Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Skyscraper
October 7, 2018
Skyscraper - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, 3D Combo Pack, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Skyscraper didn’t live up to expectations at the box office. It didn’t really bomb and might still break even eventually, but it wasn’t a $100 million hit like a lot of people thought it would become. Were audiences smart to stay away? Is it worth checking out? Are there enough extras to lift it to the purchase level?
Dwayne Johnson plays Will Sawyer, a former FBI agent whose career ends when a domestic dispute turned hostage situation ends in an explosion. He’s taken to a nearby navel hospital where he is operated on by Doctor Sarah and the last thing he sees before going under is her face lit up from behind like an angel.
Flash forward to the present day and Will Sawyer is in Hong Kong with Sarah, who is now his wife, and their twin kids, Georgia and Henry. He’s here thanks to Ben, his former partner in the FBI, who got his small security company a job at The Pearl, the world’s largest building, built by tech magnate Zhao Long Ji. It’s over 200 stories tall, but the residential upper half isn’t open, and can’t open, until the insurance company feels it is safe enough to insure it and so far, only Will and his family live there. He’s been living there, so he can get up and close using his background to go over the building for potential issues, like fire safety, for example. He meets with Zhao; Zhao’s head of security, Ajani Okeke; and the representative from the insurance company, Mr. Pierce. Will says the building itself is the safest super-tall skyscraper in the world and as soon as he can inspect the off-site control center, he will be able to sign-off on the project. He is given a tablet that is biometrically connected to him that will control the building as part of this final step for approval.
After a short detour, when Zhao shows off the Pearl to Will, he and Ben head to the off-site control center, only to be attacked by a man who manages to steal Will’s bag, cutting him in the process. They head to Ben’s apartment to get Will bandaged up and that’s when Ben learns Will put the tablet in his inside coat pocket and didn’t have it in the bag. Worse still, Will’s family returned home after the son got sick. This is terrible news, because Ben’s working with the bad guys. They need Will’s tablet for their plan and their plan involves attacking The Pearl. At first Ben tries to use violence to get the tablet from Will, then when that doesn’t work, he decides to use his dying breath to warn Will about an imminent attack from Xia and her men.
Will tries to get away, but fails. Worse still, when Xia uses his tablet to attack The Pearl’s security systems, the police think Will is to blame. Now Will has to evade the police, get to The Pearl, save his family, and stop whoever Xia works for from doing whatever it is they are trying to do.
I’m of two minds when it comes to this movie. On the one hand, it does a lot of things wrong that makes it hard to argue it is a good movie. It is way too predictable. For example, and this not a spoiler in any real sense of the word, when we first see Ben, it’s in the prologue and he’s Will’s partner. When we next see him, he’s got a scar on his face / neck due to the explosion and I immediately knew he was working with the bad guy. Again, this is not a spoiler, not just because how obvious it is, but because it is confirmed mere minutes later. This happens again with a different character, although here it is enough of spoiler that I won’t say who. The film also takes itself a little too seriously and with a little too much self-importance. Maybe if the film leaned a little more into some of the more absurd aspects it would have been a more fun ride. Also, for a developer so concerned with security that they would put in a several ton titanium door on their apartment, the security on the tablet itself was rather lax. You would think they would need to login on site, or at the very least have an inactivity system to log him out and not keep him logged in that long.
That said, it’s still an entertaining film with several impressive action scenes and compelling characters. I especially like how Neve Campbell isn’t just a damsel needing rescue, but how she’s a naval surgeon, so she’d have some military training and can handle herself, in a limited sense. You could also tell the filmmakers wanted to make Will being an amputee a real part of the story and not a cheap gimmick. They also wanted to make it as realistic as possible, at least within the limits of a movie like this. It is unreasonable to expect them to be too realistic, because it is an action film and Dwayne Johnson barely looks like he’s a mere mortal in real life, but there are some subtle touches that help.
On a side note, the film treats fire in a way that’s so unrealistic that I find in infuriating, but they are so common I no longer hold it against the film. You don’t need to touch the flames in order to be hurt by them. Inhaling the super-hot air is enough to kill you, because it will will cook your lungs making it impossible to get oxygen into your blood. You won’t last long after that. However, most Hollywood movies will have explosions that can rock buildings, but as long as the characters don’t physically touch the flames, they will be 100% fine.
Extras start with an audio commentary track with the director, Rawson Marshall Thurber. There are also five deleted scenes, with optional audio commentary track by the director, with a total running time of 12 minutes, as well as five extended scenes, again with audio commentary track, this time running for 10 minutes. There are six featurettes, starting with Dwayne Johnson: Embodying a Hero, which looks at how Will Sawyer is a different type of character than he usually plays. Inspiration focuses more how Will Sawyer is an amputee and how much Dwayne Johnson and everyone wanted to make sure they did the character right. Opposing Forces looks at Neve Campbell and Hannah Quinlivan and how they both got to kick some ass in the movie. Friends No More is about the least shocking surprise twist in the movie. Kids in Action is about the two kids in the film. Finally, there’s Pineapple Pitch, which is about the origin of the movie. Six featurettes sounds like a lot, but their combined running time is just under 20 minutes.
Skyscraper isn’t a good movie in most definitions of the word, but it is entertaining enough for a summer action flick. There are not a lot of extras on the DVD, Blu-ray, etc., but enough that if you are a fan of the movie it is worth picking up.
Video on Demand
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Skyscraper, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Dwayne Johnson, Pablo Schreiber, Noah Taylor, Adrian Holmes, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Hannah Quinlivan, McKenna Roberts, Noah Cottrell