Skyscraper Movie Review: Puts You Off High rise Buildings
Skyscraper
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell
Directed by Rawsom Masrhall Thurber
Rating: * ½(one and a half stars)
This time Dwayne Johnson is literally playing with fire. As the end-credits rolled I felt a burning sensation which came not from appreciating the incendiary insinuations, but from a raging frustration at having witnessed one of the stupidest blast acts by a mega-star who makes you wonder about whom the Gods choose to favour.
Dwayne lays it on thick .He is a war veteran and a former FBI agent , now assigned to survey safety of skyscrapers. He is also physically disabled , for reasons that only the script writers can explain. Absurdities pile up skyscraper-style , as amputee Will Sawyer (no relation to Tom, I presume) must rescue his wife and two childrenwho are trapped on the upper levels of the 240 storey building.
Yes, this is the highest building in the world trapped in one of the lowest level of storytelling seen in a disaster film in recent times. The film has no sense of history or geography. Floors in the fire-stricken highrise open up before us .But tell us nothing about the characters’ escape plan, probably because there is nones.
The plot points are so tedious they do not command or demand our attentions. Assorted villains and wolves in sheep’s clothing run up and down the highrise looking for a place to park their preposterous destinies.There is a Chinese female assassin with hair falling into her eyes(wonder how she shoots straight) who kills his adversaries so ruthlessly and in such a multitude of ways, she she looks like UmaThurman in Kill Dill, Bill having flown far away.
The one villain who rises above the abject mediocrity is Rolland Moller as the main terrorist brings a wry diabolism to the plot . This is the only actor who takes the plot seriously. The rest of the actors are either running and falling off floor after floor, or simply standing around down below waiting for the ordeal to be over.
To his credit Dwayne Johnson does well in the stunts ,constructing a vertiginous destiny in his horizontal hi-jinks , but is well short of breath in the sloppy soppy scenes where he keeps repeating, “I love my wife I love my children.”
Makes you wonder. Just whom did Dwayne love besides himself? By the time he reaches his family on the upper floors of the skyscraper Wayne looks like he would be anywhere except in this fraudulent film where the characters are so misguided they seek the constant blessings of the skyscraper which is actually the hero of the plot, alas razed to rubble.Like the film.
