Rampage (2018) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline: Big Meets Bigger

Global icon Dwayne Johnson headlines the action adventure Rampage, directed by Brad Peyton. Johnson stars as primatologist Davis Okoye, a man who keeps people at a distance but shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, incredibly rare albino silverback gorilla who has been in his care since he rescued the young orphan from poachers. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with discredited geneticist Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.

Storyline: Primatologist Davis (Dwayne Johnson) shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent silverback gorilla who has been in his care since he was young. When a greed-fueled corporation's genetic experiment goes awry, George and other animals across the country are mutated into aggressive supercreatures who destroy everything in their path. In this adrenaline-filled ride, Davis tries to find an antidote, not only to halt a global catastrophe but also to save the fearsome creature who was once his friend. Written by Warner Bros.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, July 18, 2018 Rampage is based on an arcade and later home console video game of the same name that hasn't seen any new variants in quite some time but that apparently remains popular enough to make the jump to the big screen. The film, starring Dwayne Johnson and Directed by Brad Peyton (who have previously collaborated on Journey 2 and San Andreas), tells the story of a few genetically modified animals running amok and wreaking havoc through Chicago. It's becoming like a broken record to say, but there's absolutely nothing here of novel interest. It's big, yes, it's intensive, sure, but it's also very basic beyond the digital smoke and mirrors, the seamless special effects and grand scale action pieces that attempt to divert attention away from the absence of substance. But to the film's credit it largely plays to type, makes no pretenses about aspiring to anything more than modern entertainment, so it's at least unpretentious as it goes about its business of loud and destructive creatures toppling buildings and swatting aircraft from the sky in what is essentially a 21st century take on classic 50s mutated monster movies.

In space, a science experiment goes horribly wrong. A small crew is killed and the station hurtles back to Earth after it was destroyed by a mutated rat, the byproduct of a risky genetic engineering process known as CRISPR, which, when misused, has been deemed a weapon of mass destruction. Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), once an elite military fighter, has since devoted his life to the science of primatology. He has befriended an albino ape named George who accidentally comes into contact with a mutating pathogen that has fallen to Earth from the doomed space station. The ape, and a pair of other creatures -- a wolf and an crocodile -- are exposed. They quickly grow in size and become all but indestructible. Davis, alongside a genetic engineer named Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), finds himself in the middle of a nightmare scenario as the mutated creatures rampage through Chicago. Meanwhile, Claire Wyden (Malin Åkerman), CEO of the company behind the pathogen's development and isolated space research, scrambles to recover her assets at any cost.

Rampage's foundational opening act is an exercise in basic and plodding exposition that's nothing more than a necessary introductory framework to put the action into motion, to get to the movie's red meat of destroying buildings and shooting lots of weapons. It's flat -- characters and story alike -- whether considering heroes or corporate villains. Davis is ex-special forces. Kate is a mind with a good heart. The villainess is a sexy, greedy mastermind with a bumbling idiot of a brother whose sole purpose is comic relief. Harvey is MiB with little to do other than add some swag to the movie. It's all terribly generic and dimwitted. But the movie is not out to change the world. It's formulaic but not quite to a fault. Peyton keeps the focus on building towards action until the movie's second half emerges as wall-to-wall mayhem.

And in that regard, audiences are going to get their money's worth. Rampage pushes all the right action and visual effect buttons, putting together a large-scale and seamless extravaganza that, structurally, hearkens back to yesterday's giant monster movies with all the amenities of a 21st century visual effects sensation. There are some admittedly good stretches. In the second half, the creatures run wild through Chicago, tearing up cars, smashing buildings, and taking on and taking down military equipment. As the animals grow, the approach to battle them evolves, beginning with a few guys with guns that becomes Apaches and A-10 Warthogs that becomes tanks that becomes a stealth bomber carrying MOABs (Mother of all bombs). Of course nothing works because a dead, bullet-riddled monster 50 minutes into the movie just isn't going to cut it. But the bullets and bombs continue to fly and the destruction grows exponentially more chaotic and widespread and it's quite a bit of fun if one can sit back and enjoy the ride rather than sweating the movie's absolute lack of dramatic pull.

Johnson falls into the part with ease, unsurprising considering that he's not doing much of anything out of his San Andreas or Skyscraper comfort zone. His interactions with George are a treat, and Johnson, as always, shines in the personality game, proving he's more than a muscled physique. The rest of the cast is effectively forgettable, largely because the characters are so tiresomely stock (even Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whose portrayal of the mystery government agent has half the swag but much the same body language as his character from The Walking Dead, which is clearly now part of his DNA), but that keeps the focus where it needs to be: on the action, on Johnson, and on George and the other two creatures, all of which are big enough to carry the movie to a simplistic sweet spot of big and dumb but lots of fun.

Rampage delivers high-yield effects-laden entertainment, but its substance is no more than a stable of stale stereotype characters and a stock story straight out of 50s Sci-Fi monster movies. Nevertheless, it works very well as intended; audiences will have to decide, though, if pure escapism and digital wonders are enough to cover up the near total absence of anything else of value. Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release of Rampage delivers a positive overall experience, yielding strong video, high-end audio, and a decent smattering of extra content. Recommended.

[CSW] -3.8- Overall, this is a popcorn movie. However, I like the sci-fi aspect that drove the plot - gene editing gone awry. In real life, gene editing is in its infancy and scientists are looking into applications, but the science remains very controversial. Those involved with CRISPR now hawk the capabilities to correct genetic mistakes that result in congenital diseases while the possibility of designer babies is not too far from the minds of scientists interested in cashing in. The recent movie, The Titan, showed how gene editing could be used to change humans so they can adapt to long distance space travel. Sounds like a noble idea, right? Yet that movie raised many ethical questions about this new technology. If you can change a human that can no longer live on Earth, is it still human? Here gene editing is used to create weaponized creatures that can wreak havoc, all to make money. Totally plausible but extremely scary. In real life much of the advancement in gene editing has been cloaked in secrecy, so the movies are really great in raising the possibilities and questions about how this science should advance, given the ethical issues it raises. That's really what Science Fiction was always meant to do, whether in print or on the screen. Definitely catch it. Another Rock hit. Harris was very good, as was the rest of the supporting cast. Morgan had too much of his Walking Dead swagger to avoid the connection between this character and that one. You decide.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box really enhanced this movie.
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