Skyscraper

This review may contain spoilers!

2018 has been a decidedly bad year for The Rock, first Rampage and now this. I would give Skyscraper a 4/10.

This is very much a generic action blockbuster film, but because of this the strength of the film definitely comes through several technical aspects of production. The cinematography used throughout the film is monolithic, capturing the scale of the setting and the extreme obstacles characters must overcome in order to survive. The fight choreography is another strong element, with the initial grapple between the characters of Will and Ben being the standout for the film. The score is another surprising strength, there is a very melancholy tone amidst the fanfare of the action sequences that sets this apart from more generic blockbuster themes; I also have to commend the song 'Walls' by Jamie N Commons that closes this film rather nicely.

Neve Campbell, who played Sarah Sawyer, has a very compelling romantic connection with Johnson onscreen which makes for a nice husband/wife dynamic; Campbell also has a responsiveness to her role that allows you to see the ex-soldier qualities her character would possess. McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell, who played Georgia Sawyer and Henry Sawyer respectively, have a lot of great energy and really depict the awe of being in a super-structure quite well; Cottrell, in particular, does a great job at presenting his character's struggle with asthma and bravery in the midst of such extreme danger.

However, the best performance came from the leading actor: Dwayne Johnson, who played Will Sawyer. In the first act of the film, Johnson does a fantastic job establishing the family man dynamic, his role is very gentle and even nervous at what the uncertain future may bring. What really separates this performance apart from the rest is how Johnson shows his character to not be initially combat-ready. This is a character who has to react quite hastily at first and only narrowly survives life or death encounters. However, as the film progresses and the stakes are raised Johnson ups the ante, revealing a strength and determination rekindled again within Will Sawyer.

This film has been getting compared a lot to Die Hard and the reason for that is because action features like Skyscraper have been done to death a million times before. There's something very cliche about a protagonist down on his luck or on the outside of the law suddenly being immersed back into an epic struggle. There are a number of sequences within this film that really stretch the limits of belief and are over the top just for the sake of heightening the action. The motivation of the film's antagonist doesn't make a lot of sense, especially considering the lengths he goes to in order to achieve his goal. Special effects pose another problem in this film, specifically how CGI settings don't mix in well with real performers or objects. This creates a pretty serious disparity considering the entire feature is centred around this artificial setting.

Pablo Schreiber, who played Ben, comes into the film quite suddenly and has this friend relationship with Johnson that just exists without much exploration; Schreiber's betrayal and turn to antagonist is pretty predictable and there's no real effort to make this subtle. Noah Taylor and Adrian Holmes, who played Mr Pierce and Ajani Okeke respectively, are very much background supporting roles who primarily fuel exposition; Taylor has gotten a bad habit of being typecast as villains and it's not surprising considering he always tends towards the over the top sinister portrayal. Roland Moller, who played Kores Botha, isn't a very interesting antagonist and seems violent just for violence sake; Moller seems to be the go-to casting for angry mercenary villains with little character motivation at the moment. Byron Mann, who played Inspector Wu, is Skyscraper's answer to extending the runtime; Mann's role is very inactive for most of the film and tends to pose obvious questions that the audience is already asking and aware of. Hannah Quinlivan, who played Xia, is a fairly typical henchman role; she might seem quite badass in fight sequences but her dialogue is cheesy and there's no real substance to her role. Chin Han, who played Zhao Long Ji, is quite monotonous in his delivery crafting a very dry character for the film; Han's role isn't very sympathetic or easy to connect with so it's hard to be engaged by his aspect of the storyline.