If you liked the TRANSFORMERS franchise then RAMPAGE may very will be right up your alley. The movie beats the last couple of entries in that franchise in terms of pure escapism and fun but that is not saying much. It is still one big dumb loud blockbuster that offers nothing new. It is hard to hate this movie out of its sheer silliness however it is equally hard to admire anything about it either. Movies like RAMPAGE will keep hitting the screens every month or so because most movie goers enjoy big budget monster movies and they make tons of money at the North American & International box office.
Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is not a big fan of human beings. He lost his faith in humanity after he experienced many violent events during his travels with the military. He prefers to spend his time with George, his loyal gorilla that he saved from a near death experience many years ago. Unfortunately for Davis and George, something sinister falls from the sky and messes up their lives completely. A space experiment went sideways and landed in a few spots across the region, and the animals who came in touch with the mysterious objects transformed into giant creatures destroying everything in their path. You guessed it. The biggest surprise of them all is The Rock will save us all from those monsters.
There are a few things to admire about RAMPAGE and it is not a total disaster. The effects and visuals look good on the big screen, the chemistry between the Rock and George is fun to watch and the most notable performance comes from Jeffery Dean Morgan as secret agent Harvey Russell. Morgan is very cool and fun to watch and he steals the show from everyone else…except from the monsters of course.
Even though the visuals look good, they are on the same level as most of the typical mayhem visuals that we see nowadays in all the destruction monster movies, there is nothing mind blowing here but they do look good on the big screen. What really lets this film down is the screenplay which has some of the most confused writing in recent memory. The filmmakers seem confused about the tone of the film; it is not an action comedy and it is not a serious action film, and I felt really bad for the cast as they struggled so hard to deliver a mish-mash of funny lines in serious moments and serious dialogue in moments intended to be funny.
RAMPAGE is another generic entry in the big budget Hollywood monster portfolio, and it is difficult to recommend much about it but at the same time it is hard to dislike because it is simply inoffensive mindless entertainment.
Rating: 5.5/10
RAMPAGE is now in theatres.