Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, Chin Han, Roland Moller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pable Schreiber, Hannah Quinlivan, Kevin Rankin, Elfina Luk, Adrian Holmes.

If you are going to make a film that takes the very best ideas of two cinema classics then not only do you have to own that decision, but you must ensure it works phenomenally well, that there is room for the film to become its own stand out feature, and not just a hybrid that people will reflect upon throughout their time in front of the screen.

Skyscraper holds out by the grip of its muscle-bound fingernails on this monumental rule, mainly due to the performance of the on-screen graphics team who take the idea of the Towering Inferno to a greater level of intensity and the writers who thought taking on Die Hard was the best spitball session result in the history of film; sometimes you have to admire the steel nerves and wonderful audacity in creating Dwayne Johnson’s latest takeover the action hero.

The film itself is not bad, a good premise never hurts at the end of the day after all, some of the sequences shot are of very good quality and imaginative and the action, once it gets going, does not relent or give any quarter to the physics involved or the passion of the director to give the audience a good thrill ride. A more than average film that does wander between the sublime and ridiculous at times but still sits on the healthy side of enjoyment and is perhaps one of Dwayne Johnson’s better films.

The problem arises in that the man who was such a draw in the world of W.W.E. is eminently likeable as a person, so much so that you really want the films to succeed, to lay you down with a forearm smash and take your mind out of itself, it is all that you really need from the action hero genre. Yet for every harmless, even positive in their own way cinematic experiences, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, Rampage and even Moana, there is a trail of films in which you cannot but help close your eyes to, count to ten and decide whether life is too short to admire the transition from sports entertainment to the glamour of cinema.

Skyscraper is more than average, in a good light it is a story that grabs the attention, the stunts involved illuminating but a film needs more than that to be considered great. The Towering Inferno, Die Hard, two films which inspire on the screen and in the thoughts of those watching this particular film; homage and tribute are fine attributes, but they do have to be owned, even when the film just holds on to the fire and the passion conceived.

Ian D. Hall