Rampage: Big Meets Bigger (2018)

Directed by: Brad Peyton | 108 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, Marley Shelton, PJ Byrne, Demetrius Grosse, Jack Quaid, Breanne Hill, Matt Gerald, Will Yun Lee, Urijah Faber, Bruce Blackshear, Jason liles

Subtitled ‘Big Meets Bigger’, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is the man to have! And when you hear the premise of “Rampage”—with three oversized monsters going wild in Chicago—Johnson is also about the only one that can lure viewers to the movie theaters (or into the DVD stores). With its inimitable combination of charm, winking humor, ass kicking qualities, a pinch of credibility – no matter how ridiculous the concept of the film – and of course its impressive appearance, you’ll want to give almost any film the benefit of the doubt. Can we only enjoy this movie if we have our brain at the door leave it behind and just let it all come over us? We will, Dwayne! So, go, put that bowl of popcorn on your lap and go with that nonsense!

Is it interesting to tell that ‘Rampage’ is a video game edit? Nah, not really. Well, maybe it puts some things in perspective. In that game the intention was to cause as much destruction as possible and you played as one of three monsters: a huge gorilla, wolf or lizard-like beast. So if you wonder while watching the film why the (other) characters are not or barely developed and it only seems to revolve around the monsters and their destructiveness… then you are absolutely right! And so it is a case of the filmmakers who have stayed true to the source. Whether or not this was a good choice, we’ll leave it up to for a while.

‘Rampage’ actually does a lot of things well. Starting with the casting of Dwayne Johnson in the lead role. But also Naomie Harris as a sidekick scientist and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is reprising his role of Negan in ‘The Walking Dead’ as Agent Harvey Russell, are welcome additions to the cast. Malin Akerman and especially Jake Lacy, on the other hand, are cringing as the money-hungry villains who are after the DNA of the monsters. But it’s not just the actors to blame: they have to make something out of poorly written characters, too bland and cartoony for words. If they had mustaches they would have twisted them; they are not yet (film) Nazis.

But we were busy listing the things that ‘Rampage’ does well. Most notable is the actual protagonist of the film: albino gorilla George. This one is beautifully crafted from the computer and has facial expressions and behaviors that really give it a personality. Not only that, but his relationship with Davis Oyoke (Johnson) is almost genuinely moving.

Then there are also a few exciting or impressive set pieces. Like the beginning of the movie where a female astronaut in a burning spaceship has to rescue a bunch of scientific samples while being chased by a mutated rat. Yes, that’s a lot of information to digest, and it seems too exaggerated to be effective, but it’s surprisingly exciting. This is partly because the beast does not come into view for a long time, but you do feel its presence.

Ironically – given the type of movie ‘Rampage’ is – this is also the reason for the tension with the introduction of a mutated wolf not much later. When a bunch of hardened soldiers have to hunt down the wolf, but the tables are about to be turned, you don’t know what to expect. Where does the wolf come from, how will it attack, and exactly how big is it? And does the iron eater in charge perhaps still make a dent in a pack of butter or is it the end of the story after two seconds?

Then there’s an over-the-top scene with George on a plane crashing for minutes as everyone fights for his life. An exciting piece of action cinema.

Yes, and then, of course, there’s the part of the movie everyone’s been waiting for: the moment when all three monsters—talking about how they got so monstrously big is almost irrelevant—arrive in Chicago and start smashing everything to pieces. There are indeed some money shots in this, but strangely enough this is all less exciting than you might think. Not that it’s boring, but it could have been better. There are several reasons for this.

For starters, about half of it has already been shown in the trailer. Then the computer animation is not the same for all creatures top notch, which also applies to the green screen work in some scenes. It is also true that much of the fight and destruction choreography could have been a bit more inspiring. It could have to do with the camera angles, which keep you from being in the middle of it all the time, or the overuse of slow motion, which makes it seem less real and more of a show.

It is also a matter of been there done that. We’ve seen so much, in the Jurassic, Transformer, Avenger, and King Kong movies, that we’ve gotten a little blasé when viewers and filmmakers really have to come up with something new to surprise. In addition, the similarities with other films are very on the nose. The way the flying wolf flies through skyscrapers is reminiscent of the invasion of New York in the first ‘Avengers’ movie. A shot of the lizard-like sea monster diving out of the river and targeting a fighter jet appears to have been copied one-on-one from ‘Jurassic World’, in which the Mesosaurus showed a similar action. And if King Kong bludgeons an enemy away with a bus, you’ll get a ‘Pacific Rim’ flashback. Although it does work well here again and brings a bit of WWF humor into the film. (Something The Rock will appreciate.)

If this last part of the film had been a bit more successful, ‘Rampage’ could have been highly recommended, now it’s just not enough. It also doesn’t help that there is suddenly a too serious tone, when several human victims (albeit survivors) are shown, who are transported between the rubble and the dust clouds of the crashed apartment buildings. Perhaps the intention was good: also to pay attention to the consequences for (ordinary) people, before all kinds of criticism comes again from the moral knights who found the destructive superhero films too irresponsible. But the result is now that an okay popcorn movie suddenly evokes associations with 9/11.

Now, ‘Rampage’ isn’t the type of movie destined for greatness, but it certainly could have been a pretty self-assured b-movie spectacle. However, the film is just a bit too serious, unbelievable and the film has too meaningless characters. The human then. George himself may well come back one more time. If he first takes hold of some scriptwriters…