Rated: M
Directed by: Brad Peyton
Screenplay by: Ryan Engle and Carlton Cuse & Ryan J. Condal and Adam Sztykiel
Story by: Ryan Engle, based on the video game Rampage
Produced by: Beau Flynn, John Rickard, Brad Peyton and Hiram Garcia
Director of Photography: Jaron Presant
Music is Composed by: Andrew Lockington
VFX Supervisor: Colin Strause
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
After an experiment in space goes wrong with the Subject destroying the spaceship and allowing canisters containing a genetically mixed pathogen to fall to the Earth – all hell breaks loose as animals’ breath-in the pathogen to exponentially grow into giant mutant monsters.
The focus of the story revolves around Primatologist Davis Okoy (Dwayne Johnson) who has a close relationship with an albino silverback gorilla named George.
So when George inhales the pathogen, it’s up to Okoy and genetic engineer, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) to save the once docile primate and find an antidote.
It’s a solid storyline written by Ryan Engle and based on the video game Rampage – with many of the crew from San Andreas (2015) collaborating again to create Rampage: the third film from Johnson, director Peyton and producer Flynn.
The music is also once again composed by Andrew Lockington, giving the same feel as San Andreas but instead of a disaster film we have a monster film with VFX supervisor Colin Strause returning to create the realistic monsters.
I have to say, as with all the action/adventure films, there’s always that added humour – the quips here a bit weak.
And alligators (one of the monsters) and crocodiles have two eyelids, not one as shown here. I don’t know why I was particularly distracted by this oversight, probably because the effects were otherwise so realistic.
Seeing giant mutants tearing up a city is always fun to watch on the big screen – and the effects here were outstanding (except for that missing eyelid!).
And I couldn’t help but warm to George, the not-so-gentle giant. A little like Primatologist Davis Okoy as the seeming gentle animal lover – who doesn’t get along with humans but loves animals because you always know where you stand and like George, he’s not always so gentle.
So, there were some good parts and some not-so-good making the film a little trashy, but good-trash.
As a side note, the humour in an action movie can make all the difference for me. If there’s some surprising dark humour or a loveable funny character (George, here, I guess), it raises the film-going experience.
The action and effects were high quality here, I just felt the humour was a bit lazy.
Over-all, good fun on the big screen with Johnson firmly at the helm, this time his massive arms over-shadowed by his monster-friend George.
So you get the feel with muscled action, big crashes with explosions mixed with a bit of warmth and humanity: classic Johnson, but better than San Andreas because I like seeing giant mutant monsters tearing up a city.
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