The formula for a Dwayne Johnson blockbuster has remained largely the same for over a decade now; he plays an ex-military or law enforcement operative that’s either a happily married father or an estranged one of some description, forced to battle insurmountable odds using nothing but his robust physicality and a well-placed quip to dispense of his enemies, with at least one reference made to his hulking size that may or may not be made by a screen partner he generates absolutely no chemistry with.
Are we talking about his long-running stint as part of the Fast & Furious franchise? Jungle Cruise? Red Notice? San Andreas? Rampage? Baywatch? G.I. Joe: Retaliation? The answer is none of the above, with The Rock instead finding himself in a reflective mood after he caught wind of somebody praising Skyscraper, a rare turn of events for a movie that’s incredibly forgettable and unstoppably mediocre.
The blatant Die Hard ripoff being praised for its “crazy fun stunts” is ironic in and of itself considering the entire thing is ladled in substandard CGI from start to finish, particularly the sequence mentioned where Johnson launches himself from one building to another with a blatant disregard for the laws of physics, gravity and logic.
It barely even turned a profit and was saved from outright disaster by a strong performance in China, rendering it one of the actor and producer’s most pedestrian action-packed efforts by far. Sure, he’s leaping through the air, but the discrepancy between what he’s pretending to be doing and how it comes off in the film is borderline laughable, especially when the visual effects were one of the weakest aspects of an altogether middling affair.