It`s Christmas Eve at Tower Sky, a super-fancy building complex in Seoul that caters to the most elite of residents. An elaborate party is underway, with helicopters circulating overhead to make it snow for everyone below, when the unthinkable happens. The helicopters spin out of control and crash into one of Tower Sky`s two towers. Residents, guests and employees alike are trapped in a hungry, licking blaze that the arriving firemen can barely contain.
As disaster movies go, the plot is pretty standard: set up all the characters (good, bad, disposable), fling them into the catastrophe, shake, mix and blend for maximum drama. To be honest, the Tower doesn`t really do anything too innovative in this regard. You`ve met all its characters before: well-meaning father Dae-ho (Kim Sang-kyung); sweetly brave love interest Yoon-hee (Son); remarkably determined fire-fighter Young-ki (Sul). Even its supporting characters are archetypes the mother who works as a cleaner to put her son through college; the vaguely villainous Fire Commissioner whose top priority is to save the VIPs; and the elderly couple who bicker but really adore each other.
Fortunately, director Kim Ji-hoon just about manages to make it all work, in no small part due to his very dedicated cast. Sul is the standout Young-ki repeatedly makes choices that most sane (and more selfish) people could never dream of making, but Sul makes him heartbreakingly human rather than unattainably heroic. All of the relationships are predictable but manage to be genuinely affecting nonetheless.
It`d be a sin not to talk about the action sequences in a movie like this one suffice it to say that director Kim Ji-hoon has done himself proud. Disaster upon disaster unfolds onscreen, requiring the characters to tumble, cower, leap, and run for their lives, while constantly plagued by flames, smoke and the spectre of grim, fiery death. It`s a genuine spectacle, and the visuals help the film muscle through the moments when it drags or feels a little too manipulative or manufactured.
Summary: This inferno is no burn-out.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang