A giant ape, a giant wolf and a giant crocodile walk into a city—let’s see what happens next.
“Rampage” is directed by Brad Peyton and has an all-star cast: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman and Joe Manganiello.
“Rampage” is based on the 1986 arcade game of the same name. It tells the story of a science experiment gone wrong, mutating three animals into massive creatures of rage. The primatologist close to the ape, George, has to find a way to save the world before the monsters get out of hand.
I was also annoyed that the film did the same thing that the director’s previous film, “San
Andreas,” did; they introduce The Rock in his profession with other workers who are never seen again once the danger begins. What was the point of even including them other than showing how awesome The Rock’s character is? I do have to say that the main antagonists of the film, Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy, leave something to be desired.
They have a fair chemistry in their scenes together, yet when you have human antagonists compared to giant monsters, you can never take them seriously. This is seriously highlighted in the fact that their motivations and reasoning are never explained, and the plan they form is downright dim-witted.
I also liked how the film did not waste too much time in kicking the plot into gear.
From the time the film opens up until the climax begins, interesting things happen, but only in between many more scenes of slow buildup that had nothing special about them in terms of dialogue or cinematography.
While it does take a long while to get to what we all went to see the movie for, when it is happening it is quite the spectacle and quite surprisingly brutal. The film does not once shy away from showing the carnage and does not avoid showing characters getting eaten and trampled. I also cannot deny it is awesome to see giant monsters fighting the military and themselves.
The monsters also had some great designs and sounds to their roars. They each moved in a unique way and all had a sense of danger with them and would be terrifying if they were real.
One more gripe I have is that the ending of the film rubbed me the wrong way in going for the cheap laugh instead of emotional payoff. If you see the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
“Rampage” is in no way the worst thing to ever come to theaters, and it can be quite fun when it really wants to be. However, it does take quite a while to get to those fun bits. I do not see myself ever going out of my way to see this movie in theaters again, but maybe if the Blu-ray is on sale in the Walmart bin.
