Rent The Tower (2012)

The Tower review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

Though I am not paid by the word I believe my editor expects more than just a couple of sentences for each of my film reviews, if this were not the case however I would happily sum up Korea’s The Tower as a poor man’s Towering Inferno, as the story, action set pieces and even some of the problems and solutions are essentially the same in both movies – the differences being a few decades and a change in language.

As I am expected to elaborate however I will do so, as follows:

Though the Tower is reasonably enjoyable, any seasoned film goer will struggle not to compare the film with the 70’s Hollywood original; unlike its more successful predecessor however the Tower lacks greatly in characterization where we were previously provided with a number of well rounded individuals we are instead here offered far too many characters with far too few characteristics. The typical archetypes appear of course, their motivation obvious and inherently human – a child trapped in the building, a man forced to choose between his lover and his daughter – but ultimately one dimensional.

Though the disaster/action aspect of the narrative is well paced and reasonably well executed, thanks to some very good CG, this too relies too heavily on the all too familiar stereotypes of the genre but is unable to play them out with the edge of the Hollywood original.