Rampage Review
PG-13: Sequences of violence, action and destruction, brief language, and crude gestures.
Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema
1 Hr and 47 Minutes
Dir: Brad Peyton | Ryan Engle, Carlton Cuse, Ryan J. Condal, Adam Sztykiel
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Åkerman, Joe Manganiello, Jake Lacy, Marley Shelton, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
In 2005, my dad had this game called “Midway Arcade Treasures 2” for PS2 which was a collection of around 20 arcade games in one disc. There were games such as “Gauntlet II” and “Mortal Kombat II”, but one of my favorite games to play was “Rampage World Tour”. You get to play as one of three monsters and your prime objective was to destroy an entire city. My 7-year-old mind was blown... until you were defeated, your monster turns back to a human, and you realize that he was mutated and I just thought that was stupid. Now, if you went back in time to tell me that, in the future, a feature film adaptation of “Rampage” was going to be made with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the starring role, I would’ve laughed and thought that was dumber than the game itself. Lo and behold, IT IS!
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry transforms this gentle ape into a raging monster. As these newly created monsters tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
THE GOOD
Ten years ago, when you saw Dwayne Johnson’s name on a film’s poster, you kind of proceeded with caution before going in. Nowadays, when you see his name on a film’s poster, you go in with no hesitation for he has developed to become a really good actor who knows how to command screen presence with his charm and charisma. It doesn’t matter how crazy the story is on its own or how stupid anything is, because when you have a movie starring Dwayne Johnson, you’re there for Dwayne Johnson. The majority of the people who are going to see this are unaware of the source material, but not of Johnson.
It is truly no surprise to say that Johnson carries this movie. His character (Davis) is a Primatologist. The bond he has with George the gorilla is well developed. Throughout the film, Davis is motivated to save his friend who he cares for on an emotional level. I loved the way the two cared for each other and the way they communicated, which is through sign language. We just saw ASL used as the primary communicator in “A Quiet Place” which was a mainstream movie. And now we have ASL being the emotional communication rift between man and gorilla in a BLOCKBUSTER! Kudos to Hollywood for utilizing the ASL language in cinema nowadays because I am here for it.
Whenever the film focuses on Davis’ journey to taming George and him having to team up with a doctor named Kate, most of the pieces work; so when it leads up to Davis & George vs. Wolf & Croc, you’re on the edge of your seat like a kid watching WWE. That climax might as well have been a WWE match considering the fact that The Rock is there.
For this being an epic blockbuster, the visual effects are really good. The animals integrate so well with their surroundings that it makes the destruction look realistic for the most part. I barely got that feeling with “Pacific Rim” but here, you see these murderous monsters interacting with the stuff they’re next to and it’s effective. Yeah they don’t look like the monsters from the game because, well, the real world doesn’t have the same colorful vibrancy as the video game. The wolf and croc may be CG, but George was performed by a guy named Jason Liles who delivered his performance through mo-cap. Because of the gorilla being created through motion capture, George thoroughly looks realistic where he is detailed from the fur to his expression and battle scars.
If there is anything I would praise director Brad Peyton on, it’s how he can make sequences of destruction surprisingly engaging and fun more often times than not. Other directors, especially Michael Bay, fail to do this, but not Peyton. I would consider Brad Peyton to be a more competent Michael Bay where his big-budgeted destruction is excessive but at the same time it’s engaging and visually crowd pleasing. Besides, this movie is called “Rampage” based on a game where you are to destroy buildings, eat people, and beat the ever loving crap out of the military that’s shooting at you. When the movie abides by the source material, IT DELIVERS! You might have to take caution with the PG-13 rating because people are gruesomely killed throughout the movie, but just like “San Andreas”, Peyton does it in a way that is twistedly fun to watch. Even on a cinephile level, “Rampage” is very reminiscent of classic monster movies where destruction is key, but you’re rooting for the monsters.
THE BAD
When the movie is focused on the monsters rampaging, it works. When the movie focuses on Johnson and George, it works. Together, that is a good 40% of the movie... which means 60% of it really doesn’t work. I apologize for continuing to compare this to “San Andreas”, but I can’t shake the feeling that all of the faults (no pun intended) just carried over into “Rampage”. One of the biggest gripes I had against “San Andreas” was that it focused on way too many characters when it could’ve been condensed to around four instead of like, seven. That element is carried over to here where we center on way too many different characters with different subplots that all feel like a different movie. “Rampage” often deviates from being “Rampage” so it can unnecessarily try to dip its foot into other genres.
Every single actor outside of Johnson feels like they’ve walked in from different sets and were barely given any direction with their performance. Johnson knows what movie he’s in, but everyone else thinks they’re in a cartoon or something. The film’s main two antagonists are a brother-sister duo played by Malin Åkerman and Jake Lacy... and boy whenever the camera rolls on them, the tone is drastically off. Åkerman is cartoonishly slimy, like a villain in a Captain Planet episode, and Jake Lacy is just friggin’ goofy. Jake Lacy gives an appalling over-the-top performance that makes all sense of tension disappear. They’re the two we’re supposed to fear because they made the gas that caused these animals to genetically transform into monsters and are evil, but at the same time they’re just cartoonish. THEY’RE PRACTICALLY YZMA AND KRONK BUT NOT AS FUNNY NOR COMPATIBLE!
Speaking of characters that also felt like they walked off another project, can someone tell Jeffrey Dean Morgan that he’s not Negan?! When Morgan’s character Harvey is introduced he starts monologuing and embodying all the mannerisms of Negan. The only difference is that he has an iPad instead of a baseball bat. But thankfully his iPad helps out the lazy writers for giving exposition for our leads. Seriously, one of the first things Harvey does is give us the expositional backstory of Davis and Kate from an iPad and directs that information to the audience. I was surprised that he didn’t finish by breaking the fourth wall and saying, “Here you go. This is all you need to about your leads and this all you’re going to get. Now can I go back to ‘The Walking Dead’? I still have my lean. All I’m missing is my bat.”
Besides the imbalance of characters who disrupts the overall tone, what makes the film worse is the fact that it constantly tries to justify itself for being a science fiction movie by having characters ramble, explaining the science for why the animals are acting up and growing. If you are a dumb movie with a dumb premise, don’t spend the majority of the time trying to make up for it by explaining stupid mumbo jumbo, especially when your movie is based on a dumb arcade game called, "Rampage" . By that point, you’re trying to make your brainless source material look smart.
The game is pretty straightforward and doesn’t take time giving you a workload of exposition as to why these animals are so damn big. Just like game, embrace your idiocracy instead of trying to be something you’re not: smart. Compare this to another big-budgeted blockbuster like “Kong: Skull Island” which wasn’t smart, but what it had in its favor was style and a consistent focus. There were way too many underdeveloped characters, but director Vogt-Roberts embraced the idiocracy and made up for it with fun action and mesmerizing visuals. “Rampage” only has the fun action sequences, but it’s sporadic until it gets to the climax.
LAST STATEMENT
Despite the fun campiness of the climax that abides by the silly source material and star power of Dwayne Johnson, “Rampage” fails to come close to being a solid recommendation due to the convoluted plot and inconsistency of tones.
Rating: 2/5 | 44%
Super Scene: George and Davis go to war.
