There is something that drives this reviewer nuts and it happens quite frequently with big summer aspiring blockbusters. When a movie takes the audiences’ collective intelligence for granted, it undermines the entire (and expensive) effort that is a popcorn flick. That is so not the case with the latest action vehicle starring Dwayne Johnson, Skyscraper.
Johnson is a former FBI agent turned security expert, Will Sawyer. He is in Hong Kong with his twin kids—Georgia (McKenna Roberts) and Henry (Noah Cottrell)—as well as his wife Sarah (a nice to see on the big screen Neve Campbell) to assess the security challenges for The Pearl. It is a skyscraper that measures the largest in the world. The Pearl is essentially a vertical city and as Johnson says in the Skyscraper trailer, its security issues mirror those that accompany a large metropolitan area.
After his presentation, he is taken to the off-site security office to finalize his approval for the towering technological envelope-pushing architectural marvel. It is there that this dream opportunity becomes a nightmare for not only Sawyer, but his entire family who are stuck on the 96th floor of a building that is rapidly becoming a sky-high inferno.
Making matters worse is the nefarious folks behind this arson fueled vendetta against the building’s tech titan billionaire owner have framed Sawyer for what is going on at the world’s tallest tower. Haven’t villains learned anything?! Don’t get in the way of any parent striving to save their family first, and secondly, an individual seeking to clear his name and make a wrong right.
Johnson has become an international action acting genius and as his box office position has inched ever higher with each successive hit, he has been afforded the ability to influence the behind-the-scenes decisions on his movies. As each has proven, that is a good thing. The Rock knows his audience and delivers what they want as they always are interested in what he is cooking up cinematically. Where many aspirant action blockbusters go wrong is they overlook the little things that tie everything together. If enough of those are strewn throughout a filmmaking effort, it can literally take the viewers out of the action set pieces that thrill and that is a death knoll to the story as a whole.
Skyscraper dots all its I’s and crosses its T’s. Plot twists and turns can be traced to events or dialogue that happened earlier. Thus, the creative team behind this thrill-fest have afforded themselves the priceless opportunity to have all those who experience the movie rollercoaster be vested in what matters most—caring about the characters at the heart of the tale and have that all-important ire directed towards its antagonists.
Credit should be triumphantly lauded on the shoulder of writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story). He delivers a crisp, ever pulsating actioner that reminds us why we adore this beloved (and uber profitable) movie group. The film also allows its audience to breathe with emotive scenes that do not take anything away from the movie’s momentum—a rarity in thrillers these days. In fact, it does the opposite. Those quick instances add layers of connection between those sitting in the theater’s seats and those laying it on the line on the screen. Of particular note are scenes between Sarah and Will (weather in person or via phone or video chat), the tech billionaire Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han) and Will, and of course those that include our hero and his children.
A film like this is also only as good as its villain. What is fascinating about the one burning a Hong Kong skyscraper to the ground is that there is just enough vitriol driving Kores Botha (Roland Møller) for us to be intensely engaged in his voracious villainy. The movie clocks in at a summer movie friendly one hour and 49 minutes. All the exposition, backstory and other plot elements that keep us engaged and emotionally attached are included without losing one ounce of audience attention. Who the villain is and why he is executing this wicked plan is not complicated. Too many big budget flicks get mired in a menagerie of what filmmakers perceive as necessary explanations for characters’ collective actions.
That takes away from that invaluable and frenzied forward motion that makes the best films in this genre work and beloved.
Johnson is not only firmly in his element but executes his action sequences with the same intense attention to detail as he does those (somewhat!) quieter moments. The actor does not necessarily go deep in Skyscraper, but this tale is one that requires it. There are a bevy of instances where jaws will be intensely dropped, and hearts pumped up to eleven.
When Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone started to add up the years in the age department, Hollywood and those of us who write about Tinsel Town commenced a search for who could step into their well worn shoes. Among several, Johnson has answered the call. In the process he has shown that although many have found success in this realm, there is no one that has the charm and visceral qualities that audiences adore in their action heroes like him. Throughout Skyscraper, Johnson sprinkles absolute illustrations that there is little the superstar cannot do in this realm. There is also a sense that emerges that—believe it or not—he is merely getting started.
Campbell must have thought she had died and gone to movie star heaven when she was offered the part of Sarah. This is not a throw-away wife role who sits on the sidelines and screams on call waiting for her hero husband to bust through doors, windows or walls to save the day. Sarah is a Navy surgeon with an immense amount of military training that allows her to throw a punch and kick a baddie in the face as required. She is also smart, savvy and a mama bear who villains will wish they had not pointed a gun at her head or put her or her family in the crosshairs of danger in the slightest.
Thurber triumphs at building a blockbuster from the ground up. That is another storytelling element missed in Hollywood for films such as Skyscraper. The writer-director pays invaluable attention to character, plot and brilliantly laid out action moments that have his passion project of a film play to the highest levels of audience smarts. It is a rare gift for those of us who are lifelong appreciators of the entity that is the action movie.
Grade: B+