ground level investigating the case adds nothing to the story, only to give the wife a reason to stay on screen. The villain, also, lacked any depth or emotion; he shows up to break some things, take what he needs, and get out. He has no inner need to send his men against Dwayne Johnson because they rarely oppose each other's motives. In reality, what this film does best is making the physical skyscraper the true antagonist of the story, but because of this fantastic aspect of the film, Dwayne Johnson has little to no conflict towards the terrorists with guns.

The director’s goal of this film was to humble the Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson, but he did not have a plan from there, and that is what drags this film under the sea of other action blockbusters. The skyscraper itself is creative and has a physical presence as it fights against the human characters, and a one-legged Dwayne Johnson has a few creative solutions to his problems 200 stories in the air, but there is a lack of humanity and change by the time the credits roll. Overall, I wanted to have fun with a bad film this weekend, like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but left disappointed.

Story Rating: 4/10

Character Rating: 4/10