Skyscraper 4K Blu-ray delivers stunning video and reference-quality audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
A security expert must infiltrate a burning skyscraper, 225 stories above ground to rescue his family who is trapped inside...above the fire line.
For more about Skyscraper 4K and the Skyscraper 4K Blu-ray release, see Skyscraper 4K Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on October 14, 2018 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
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.
The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.
Theatrically, Skyscraper appeared overwhelmingly dark for many of its scenes and through much of its runtime. That of course holds here; the
movie has not fundamentally changed with the transition to home video, but the Dolby Vision color presentation does handle the movie's darkness and
sporadic lighter moments extremely well, finding an appropriate balance between frequent blackness and the often dim light sources that illuminate the
frame. Right form the beginning, in a flashback sequence, blinding blue and red police sirens and red lasers beaming from weapons, both set against
lower light environments, prove brilliantly intense and realistic. Beyond that scene, the film's opening act offers the most consistently and evenly lit
scenes, which reward viewers with high yield color stability and saturation. As the action shifts to night exteriors and low-light Pearl interiors
for the second and third acts, the Dolby Vision coloring handles warm reds, intense fiery oranges and yellows (particularly during nighttime exterior
shots showing the burning building), boldly colored digital screen readouts, and low-light and nighttime blacks and shadow details with impressive
command of each color within any environmental challenge. Take a look at an interesting juxtaposition in the 68-minute mark, a scene that sees
Sawyer attempting to move from one location to another across the building's exterior. He's battered and bruised, his shirt filthy, his face bloodied and
dirty, and he wraps fresh, unblemished white rope around him, which dazzles with intensity against the well-worn garment and dark, smoky
surroundings. The Dolby Vision color presentation is always capable of fine-tuning the color from scene-to-scene, ensuring proper balance between all
elements, critical in a movie of this style and far superior to the Blu-ray in that regard.
Texturally, the 2160p image, upscaled to 4K, excels. The presentation is super sharp and clarity is off the charts. Even in darker scenes, viewers will
spot Will's dramatically deep and detailed pores and individually identifiable facial hairs, not to mention be able to count beads of sweat accumulating
on
his forehead and, later, bear witness to the accumulating grime and blood that cover his face. The same may be said of his shirt as it gradually frays,
becomes splattered in blood and dirt, and ages a lifetime in hours through the hellacious fires and impossible challenges the hero faces along the way,
from leaping off a crane to jumping through spinning turbines, not to mention battling the film's villains. The film's various locales, from bustling Hong
Kong streets to refined interiors inside the Pearl, absolutely shine on UHD, reveling every textural detail with ease, even later in the film
through the bleakly lit locations. The refinement over the Blu-ray is appreciable in terms of textural accuracy and is a welcome benefit of the 4K
release, perhaps not so much as the dynamic Dolby Vision coloring but definitely another reason to choose UHD over the Blu-ray. Mild noise does
creep
into the frame on several occasions and the only serious drawback beyond that is some light aliasing that can be seen in some overhead establishing
city shots in the film's opening title sequence. Otherwise, Skyscraper soars on UHD.
Skyscraper's UHD disc contains all of the supplements found on the Blu-ray. For full supplemental reviews, please click here. For
convenience, below is a list of what's included. A Blu-ray copy of the film and a
Movies Anywhere digital copy voucher are 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 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 UHD delivers striking video, unflappable Atmos audio, and a nice assortment of extra content. Highly recommended.
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