This is George after driving in Chicago traffic.
Or maybe it was me. I’ll have to ask my wife.
Rampage (2018) is a monster movie mixed with another monster, actor Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock of professional wrestling fame. Johnson plays Davis Okoye, former Special Forces military member turned primatologist. His favorite subject? George, an albino gorilla he rescued from poachers after the poachers killed George’s mother. George now leads his troop and communicates with Davis in sign language. And tells dirty jokes.
In orbit, a research experiment in genetics has gone awry, and as the space station explodes, the essential genetic material exits and returns to Earth in re-entry capable capsules. Three of them. One of them lands near George, who – unfortunately – ingests part of it.
Very quickly we have mutated critters wandering about, and – much like those monsters in Pacific Rim (2013) – the humans are quite underwhelming in their response to the challenge. Adding to the fun are some ridiculous bad guys, a few plot twists, and Okoye’s fantastic run of luck, not to mention his turn of phrase:
Of course the wolf flies.
Unfortunately, this movie fails to explore any new thematic territory. The bad guys are motivated completely by financial gain, with no consideration that those to whom they would sell their discovery might use the information to destroy the bad guys. It’s all about a simple-minded quest for cash, which, as you might guess, ends badly – if creatively – for them.
And that’s the heart of the problem with this movie. If the bad guys had some depth to them, this could have been far more interesting and fun. But instead of exploring a rich vein of new, intriguing conundrums, we’re stuck with a played out vein of monsters rampaging – excuse me – across the landscape, and Duane Johnson once again demonstrating he’s more than just a monster from the ring.
But we knew that already, and as fun as that talent can be, it just can’t carry this movie. The acting is fine, the special effects are competent, the science sucks, and the thing that comes from Florida must have been moving faster than a tsunami. It’s a bad sign when the audience is enumerating the science and reality faults of a story. A good story will make you not notice them, but we were noticing them.
It might be a good head-cold movie, or post-fencing tournament movie, when you’re too tired to examine it closely. Then just sit back and enjoy the mayhem.
