Rampage (Review)

Rampage is What You Expect, A Terrible Movie with Awesome Action Scenes

Here’s the thing about the new Rampage movie; it’s an awful movie, but it’s not an awful video game movie. Of course, there’s a bit of a sliding scale when it comes to that genre, but I have to give the film a little credit. It’s no Tomb Raider, but it’s a far cry from The Rock’s last video game movie, Doom. That being said, Rampage is a mess of a film with plot holes as almost as big as the giant monsters in it. The only saving grace is the charm of good old Dwayne Johnson and the fact that it’s a pretty fun movie at times.

By this point, you’ve probably realized that Dwayne Johnson plays the same character with varying degrees of gruffness. This time around he’s a primatologist… Who was also served in Special Forces, of course. The groans only start there as Rampage tries to squeeze in as many unnecessary details and tropes as it can. Luckily, Johnson manages to do what he does best no matter how terrible the role is. He finds his footing in between long sequences of poorly written dialogue and sullen staring off into the distance and manages to bring a bit of the old razzle-dazzle. Of course, he’s not nearly as fun as he was in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but I don’t think Johnson is being particularly picky with a lot of the movies he’s taking these days.

Rampage is based off an old school video game where players choose a giant monster and proceed who can rack up the most points destroying a city. That’s all the film had to work with, which is probably why the movie has plot holes big enough for those giant monsters to fit through. Of course, it also probably didn’t help that Rampage had four writers contributing to the script. In retrospect, it makes sense that this movie suffered from a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. It swerves back and forth between over sentimental sequences to 80’s action cliches and refuses to embrace either. The seams are pretty obvious looking back at it and it’s almost as though scenes were divided up between people and then cobbled together for the final product. The differences from scene to scene is almost jarring as Rampage goes from wannabe comedy to attempting to tug at heartstrings to being just knocking over buildings. At least it manages to keep you on your toes. It’s just not in a good way.

Alright, I’ve given Rampage enough flack for its issues (and trust me there’s plenty more where that came from), but I will admit that a lot of the movie was actually pretty fun. Of course, those scenes tended to be fun because they were mindless action sequences, but that’s where Rampage excels. It’s a pure popcorn movie that tries to be more than that and fails. It works for all the scenes where the giant monsters are doing exactly what you came to see. In that regard, I will admit that I found myself cheering for the heroes as an epic battle royale runs the majority of the third act.

Director Brad Peyton has plenty of experience with Dwayne Johnson having worked with him on two other movies before. This is probably why this film feels so tailored to him. It’s also probably why the movie feels like a kindred spirit to San Andreas, which is unfortunate. It’s clear that Rampage has no intention of trying to be a giant monster movie and ends up more like a disaster film in the end. The creatures featured in the film are bland and surprisingly inconsistent when it comes to their designs, which is so unfortunate because there are times where you can see the movie struggling to do something right. Instead, the movie focuses on the destruction they wreck across the film. More effort seems put into the computer-generated buildings falling then the monsters knocking them over.

Rampage is an unfocused mess that lumbers around like one of the giant monsters in it. The characters are embarrassingly cliche, especially when it comes to Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays a Texan with a Homeland Security badge and a belt buckle to match it. The story is a mess with so many issues that it’s impossible not to wrinkle your brow and ask what the hell is going on constantly throughout it. However, it is a great mindless action blockbuster if you can drown out everything else. It’s The Rock fighting giant monsters. If you’re expecting high art when you walk through the doors then you were doomed to be disappointed from the get-go. That’s not an excuse for the problems it has, but it is quite a spectacle to behold when a giant gorilla, mutant wolf, and monstrous alligator throw down in the middle of Chicago. Johnson just happens to be the cherry on top.