Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a franchise unto himself, churning out movies that are sometimes remakes, but even when they’re not, serve up highly familiar plots tailored to the Rock’s physical (considerable) and theatrical (sometimes limited) abilities. The Rock plays essentially the same character every time, but he’s pretty good at it; there’s rarely any pretense that he’s not the hero and he displays just enough humor and personality to leaven the outrageous action sequences the audience is there for. This pattern achieves one of its biggest successes in The Rock’s latest vehicle, “Skyscraper.” “Skyscraper” may not be a remake per se, but its premise is so similar to the iconic “Die Hard” that it’s impossible not to make the comparison. In the end, the difference is embodied by the two film’s stars; Willis is a better actor, funnier with much more character, while the Rock is a good enough actor to take you along for the ride but is simply bigger and newer in every way. Similarly, “Skyscraper” isn’t as clever, well constructed, or emotionally involving as “Die Hard,” but on the level of pure spectacle, it delivers the silly, vertigo-inducing thrills it promises.
Despite the generic title, “Skyscraper” doesn’t take place in just any tower, but the very biggest in the world, The Pearl, a Hong Kong monument to the ambition of billionaire Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han). A slick promo video introduces the many amenities of this self-contained city in the sky, including self-powering double helix wind turbines that just might come into play. The Rock plays Will Sawyer, a scarred ex-FBI agent hired to analyze security before the building opens, while his wife (Neve Campbell) and kids serve as the building’s first occupants. After luring Sawyer out of the building, a group led by a nebulously European terrorist (he’s not literally named Gruber, but he might as well be) sets the building on fire in pursuit of a flash drive in the penthouse.
If John McClane was America’s “bad dad,” his heroic behavior undermined by the attitude of an asshole, Will Sawyer goes in the opposite direction, with his absolute love of family serving as one of his two personality traits (another familiar Rock trope: super dad). In fact, his character is so wrapped up in his being a stereotypical dad that he makes multiple duct tape jokes throughout the movie. Hollywood has always leaned pretty hard on characters that care about nothing but their families, especially in the last ten years since “Taken,” but “Skyscraper” is better than most in actually portraying the dynamics of the family under threat. The most welcome surprise of the movie isn’t any of the death-defying stunts, but rather that Neve Campbell emerges as a parallel hero to the Rock, the two acting as a tag-team of kid-saving parental superheroes. While they’re mostly separated throughout the movie, they display a relationship where they each bring different abilities to the table and improve each other, a welcome reprieve from the zero-personality families in many action movies.
As soon as Sawyer realizes his kids are trapped in the burning building, all of his protestations that he’s done with violence are immediately jettisoned as he flips the switch into action mode. The first order of business is to somehow enter the building above the ninetieth story fireline, for which he commandeers a nearby crane in the movie’s most insane sequence. At this point, the plot has mostly served its purpose and delivered The Rock into a gauntlet of physical ordeals, many of which take place dangling a hundred stories above Hong Kong. In a surprisingly straight-faced turn, director Rawson Marshall Thurber proves himself a satisfying director of non-comedic action, visually conveying the near-impossibility of what Sawyer needs to do, just before he does it. Thurber commits to building up The Pearl before he destroys it, showing a streak of techno-optimism where others might see hubris. He does a good job of harnessing the building’s innovative attributes into the action, including a high-tech hall of mirrors that leads to a finale unexpectedly recalling “The Lady From Shanghai” (credit should also go to Oscar-winning cinematographer and PTA collaborator Robert Elswit).
One final note – Hollywood has been showing people hanging off of things for over 100 years, and if that’s something you enjoy, “Skyscraper” is the pinnacle of this trope, forcing The Rock to dangle, hang, and swing at insane heights above the street time and time again. This is the MO of the whole movie, taking things that have worked before and pumping them up to The Rock-sized spectacle; it’s not too original but it provides what it promises. Ultimately, “Skyscraper” won’t become a classic like “Die Hard,” but it’s a better than average action movie with broad appeal, ideal for a family outing to the theater on a hot summer day. [B-]