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| Rampage (2018) |
So, this is basically a by-the-numbers monster movie with a few twists. That's about the best way I can describe it. And, it does get a little formulaic at times. There are the classic characters you'd expect from a movie like this: the scientist, the army guy, the evil business-people who somehow want to use the monsters destroying everything to make money (not really sure exactly how their plan was supposed to work, but never mind). Where the film shines is when it knows this is what it is. It never breaks the fourth-wall with meta-jokes about the genre, but it steers into the skid, so to speak. It's not anything new or unique, but it's not trying to be. It's just concerned with putting aggressive mutant animals in the middle of a city and having them fight.
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| Lizzie |
Thankfully, the action scenes are ridiculously engaging. They know exactly what to throw at you and when to throw it at you. The final 20-30 minutes of the movie is basically just an all-in fight scene, and it's so much fun to watch. But even before the final showdown, there's enough action dispersed throughout to keep planting seeds of what's to come. Especially that opening scene. Oh, my God, I dare not spoil what happens in that first scene because it was just perfect. It was also a clever idea to endear us to George as soon as possible. There were people in the cinema that, when George was killing people, felt sympathy for the gorilla, just because they built up his relationship with Davis and developed George's personality just enough to make the audience care about a 20-foot gorilla wrecking a city.
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| George |
It also helps that he has excellent chemistry with Dwayne Johnson. Their relationship is honestly one of the highlights of the movie. And Dwayne Johnson once again does a fantastic job in this performance. I'm convinced by this point that he can bring out the greatness in just about any movie he stars in. He just brings this level of authenticity to every performance he gives, and he's one of those actors that no one really hates. It's impossible to hate Dwayne Johnson. He's like a teddy bear that could break every bone in your body but won't because he's such a teddy bear. Especially in the scenes with him and George, despite the fact that I knew George wasn't actually on set, Johnson's performance is just so believable that he actually had me thinking there was a real albino gorilla on set that could communicate with him. It's just an excellent performance, and he's one of the biggest selling-points of the film.
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| Dwayne Johnson as Davis Okoye |
To be honest, the rest of the cast are just there. They do a good job, it's just that their characters are pretty by-the-numbers in terms of characters you'd expect to see in this genre, so it's a little hard for anyone to bring anything noteworthy out of it. That is, except for Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Damn, was this man entertaining to watch. He stole just about every scene he was in, and he brings a certain level of charisma to his performance that just stands out. He's able to go toe-to-toe with Dwayne Johnson in terms of charm, let that sink in. Also because I didn't know where they were going with his character, as opposed to all the others that, again, were pretty standard monster movie characters. I'm not sure if it was the writing or the performance, but this character left a huge impression on me, and was one of the unexpected surprises of the film.
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| Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Harvey Russell |
All in all, Rampage (2018) was an entertaining movie and that's about it. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, if a film entertains me then it's done its job. This was certainly a surprise, and while it probably won't win any awards, it's certainly an experience I'll be sure to come back to in the future. 8/10
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