Skyscraper is one of those movies where bad guys threaten to burn down a 200+ story super-skyscraper just to steal a thumb drive (ever hear of backing up more than one copy?). It’s also a movie that despite the futuristic high-techniness of the building (foolproof fire system, off-site security headquarters, magnetic elevators, a huge wind turbine-thing that would slice you up like a Cuisinart), you can completely shut down whole system with an iPad. When one of the police sergeants used a felt tip pen to circle locations on a digital map, my hand went up in disbelief. But this movie isn’t meant to be believable, because, I mean, come on… (again, holds hand up in the air)
Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), we learn in the prologue, is messed up because of a bad FBI raid where children died and he lost a leg. Now he is a security advisor hired to inspect this new super-building before the top 100 floors open for residential living. BUT, just as you can say, “Why not have his own wife and beautiful twin children move in as the first residents?”, bad guys break in and light the middle floors of the building on fire. The only way out is up. The only one who knows as much about the building as the rich man mogul on the top floor is Will himself. Save the building, or save his family? Shoot, you know his priorities.
Admittedly, there are some fun, outlandish scenes, like involving Johnson taking a running leap off a crane to jump to the building, or using duct tape like MacGyver to solve many problems. But considering that was directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who previously teamed up with Johnson for the funny buddy comedy Central Intelligence, Skyscraper takes itself too seriously. Shoot, Hans Gruber had more fun than this entire film.
But, hats off to the CGI folks for making an impressive and cool skyscraper. I can’t help but imagine Jeff Bezos taking notes.
