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Rampage
Rampage - Big Meets Bigger
USA 2018
produced by Beau Flynn, Hiram Garcia, Brad Peyton, John Rickard, Richard Brener (executive), Michael Disco (executive), Toby Emmerich (executive), Jeffrey Fierson (executive), Dany Garcia (executive), Dwayne Johnson (executive), Marcus Viscidi (executive) for ASAP Entertainment, Wrigley Pictures, Flynn Picture Company, 7 Bucks Entertainment, Twisted Media/New Line, Warner Brothers
directed by Brad Peyton
starring Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, Marley Shelton, P.J. Byrne, Demetrius Grosse, Jack Quaid, Breanne Hill, Matt Gerald, Will Yun Lee, Urijah Faber, Bruce Blackshear, Jason Liles, Mac Wells, Allyssa Brooke, Stephen Dunlevy, Danny Le Boyer, Alan Boell, Adam Sztykiel, DJames Jones, Gary Weeks, David An, Arnold Chun, Gregory Hoyt, Suzanne Cotsakos, Ross Philips, Bernard Dowdell, Robin Meade, Chris Murphy, Maria Arcega-Dunn, Jason Sloss, Shannon Halligan, Andy John Roesgen, John Crow, Lane Carlock, Wendy Yang, Skye Notary, Willow Notary
story by Ryan Engle, screenplay by Ryan Engle, Carlton Cuse, Ryan J. Condal, Adam Sztykiel, based on the video game series, music by Andrew Lockington, visual effects by Weta Digital, Hydraulx, Scanline VFX, Universal Production Partners, Mist VFX Studio
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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So there's this lab in outer space where an evil corporation creates
evil supermonsters out of harmless animals. Of course, something goes
wrong, the lab explodes, and somehow the monster serum makes it to earth
in an escape pod where it crashes near an animal sanctuary, where it turns
three animals into giant monsters, a wolf, an alligator, and an albino
gorilla with almost humanlike intelligence. The evil corporation's bosses
(Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy) decides it's a fabulous idea to lure the three
monsters to their headquarters, even though their headquarters are not at
all equipped to handle giant monsters and are in Chicago city center. Of
course, it's also unclear what they even want to do when they have the
monsters in there, but really, who gives a shit. Now there's also a
scientist who formerly worked at the evil corporation, Kate (Naomie
Harris), but created monsters only to cure cancer, and when she found out
what the evil corporation was intending to use the monsters for - not that
that's ever properly revealed, but who gives a shit, right? - she quit her
job. Kate of course knows that ... not sure, probably that monsters are
heading to Chicago city center is not a good idea, but for her knowledge,
the evil corporation is putting the blame on her, so suddenly she's wanted
by the FBI - but then she runs into primatologist Davis Okoye, who's a
good guy because he doesn't like poachers, who can communicate with the
albino gorilla using sign language, who's of course also former Navy Seals
and who's a crack helicopter pilot, and who looks exactly like the Rock
(and is thus played by Dwayne Johnson). So of course, after much to and
fro, everything ends happily, and in the finale the albino gorilla of
course fights side by side with the Rock against the other monsters. Now
I do have a soft spot for giant monster movies ... but what the heck was
this crap? It's unbelievable that this totally generic pile of genre
clichés took four writers to conceive, and even more unbelievable that
somebody not only greenlit it but also spend $120 million on what's
basically a tired B picture yarn. Now the problem with the film on the
story side of things is not so much the plot's silliness, which I at times
find quite charming actually, but its lack of urgency. Sure, there are
three giant monsters wreaking havoc in Chicago, but the finale is actually
anticipated very early in the film, when we first meet the gentle and
intelligent gorilla, and then knowing Dwayne Johnson's character has all
the qualifications to handle the situation, knows a solution to every
problem and basically never errs doesn't exactly spell tension.
Frankly, it's exclusively to Dwayne Johnson's natural charm that one cares
about his character at all - which is more than can be said about the rest
of the paper-thin characters, really. The other big problem with the film
is its special effects, which look entirely too clinical, as if they were
generated by computer rather then out of flesh and blood - and of course
that's exactly true, the problem is it's so obvious: Seeing Chicago
attacked by CGI effects just doesn't carry the same level of excitement
than a monster attack. In all a shame really, as I wanted to like this,
liking monster movies in general, but the film really lacked in terms of
execution.
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