Dwayne Johnson had consistently been in an action movie every single year since his big screen debut in "The Mummy Returns" (2001). Since "Baywatch" last year, he added executive producer to his credits. This year alone, there had already been two Johnson films in local cinemas: "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" in January, and "Rampage" in April. This month, he has another one -- "Skyscraper."
Chinese tycoon Zhou Long Ji has built an imposing building "The Pearl" on the banks of Hong Kong harbor. As far as skyscrapers go, it is considered the tallest (at 240 floors, 87 floors higher that the Burj Khalifa), the greenest (energy generated by its own wind turbine at the 200-230th floor + a 30-storey garden from the 100th floor going up), and the safest (top-of-the-line advanced security features with remote access).
One day, extortionist Kores Botha led his army of terrorists in a massive effort to set the Pearl on fire in order to gain possession of Zhou's computer hard drive. Chief of security Will Sawyer was put in a sore spot because he had exclusive possession of the tablet which can remotely control the security and safety systems of the building. Sawyers wife and fraternal twin kids (one of whom has asthma) just so happened to be trapped on the 204th floor, so he had to go back into the burning building to get them out.
The title and the poster already suggests a mix of "Die Hard" and "The Towering Inferno" with thrilling but impossible action stunts. If you expected that, like me, you won't be mistaken nor disappointed. With his artificial left leg (result of a botched mission ten years back) and all, Sawyer had to gain access into the Pearl above the fire line on the 96th floor by sheer brute jumping power and adrenaline alone. That scene alone told us that all logic would have to checked at the door, and just sit back and let The Rock regale us with his incredible physical prowess and duct-tape aided survival skills.
Dwayne Johnson played a tough, macho, no-nonsense guy who was driven to go beyond impossible physical limits because of his deep devotion to his family. It was basically a reboot of his characters in "San Andreas" (2015) rescuing his daughter trapped in San Francisco, or even "Rampage" (2018), rescuing his "son," the albino ape, who ran amuck in San Diego. Sawyer's artificial leg situation was an interesting detail, and the prosthesis itself would play a vital role in one of the action scenes.
I was surprised to see Neve Campbell playing Sawyer's wife army surgeon Sarah. I have not seen Campbell in a movie since her heyday in the late 1990s in "Scream" (1996) and "Wild Things" (1998). She still looks great onscreen now despite the the 20 years that passed since those films. She gets to figure in a few action scenes of her own here (which were kickass) and would play a big role in the film's resolution (uttering a groan-inducing corny line, that referenced her cellphone problem at the start of the film).
Singaporean actor Chin Han played Zhou had a very dry performance, with no charisma at all. Danish actor Roland Møller played Kores Botha, who was so obviously a bad guy from his very first scene pretending to be a security maintenance guy. Actually the bad guys (played by Pablo Schrieber and Noah Taylor) were all so obvious from the first scene they were introduced, so there were no real surprises when they revealed their real loyalties. Like many current Hollywood films nowadays, the presence of Chinese actors (Byron Mann, Karen Quinlivan) in key support roles was very evident.
The predictable story and cheesy script definitely take a back seat to CG-enhanced (of varying quality) action sequences here. From the introductory scenes at the start, you can clearly see what is in store ahead. Anyhow, I had fun watching the efforts of writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber bringing us through one unbelievable, breathtaking, death-defying scene after the other, with all the intense acrophobic, pyromanic, hall of mirrors thrills he can deliver. 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment