Rampage Review

Get ready for a large monster based film with Rampage, another movie that aims to adapt a game. I'm not familiar with the original inspiration, but I suppose that doesn't matter too much as this is a typical release within the smash and explode genre. They do attempt to throw a bit of a back story and general plot in which is appreciated. It felt somewhat like King Kong vs Godzilla with a wolf thrown in as opposed to an original idea. Whatever the case, it's the Rock working with animals until one gets poisoned. It is of course one of his closest animal pals, an albino gorilla.

There's a whole set of sequences that develop this aspect, but I won't spoil any of those parts of the experience. A similar event happens in other locations and things kick off from there. The government gets involved and everything is relatively calm until an unexpected signal sends the beasts heading towards Chicago for an epic clash. There are explosions, smashing and creatures switching sides against one another with some human portions thrown in to borderline develop a story.

If you're looking for mass amounts of destruction, property damage and cheese then this fits the bill. The battles were mostly epic with some wild over the top sequences. The acting was alright with the Rock presenting his usual charisma and playing himself once again. There are some side characters involved, but they're somewhat limited. I will however mention that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was excellent as a special member of the government.

The ape was well developed having some clear moments of connection to the audience and very expressive throughout. The visuals were fine, it wasn't the most well shot of films I've seen yet alright. The CGI did falter at times looking bad though for the most part it was absolutely fine. I did feel that they cheated a bit for some of the destruction since there was a lot of smoke used. This basically hides the distance of buildings collapsing making it easier to show larger crumbling areas.

The Conclusion

Rampage was fine, it's about what I expected it to be which is a big monster smashing explosion fest. I did appreciate their attempts to thrown in some story and the effort to fully explain the process behind the creatures. The ape had a lot of personality and the Rock is charismatic as usual. There's some well delivered humor, lots of destruction and action the whole way through as the pacing keeps going.

I certainly found it odd how it would fall on a spectrum of realistic and then go all the way to the other side being cartoonish. There wasn't much balance there and it was all over the place, especially with some of the deaths. Rampage is decent, by first glance you know what to expect for it yet there was still something more to it.

Rampage Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Warner Brothers

Rating Overall: 6.5