Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Though the film is built around massive structural grandeur, Skyscraper actually tells an intimate tale of a disfigured and desperate father fighting to save his wife and children at all costs. Will Sawyer, portrayed by Dwayne Johnson, is a physically broken man, but his mental toughness and emotional connection to his family are without flaw or fail. The film pairs him again with Director Rawson Marshall Thurber, with whom he worked on Central Intelligence. Skyscraper is a soaring, if not a bit cliché, Action film that shrinks the scope of The Towering Inferno and modernizes the story of Die Hard while building and maintaining a singular focus on Will's determination to save his family, no matter the challenge, the hardship, or the threat to his own well-being.

Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Skyscraper is a movie of great potential for the 3-D conversion process, considering that the film takes place in and around The Pearl, depicted as the tallest building in the world, complete with impressively large spaces one would imagine to be a visual playground for the fledgeling Blu-ray 3-D format. But before reaching those areas and perhaps realizing that opportunity, the film opens in a fairly pedestrian, closed-space interior that does reveal a decent little amount of innate depth and feel for the space, supported by, outside, some floating snowflakes that help give a general sense of place without any seeming to drift out of the screen and into the living room.

The first establishing Hong Kong shot is actually fairly impressive, with fog a differentiating barrier to the skyline and helping to create the illusion of depth. Some quick establishing overhead shots allow the taller buildings to punch out beyond the shorter ones. And, as predicted, the large open areas inside The Pearl largely impress in three dimensions, beginning with the living quarters that house the Sawyer family in the film's early going (while there's still light to help better illuminate the space and contribute to the sense of dimensionality) and continuing on to showcase some of the building's sprawling interiors looking upward and downward as Will and his friend Ben Gillespie ascend through an open area that appears to be dozens of stories tall, leading to Zhao's penthouse that is not only open but showcases a curved staircase with tangible curvature and size. An outdoor sequence that takes place on a ferry and through a crowded staton see the 3-D elements helping to nicely solidify the environmental density (ditto some shots inside a relatively cramped police command trailer seen a few times later in the film). These scenes offer a good contrast to the Pearl's more open spacing.

Once the action shifts to night, the 3-D image often takes advantage of most every opportunity to expand the scope of any given shot, scene, or sequence. One of the most impressive sequences is when Will "breaks in" to the burning Pearl, preforming some acrobatics as he swings about and eventually uses a crane to make his way inside. There's an appreciable, but not dramatic, sense of height and length, the former getting the best of the latter thanks to a downward angled shot when Will makes the leap and barely grabs onto debris to keep from falling to his death. A bit later, Will tries to save his family as they're forced to cross a burning chasm, creating some impressively intense moments of distance and height as his wife and son walk across a narrow beam precariously hanging above a fiery hell below. From there, a few exterior sequences deliver some modestly impressive moments, such as when Will must make his way along the building's exterior and jump through some spinning turbines. The various interiors, even in lower light, maintain that impressive sense of wide-open spacing. Characters are decently shapely along the way, too.

Unsurprisingly, Skyscraper maintains about the same level of textural complexity and color presentation as the counterpart 2-D only Blu-ray. Overall, it's a good conversion with some great moments. It's a fair bit more open and shapely than some other recent 3-D releases that scraped on by with barely anything of note to show for their 3-D processes. The 2-D UHD is still the best way to watch Skyscraper at home, but 3-D fans should find this one a decent enough venture.

Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For a full audio review, please click here.

Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Skyscraper's 3-D disc contains no extras, but the bundled Blu-ray offers the following. For full supplemental reviews, please click here. For convenience, below is a list of what's included. A Movies Anywhere digital copy voucher is included with purchase. The release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Deleted Scenes (2160p/SDR, 12:10 total runtime): Included are Opening Park Scene with the Sawyer Family, Dead Body in the Bathtub, Zhao and Pierce Discuss the Fire in the Pearl, Wu & Han Discuss Will Sawyer -- Cantonese and English, and Try Hard. With optional director commentary.
• Extended Scenes (2160p/SDR, 10:18 total runtime): Farm House Opening, Bag Steal, Xia Blows Up the Off-Site Facility, Park Fire with Boiling Water, and Sand Barge Shootout. With optional director commentary.
• Dwayne Johnson: Embodying a Hero (2160p/SDR, 4:04).
• Inspiration (2160p/SDR, 4:12).
• Opposing Forces (2160p/SDR, 2:35).
• Friends No More (2160p/SDR, 3:21).
• Kids in Action (2160p/SDR, 2:40).
• Pineapple Pitch (2160p/SDR, 1:38).
• Audio Commentary (2160p/SDR, 1:38): with Writer/Director Rawson Marshall Thurber.

Skyscraper 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Skyscraper doesn't offer anything new of note, but it's a thrilling, well constructed, and nicely performed Action film that takes familiar formulas and does its best to personalize the hero's journey from start to finish. It's a good time Action delight that genre fans should find to be a pleasant escape. Universal's Blu-ray 3-D release delivers decent (converted) extra-dimensional visuals, unflappable Atmos audio, and a nice assortment of extra content. Worth a look, but the UHD is by far the best way to watch the movie at home.