Skyscraper appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a largely strong image.
While most of the movie presented nice clarity, some wider shots looked a bit tentative. Still, the majority of the flick appeared solid, and no signs of moiré effects or jaggies occurred. The movie also lacked edge haloes or print flaws.
In terms of palette, Skyscraper favored a combination of teal and orange. Those choices came as no surprise, and the Blu-ray reproduced them in a satisfactory manner.
Blacks showed strong depth, and shadows were good, with nice opacity and clarity. All of this was enough for a “B+” that lost points solely due to the occasional slightly soft shots.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos audio soared. With tons of destruction and mayhem on display, the soundscape offered frequent room for information to emanate from the various speakers.
The mix used those chances well. The soundtrack delivered wall-to-wall auditory material that spread out across the speakers in a satisfying manner and that blended together nicely.
This meant a tremendously active track in which the surrounds worked as nearly equal partners and kept the mix humming. Plenty of action/disaster moments made this a consistently impressive soundfield.
Audio quality also satisfied, as speech was natural and concise, while music sounded peppy and full. Effects turned into the primary factor, and those elements appeared accurate and vivid.
Bass response added real depth and rocked my subwoofer. If you own a fancy-pants home theater, you spent that money for soundtracks like this.
The disc comes with a mix of extras, and we open with an audio commentary from writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber. He presents a running, screen-specific look at the project’s origins and development, story/characters, influences and inspirations, cast and performances, sets and locations, various effects, stunts and action, editing, music and related domains.
My only complaint here comes from the occasional periods where Thurber goes MIA. However, those lapses don’t pop up often, and Thurber fills the track with a slew of good notes.
Thurber gladly acknowledges the movies that impacted Skyscraper, and he provides a lively, engaging look at his film. Thurber turns this into an informative, likable chat.
We find cut footage via five Deleted Scenes (12:07) and five Extended Scenes (10:17). The deleted shots tend toward unnecessary exposition, except the final one, which offers a joke related to the film’s heavy Die Hard influence.
As for the extended shots, more than 60 percent of the added material comes from the first piece, “Farm House Opening”. It offers a moderately different perspective but doesn’t differ a ton from the actual beginning of the film. The other scenes simply bring minor, forgettable extensions.
We can view the extended/deleted scenes with or without commentary from Thurber. He tells us background about the sequences as well as why he cut them. Thurber delivers a solid array of insights.
A slew of featurettes follow, and these open with Dwayne Johnson: Embodying a Hero. It goes for four minutes, four seconds and offers comments from Thurber, producer Hiram Garcia, and actors Dwayne Johnson, McKenna Roberts, Noah Cottrell and Neve Campbell.
As implied by the reel’s title, “Hero” looks at Johnson’s character and performance. It becomes largely fluffy and without much substance – other than the bizarre notion that the producers wanted Johnson to play a Harrison Ford-style “everyman”. If you want an “everyman” in 2018, you don’t hire someone with the muscle mass of Dwayne Johnson!
With Inspiration, we get a four-minute, 12-second reel with notes from Thurber, Johnson, Campbell, producer Beau Flynn, and motivational speaker Jeff Glasbrenner. “Inspiration” looks at the decision to make Johnson’s character an amputee and influences used in his performance. It largely feels self-congratulatory.
Next comes the two-minute, 35-second Opposing Forces. It includes remarks from Thurber, Johnson, Campbell, supervising stunt/fight coordinator Allan Poppleton and actor Hannah Quinlivan.
“Forces” discusses the female characters and their action scenes. Like its predecessors, “Forces” brings a few useful nuggets but much of it exists to praise the film and its participants.
Friends No More lasts three minutes, 21 seconds and offers material from Johnson, Thurber, Poppleton, Flynn, 2nd unit director JJ Perry, and actor Pablo Schreiber. It looks at one particular fight sequence and becomes another spotty show.
After this we locate Kids In Action, a two-minute, 40-second clip that features Johnson, Cottrell, Roberts, Garcia, Campbell, Thurber, Flynn and Poppleton. As expected, “Action” covers the movie’s young actors and their performances. Once again, we get a mediocre, puffy piece.
Finally, Pineapple Pitch goes for one minute, 38 seconds and provides statements from Johnson and Thurber. We get a quick chat about how Thurber convinced Johnson to appear in the movie. It’s insubstantial but fairly funny.
The disc opens with ads for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mile 22. No trailer for Skyscraper appears here.
With its mash-up of Die Hard and The Towering Inferno, Skyscraper seems ripe to offer high-flying disaster-oriented thrills. Every once in a while, the movie entertains despite itself, but so much of the film comes across as idiotic and absurd that it only occasionally manages excitement. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio along with supplements highlighted by an excellent commentary. Skyscraper offers a mediocre action film.