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.