Skyscraper, like its title, is as generic as Hollywood can get. By putting the ever-reliable Dwane ‘The Rock’ Johnson to anchor the project, it makes its ambition very clear, that there is no ambition.
Just a generic attempt to make a lot of cash, since the appetite for middling action blockbusters never seems to dry up.
The action, quite literally begins with Dwayne Johnson as Will Sawyer, an FBI agent trying to rescue a family from a hostage situation. Because of a homicidal downcast father, a bomb explodes, Sawyer loses his one leg, and a decade later, the film takes it upon itself to establish why Sawyer would win the contest of the greatest dad that ever lived. Poor Atticus Finch.
The entire plot is set in a building in Hong Kong, comprising of more than 200 floors, claiming to be the tallest tower in the world. It’s called ‘The Pearl’, but pop culture enthusiasts will be able to spot the cheap imitation of the Eye of Sauron.
Our man of action Sawyer with a prosthetic leg is a security assessor for towering buildings, which justifies his presence in Hong Kong with his family, and China’s increasing impact on Hollywood revenues. Not to forget, an excuse to cast a bunch of Asian actors in thin-crust roles.
The plot is simple. Some Euro-accented villains have a thing to recover from Pearl’s billionaire owner, Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han), so they set the entire building on fire. Don’t ask for rationale here. Of course, Sawyer’s family gets stuck there so that he can get all the opportunity to show his action chops to the Asian audience on a giant screen live. The amputee quickly becomes invincible because family is what gives you strength.
If you’re thinking of Die Hard, you must be the billionth person to have the same thought.
This film takes the premise of John McTiernan’s beloved classic, and tries the very best to amp it up. If John McClane (Bruce Willis) had no shoes, Sawyer operates on one leg. If McClane worried about his wife, Sawyer has to fight for his wife, his daughter and a son who is asthmatic. The Pearl of this film dwarfs the Nakatomi Tower by hundreds of floors. Add to that, explosion and fire. Bring in the towering inferno.
Rawson Marshall Thurber, reuniting with Johnson after Central Intelligence (2016), gives his leading man a film so devoid of awe that you keep looking for a moment to experience a rush. But the murky CGI, and the green screen action never lends the impression of altitude or danger.
Skyscraper is simplistic and stupid but quite honestly, it doesn’t pretend to be anything else either. However, this superficial film unwittingly also becomes a film of the Trumpian times, overstating how families should never be separated.
(The writer is a journalist, a screenwriter, and a content developer who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. He tweets @RanjibMazumder).
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