Film Review - Skyscraper (12A)

If duct tape can't fix it, you're not using enough duct tape.

How many big, daft Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson movies should we have in our cinemas per annum? Two sounds about right to me - thus with Skyscraper he meets his quota for 2018. Follow-up question - is the year's second Rockfest as entertainingly big and daft as his recent Rampage? To that I say a resounding yes. Come on, look at the poster. How could that not be fun?

Our man Johnson plays Will Sawyer, a one-time team-leader in Hostage Rescue (proving he's hard as nails), who due to a life-changing injury became a security assessor for newly built skyscrapers - quite the career change, but not entirely illogical. Will has been installed along with his wife (Neve Campbell) and their two children inside the Pearl, a Hong Kong super-skyscraper. Created by billionaire Zhao Long Ji, the Pearl is significantly taller than Dubai's Burj Khalifa, i.e. it's one big-ass 'scraper. But before Will can risk-assess the tower's upper proportions, some nefarious dudes set its mid-section alight for mysterious reasons, trapping our hero's loved-ones upstairs along with the building's creator. Now Will has to break into the building, bypass the flames, defeat the criminals and rescue his family before the whole superstructure is engulfed. It's a tall order. Like, seriously mega-tall. 

Skyscraper is a film that wears its influences proudly, before building on their foundation. It's The Towering Inferno fused with the original Die Hard, but in a futuristic setting and aimed squarely at a family audience (despite the significant, albeit bloodless kill-count in the story's early stages). There are numerous additional action-thriller tropes and cliches in the set-up, but writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber has supplied enough pace and polish to sell them, with the aid of a thrillingly glamorous and high-tech central location. And there's one other major selling-point in the leading man...

As Sawyer, Johnson is the full package - a warm-hearted family man wrestling with the demons of his working past (did I mention cliche?) and adapting to life with a prosthetic limb (that bit's refreshingly new). However crazy the plot twists - and they're extravagantly crazy - he plays them all with conviction and heart as well as muscle. It's the best I've seen him to date and the story benefits hugely from his sympathetic presence. Campbell, it should be added, is substantially more than the wife-in-peril; she gets to be smart and resourceful, and to exhibit the same steely courage as her husband, while the world threatens to collapse quite literally around everyone's head. 

Ultimately this is all about thrills and stunts and jeopardy, and on that level Skyscraper hits its stride early and keeps on delivering. The title promises vertigo-inducing heroics and indeed there's enough climbing/dangling/swinging/jumping/balancing - all of it several notches beyond precarious - to keep sufferers squirming in their seats throughout. The obstacles faced by Johnson and family are insane, even before you add the flames. 

It's all totally preposterous of course, with so many implausible moments you quickly lose count (don't start me on one character's come-and-go asthma). Also despite its sources of inspiration, this film is no Die Hard. It doesn't have a memorable central villain, or the blood and grime, nor does it whip up the same number of entertaining subplots. But in terms of sheer summertime escapism, it's a thorough success. Likeable and gleefully over-the-top, this movie knows what it is - a trans-generational crowd-pleaser. It also knows how to use its star to maximum effect. The Rock has taken on a genetically enlarged gorilla and a flaming skyscraper this year - and he hasn't been dwarfed by either.  

Gut Reaction: You can mock this brand of blockbuster all you like, but it had me in knots of tension more times than is cool to admit.

Where Are the Women?: Good to see Neve Campbell proactive throughout and fully immersed in the sweaty mayhem. And she doesn't ever Scream. (See what I did there?)

Ed's Verdict: 7/10. Better-written and more effectively structured than Rampage, this is a superior brand of sky-high silliness and an all-round fun night out. Pass the popcorn and keep the duct tape close. That stuff proves mighty useful in an emergency.