Rampage review

RAMPAGE:

A RELENTLESS, MAYHEM-DRIVEN FRENZY OF A MONSTER BRAWL THAT’S OBJECTIVELY BAD BUT SUBJECTIVELY GREAT!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Dwayne Johnson and George in Rampage

            That’s twice in a row this year Warner Bros. gave us a film based on a video game that was flawed but entertaining. First, we had Tomb Raider that stayed faithful to its source material while still being a fun adventure movie on its own, now we got Rampage, based on the popular arcade game.

            Honestly, I should probably hate this movie because I played a lot of the Rampage games, specifically its sequel, Rampage: World Tour, growing up, and the film captures the spirit of the game (For the most part) except for the monsters’ designs. That should be a major turn-off point for me, but I ended up having a stupid, fun time with Rampage and could be a potential follower of dumb blockbusters like Twister and Independence Day as a new guilty pleasure classic.

            The film is directed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2 the Mysterious Island, San Andreas, Frontier) and stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (The Scorpion King, Fast & Furious franchise, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) in their third collaboration together following 2012’s Journey 2 the Mysterious Island and 2015’s San Andreas. This is also the next installment of the unofficial “Rock in the Jungle” franchise consisting of The Rundown, Journey 2 the Mysterious Island, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and now this.

            Let me reiterate, no this is NOT a “Good” movie, it’s relentless and chaotic, the plot is unoriginal, the acting ranges from passable to completely over-the-top, off the rocker, crazy, bad. But it’s fun in how bad and stupid it is, and when the actual Rampage stuff gets going, it’s a blast and a huge improvement over Peyton’s last movie, San Andreas where all he did was make another disaster movie.

            The film follows primatologist, Davis Okoye (Johnson), who shares an inseparable bond with his friend, George, an extraordinarily intelligent silverback gorilla, that has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment goes awry and mutates George into a ferocious creature of enormous size.

            To figure out what’s going on with George, Davis joins up with a discredited genetic engineer named Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris-28 Days Later, Skyfall, Moonlight), who worked for the organization that mutated George, to save his best friend along with the world. However, it’s not going to be easy as there exists two more similarly altered animals, a wolf named Ralph and a lizard named Lizzie that only exist to destroy.

            The film also stars Malin Akerman (Watchmen, Wanderlust, Rock of Ages) as Claire Wyden, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, The Losers, The Walking Dead) as Harvey Russell, Jake Lacy (The Office, Carol, Miss Sloane) as Brett Wyden, Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike, True Blood, Justice League) as Burke, Marley Shelton (The Sandlot, Sin City, Grindhouse) as Dr. Kerry Atkins, P.J. Byrne (Final Destination 5, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Gift) as Nelson, Demetrius Grosse (Straight Outta Compton, Banshee, Justified) as Colonel Blake, Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games, Vinyl, Logan Lucky) as Connor, Matt Gerald (Avatar, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Marvel’s Daredevil) as Zammit, Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day, The Wolverine, San Andreas) as Agent Park, and Urijah Faber (Leverage, Cagefighter, Reach Me) as Garrick.

            Overall, Rampage is enjoyable trash and it really doesn’t take itself seriously aside from a couple backstories. If you’ve seen a Godzilla or King Kong movie, Jurassic Park, or even something like Pacific Rim, you pretty much know what you’re getting into, and the film delivers what it promises, giant monsters destroying a city and The Rock being a badass.

            The CG on the monsters, especially George is surprisingly quite good, and the visual effects artists do a solid job giving an animated ape emotion. It’s no Caesar from the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, but still pretty impressive.

            The action sequences are exciting and filled with disaster/monster movie cheese, how can you not be urged to stand up in the theater and applaud when you see giant gorillas, lizards, and wolves leveling the city, throwing cars and other objects at helicopters, and causing all sorts of mayhem, relentless destruction but you don’t care. None of the action is boring and everything is to the point, so you’re not stuck in a lousy climax that goes on forever like those DAMN TRANSFORMERS MOVIES!

            There is so much to make fun of in this movie, which is the first thing I look for in a film that’s “So Bad it’s Good”. The recycled story and character stereotypes, disaster/monster movie clichés, the destruction of a Dave and Buster’s restaurant (Which should have been called Greasy’s in my opinion), Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s performance, and references to the original game, one in particular had me laughing my ass off because a similar video game reference was used in the infamous Double Dragon movie.

            Even with the characters not looking like their interactive counterparts, Rampage managed to be closer in spirit to its source material and a lot more fun as a movie than any of Uwe Boll’s films (Who coincidentally also directed a movie called Rampage, THANKFULLY NOT RELATED TO THIS!). George is a silverback gorilla in the movie whereas the George from the game looks more like a monster version of Donkey Kong, and yet I’m not complaining.

            Don’t come into this movie looking to nitpick it, trust me you will have a miserable time, instead turn your brain off, munch on your popcorn, and enjoy some special-effects driven chaos, if you can’t get past the stupidity then go see Ready Player One again. It’s probably not as rewatchable as other guilty pleasure blockbusters like Twister or Independence Day, but if you’re a fan of dumb popcorn films, Rampage is a free-for-all of fun.