Universal has released a new Skyscraper trailer. The film is based on an original idea by writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers) and stars Dwayne Johnson as a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader who now assesses security for skyscrapers. While assessing the tallest building in the world in China, the thing goes up in flames and he’s being framed for the crime. In a race against time, Johnson must save his family and clear his name.

On the one hand, I'm pretty excited for a movie that's just a straight action flick that's not based on any pre-existing property. Yes, the Die Hard comparisons are inevitable, but it's still just straight-up action with Dwayne Johnson fighting bad guys and trying to save his family. The downside is just how fake everything looks. The entire movie looks like it was done on a green screen, and while that's par for the course for most tentpoles, those tentpoles also offer up something fantastical like aliens or monsters. In this case, it's just a really tall building that's on fire. The VFX are what they are, but hopefully they're not distracting in the finished film.

Check out the Skyscraper trailer below. The film opens July 13th and also stars Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Noah Taylor, Roland Møller, Byron Mann, Pablo Schreiber, and Hannah Quinlivan.

Here’s the official synopsis for Skyscraper:

Global icon Dwayne Johnson leads the cast of Legendary’s Skyscraper as former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer, who now assesses security for skyscrapers.  On assignment in China he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze, and he’s been framed for it.  A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family who is trapped inside the building…above the fire line.

 

Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence, We’re the Millers), the 3D action-thriller is produced by Beau Flynn (San Andreas, Baywatch), Johnson, Thurber and Hiram Garcia (San Andreas, Central Intelligence).

 

Skyscraper’s executive producers are Dany Garcia (Baywatch, Ballers), Wendy Jacobson (San Andreas), Eric McLeod (Kong: Skull Island, Pirates of the Caribbean series) and Eric Hedayat (The Great Wall, Real Steel).  The film will be released by Universal Pictures.