Skyscraper Review
- Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
- Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Pablo Schreiber
- Released: July 13, 2018
- Rated: PG-13
- Runtime: 102 min
The Verdict
- The Rock gets to show some dramatic range, and his family feels like a real family. The action is solid, especially one tense close-quarters fight.
- After the first act the hero barely struggles, so there's never real doubt about how it ends. It's predictable from start to finish.
Synopsis
Full Review (Spoilers)
Skyscraper has all the normal action movie tropes, and that’s about what I expected: explosions, punching people, The Rock, and a happy ending.
The good: it shows some layers for The Rock. He gets to flex his dramatic chops, and his struggle with his leg was a good idea. His fight with Pablo Schreiber in the apartment is the best part of the movie, because instead of using brute strength, he has to think about his moves. The action is pretty decent overall, and the two or three IMAX-style scenes are solid, with the camera swinging and pulling you in. (I didn’t see it in IMAX, since only a few scenes were shot for it.) The family dynamic also works. You actually believe The Rock, Neve Campbell and the two kids are a family, which a lot of movies struggle with, and the kids weren’t annoying.
The bad: after that apartment fight, The Rock doesn’t struggle one bit for the rest of the movie. There are maybe one or two tiny setbacks, but you know he’s going to win. He gets beat up for half a second and is back on top in the next scene. The building is his only real challenge, and the building versus The Rock? The Rock wins, hands down. Don’t think too hard about the physics of the big crane jump, either; that one is pure movie magic. I like my heroes to struggle, the way John Wick gets beat up and keeps going.
It’s also predictable from point A to point B. The second Pablo Schreiber showed up as a good guy, I was wondering how long it would take him to turn bad.
Listen to My Audio Review
Skyscraper (2018) Cast and Details
Skyscraper (2018) is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and stars Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller and Pablo Schreiber. It runs 102 minutes and is rated PG-13. You can look up the full cast and crew on IMDb. You might also like my Uncle Drew review.
DC's Hypothetical Corner
Let’s say I change one thing. Maybe that one thing will make this movie better or more watchable.
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