Skyscraper Is The Towering Inferno Meets Die Hard With Less Thrilling Results

     Originality is tough to find in Hollywood these days as nearly all of today's action movies borrow from past classics, particularly highly influential ones which Skyscraper draws much if its plot from. One could basically say that this film is essentially The Towering Inferno meets Die Hard with the main twist being the lead is Dwayne Johnson with a prosthetic leg. With The Rocks status as an action movie star being in prime status, it would seem that this would be the perfect vehicle for him to stretch his legs as an action star. Since the release of the first Die Hard, that film has been highly influential in the action movie genre with it being heavily used in films such as Under Siege, Passenger 57, Speed, and newer films such as Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. Taking the concept of two iconic and classic movies for their time and meshing them together requires that the film brings an ounce of originality to it in order for it to be fully successful. The end result is a mildly entertaining yet underwhelming action flick, that relies too heavily on the films it draws its concept from with the main saving grace being the charismatic performance of Dwayne Johnson as the films main lead.

      The plot for Skyscraper focuses on a retired war veteran and FBI hostage team leader (Played by Dwayne Johnson) working as a Skyscraper security expert. While on assignment in Hong Kong, the tallest building at 225 floors is set on fire with him being framed for arson while being forced to rescue his family whose trapped inside the building by criminals. Looking at the synopsis for this movie, one can clearly see the DNA of both The Towering Inferno and Die Hard merged together to create the story for this film (Though it feels more like copy and paste). The problem is outside of the strong similarities to both classics storylines, that's all there is to the plot as it lacks freshness and originality of those films making the plot come across as being predictable and a generic knock-off of Die Hard. The main difference between this movie, Olympus Has Fallen, and White House Down is although the latter two films drew inspiration from the concept of Die Hard, they both introduced their own creative spins to their stories, giving their films life. The problem with Skyscraper is nearly 80 percent of the film is borrowed material with the other 20 percent attempting to break new ground. The film also utilizes the same generic subplots as the previous films with the films architect feeling responsible for his actions much like The Towering Inferno and the police failing to support Dwayne Johnson's character much like Dwayne T. Johnson's character disapproved of John McClanes tactics of taking out the bad guys in Die Hard. The main heroes family being taken hostage in the tall Skyscraper also serves as borrowed material from Die Hard and the White House action movies with the Skyscraper being the films setting being lifted from both Hard and Towering Inferno. Skyscraper is by no means a terrible movie, it just comes across as being a mediocre and silly action flick, that's devoid of any originality and surprise to its script which would've made it special on its own.

      As for the films main cast, Dwayne Johnson and Neve Campbell are the main appeal for this uninspired and unoriginal action flick. Johnson brings his action star charisma to his role here making the audience enjoy his presence with him making his character somewhat relatable. Neve Campbell does well at playing Johnson's wife in the story though she doesn't have much to do other than play the typical wife of the hero taken hostage scenario, that's been done to death since the release of the first Die Hard. Despite the story not giving her much to do, she still delivers a strong performance and showcases great chemistry with The Rock. Chin Han does a solid job playing Zhao Longji, the genius millionaire and builder of the worlds tallest building in Hong Kong, The Pearl. Roland Moller is serviceable playing the films main antagonist Kores Botha, though he comes nowhere close to the memorable and iconic performance Alan Rickman left behind as Hans Gruber. Given that might be an unfair comparison as the two performances shouldn't be compared, the fact that the movie draws such heavy inspiration from Die Hard prompts it in a sense. Noah Taylor does his best with the material given to him as Mr. Pierce, one of Botha's mercenaries, impersonating an insurance agent. Other strong supporting performances from the cast include Byron Mann as Inspector Wu, Pablo Schreiber as Ben, and Elfina Luk as Sergeant Han. McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell get notable performances for playing Johnson and Campbell's children, delivering totally convincing and likable performances. As a whole, the cast is effective and does the best job they can with the script they're given with The Rock and Neve Campbell delivering the strongest and most appealing performances.

      In regards to the films directing and writing, Rawson Marshall Thurber does a serviceable job directing the film with the films main stunt pieces being the films main saving grace along with Dwayne Johnson as the lead. Thurber's choice as director for this film is an unusual one as his previous trackrecord of films consist of mostly comedies from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story to Easy A and We're The Millers. The director worked with The Rock previously on Central Intelligence, which resulted in a box office success, most likely being the reason he was chosen as director to helm the film. Thurber's directing is standard and effective when it needs to be, though he's no John McTiernan in regards to building up suspense or strong characters the audience grows to care about before and after the action starts. The films script by Thurber might as well be a copy and paste of The Towering Inferno and Die Hard as he models Skyscraper to mirror those films to a T. Johnson's character Will Sawyer, had potential to be a strong action star but received little time to develop showing that audiences are more thrilled at seeing The Rock in the main role than the actual character he's playing. The opportunity was missed to create a new and memorable action hero. Sarah Sawyer is no Holly McClane and feels like she's just there to serve the plot in being the motivation for Will to spring into action with his one good leg.

      The villains in this film have no memorability and come across as being cardboard cut-out versions of much better ones in other movies. There is not one antagonist in this movie that comes anywhere close to the standard Alan Rickman left behind with Hans Gruber in regards to the acting, the intensity, and unpredictability of such a character. In all honesty, the building being on fire was more suspenseful and threatening to the characters than the villains are. Chin Han does well as Zhao despite his character feeling terribly similar to the one he played in The Dark Knight, no originality there with the same being said for the detectives. There are not any truly compelling characters in this story nor ones that the audience really can connect with on an emotional level. It says a great deal that the actors playing the characters are more interesting than the characters their playing. It's not a question of whether the Rock is good or not in this movie, he does very well. The problem lies with the material he's given and the lack of originality it carries.

       With a running time of 102 minutes, the story feels rushed and uninspired with no real development occurring with the main characters or villains. The story feels like it takes use of every major and predictable action movie cliche in the book to get its story off the ground. This film would've greatly benefited from a two hour plus running time as audiences could've learned more about Dwayne Johnson's character Will Sawyer, along with a deeper fleshing out of the main villains. The main attraction of the story is the Skyscraper making it the films pure spectacle. What this movie needed is a stronger script and character development to make it distinct without relying too much on the classics it leans on for comfort. The audience could've seen more of Neve Campbell's character and watched her and The Rock hook up after he recovered from the films opening and get married prior to the events later in the story. The Rock's character had potential to be a strong character outside of the typical family guy routine, but he isn't really given much time to be completely convincing in that area either. Skyscraper works best as being a throwaway action flick that you can put on and watch with your buddies then immediately dispense of it and throw on the first Die Hard to see how its truly done.

      What made that film the classic that it is today is not only that it was well directed, well written, and extremely well executed with a charismatic hero and villain, it had the most essential thing that an action movie needs in order to succeed, a heart. Skyscraper has the charismatic lead but is lacking in nearly every major category that made both The Towering Inferno and Die Hard classics. Johnson's character feels as if he's made into a superhuman form with him performing stunts that are unbelievable given his character's limitations (Is audiences really supposed to believe that he can leap from a crane to a window?) What made Bruce Willis character so engaging in Die Hard is as tough as he has, he was a human who bled, cried, and was afraid deep down despite succeeding in the end. Skyscraper aims for the stars but misses all the essential things that made the films it blatantly copies from great in their own forms and ultimately giving them a soul.

Final Verdict: If you're a fan of Dwayne Johnson, its worth watching at least once but will be instantly forgettable afterwards. Perhaps watch it and slip in Die Hard after to see how a proper action movie is done.