a RAMPAGE musing

The ever present Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson brings that signature charisma to the table once again, this time in a monster disaster movie, “based” on an arcade video game. I usually don’t actively seek out trailers, but the few I did happen to catch for RAMPAGE looked cheesily endearing. It looked like what drove the film was truly this weird familial relationship between Davis (The Rock) and George, the albino gorilla. For the most part, the movie establishes that friendship well, but can’t do anything interesting outside of that.

There are a lot of missteps and questionable decisions made directorially, but that’s not to say director Brad Peyton can’t direct engaging visual noise. I haven’t seen enough of the TRANSFORMERS franchise (after giving up after the second one) to say if he directs more interesting action, but there are a few Michael Bay-inspired shots. The movie has a classic 90’s action movie formula, and doesn’t take itself too seriously nor have anything to really say. It’s here to just be a giant-monster-smash-fest and nothing more.

RAMPAGE coasts on Dwayne Johnson’s heartwarming rapport with a gorilla and a few (maybe, like… 2?) thrilling parts within set pieces, while the other actors flounder, and the script doesn’t throw out any life preservers. Most times even Johnson can’t even sell any of the quips given to him. The early scenes in the San Diego Zoo fall flat on their face and put me in a bad mood early on.

RAMPAGE slots into the mediocre video game adaptation ‘genre’ along with all other video game adaptations. (Seriously, did that “Rampage” arcade game have to be in the Wyden office? THAT RAISES SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT NEVER HAD TO BE ASKED.) It kinda makes me sad to give this rating to this movie, but there just seemed to be a lot of missed opportunities and weird choices made.

RATING: I HATE MY LIFE

(Refer to my rating system HERE!)