Rampage — scrobble.life

Last night had nothing to watch after I got from home so decided to look at those movies I put aside for moments like this, its the case of Rampage (2018), its not an official Monster Verse movie in like Godzilla and Kong realm but it gets close, still I'm glad its not because the Rock is in it, not that I consider him a bad actor but for sure not my favorite actor when it comes to action movies, his movies are entertaining but still.

After watching the movie I found out this movie is based on the classic 1986 arcade game Rampage, been such an old game I doubt there is much lore about it and that it would be massively off from the game story. The game itself was pretty simple - you played as a giant gorilla, wolf or lizard and your goal was to destroy as many buildings as possible while avoiding military strikes, as I mention not exactly a lot of story into it to develop an entire movie, but that's probably why they throw in Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, some science about genetic editing and a budget for massive CGI destruction, and then we get a movie that's exactly what shows on the cover, a loud monster smash fest that doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is, a movie that knows its audience and delivers exactly what they came for, but I have to say the movie does have a cringe dialogue and very little character development that makes me wonder if the writers spent more time thinking about how to make a giant giant monsters smash everything around them or spend some time developing a story that could get you somewhere.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2231461/
Platform: AppleTV+

Rottentomatoes Rating

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Source The hole dna modifying is the big thing of the movie, that's how monsters came to be and the movie starts in a space station where a genetically modified rat goes crazy once it escape and start killing almost everyone except one scientist name Kerry Atkins, who was trying to save research samples before the station explodes, to be honest I couldn't find a reason why he survive, but he did and probably is one of the main flaws of the movie that some things just happen without much context and that's why I mention how it seems the movie puts most of the time developing the visuals than the story itself.

The samples Kerry save had a pathogen created by a corporation called Energyne to genetically edit other living things. Kerry did manage to escape with the samples before the station blew up but her pod also falls apart when entering back Earth, but the samples containers remain in one piece and spread across the US, one landed in San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary where Davis Okoye, role played by The Rock; works as a primatologist with a military background, special forces. Davis has a special bond with an Albino Gorilla, the one from the movie cover, Davis rescued him from illegal hunters and similar to other movies they communicate with each other through sign language. At the Sanctuary, George is expose to the pathogen and starts to grow dramatically, this also alter him in other ways making him extremely aggressive almost out of control, George is not the only one mutating, there are other animals at the Sanctuary too so Davis has his hands full while trying to help his friend George.

The moment they show other animals mutating in a single area you pick up the plot real quick and the movie does tend to become very predictable although entertaining, I would describe this movie as the type where you dont want to think so much and just go with the flow while having a good time. There were two other containers that make it out of the space stations so we got our two other main monsters, a Wolf from Wyoming and a crocodile from the Everglades, this last two start moving towards Chicago. Within the movie there is your classic mad scientist or villain in this case Energyne CEO Claire Wyden, role played by Malin Akerman; who mostly care about the research and company without carrying about the innocent civilians who might die along the way as the monsters keep moving.

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Source The movie inst necessary bad as I mention but it does lack character development, but Dwayne Johnson does a good job as the main character, he has that natural charisma and physical presence, and now that I think about the main character could have been worst if they go F&F all over the top with the ex special force soldier theme turn into some sort of vigilante on high alert for illegal hunters but the movie doesn't, through acting and personality I think the character was smooth enough but still a bit cringe and cheesy at times, his relationship with George is another aspect that saves the character and the movie since its a surprisingly very touching relationship that builds up through the movie with the contrast of how George turns and how it was before his mutation.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan aka Negan, in my opinion steals the show and after watching the movie I ask myself why is it that some actors just never feel like their characters sux even though the script does, its the case of Jeffrey Morgan, I'm not sure if its because he became so famous from TWD and the other great productions he has been part of. This time he plays the role of a special government agency agent called Harvey Russell who does know what the hell is going on with this monsters as everyone else is trying to figure it out, its actually a bit of a similar style of character as Negan where it feels he is a step ahead everyone else on the room, this makes the movie far more entertaining that it would be without him, agent Russell plays a kinda neutral ground in this hole mess.

I have always heard how the villain part on a script is always the hardest to pull off by the actor, in the case of Rampage (2018) I consider it to be the worst, its like they fully focus on monsters scenes and as they start going through the rest of the characters the villains were at the end of the line and really fall short of significant context and development, we have the classic evil corporate siblings and to be honest makes very little contribution for the movie itself, I would rather focus on mutating animals attacking the city with Davis and Harvey looking for ways to stop them rather than looking for who is responsible.

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Source The ending of the movie is exactly what you would expect, if I have seen Rampage before Godzilla X Kong then the fight scenes at the city would be so familiar almost like a copy paste, what makes the ending special or at least make the audience root for Davis is when he teams up with George again once he gets an antidote, George actually eats Claire while she had the antidote, another reason might make the viewers root for George as divine justice is serve. At the end there is this final battle between George and the wolf monster who they identify as Ralph, its a pretty good one considering they destroy half of Chicago, I'm wondering why they use giant Crocodiles on this kind of movies? or Lizards? they never have a chance against someone like George plus there is Davis on the movie that in a classic The Rock fashion knows how to operate all kind of battle vehicles been its more classic a helicopter. I dont want to go too much into details about the ending since I already drop the beans on most important aspects of the movie and believe me there are not too many, but over all its a good ending considering what the movie is and the reach this movie was created for, I'm sure it was not trying to be better than any Godzilla movie rather just another action packed monster movie.

In my opinion Rampage (2018) can be a good occasional entertaining movie that we watch on cable when there is nothing else to watch you just go for it as your best option, its set to be a big dumb monster movie where you dont have to think much about it and to be honest I doubt this movie was trying to have a huge impact on the genre of humanity. On that level I think the movie succeeds, some might even call it a very average movie or mediocre but the truth is that not every movie has to be a block buster to be entertaining, there are many monster movies and natural disaster movies where the main attraction doesn't take too long to develop or screen time, making the entire movie be the trailer.

The CGI and practical effects are good enough, specially with the creatures that some times are the hardest part to make them look at least ok if not "natural", plus the action sequences are very cool towards the end of the movie during the big fight. If I have to pick this is not the worst movie The Rock has been in, but for me when things are not so clear on how bad this movie is I always think about how I would feel if I watch it at the cinema and the answer is not so good, very meh, reason why I give it a 6/10.

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