Rampage ***½ (2018, Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy) – Movie Review

Director Brad Peyton’s monster movie Rampage is daft and disposable but likeable, fast paced, dynamic and a lot of fun, with good effects and a strong score (Andrew Lockington), and a winning central turn by Dwayne Johnson as oddball loner primatologist Davis Okoye, who talks to the animals, in particular forming a bond with George, the intelligent silverback gorilla. But George is about to become a giant beast. Rampage mixes King Kong with George of the Jungle but comes up with something quirky enough to seem fresh.

After a lot of mumbo jumbo, three different monsters, the giant gorilla, plus a wolf and crocodile, become infected with a dangerous pathogen (the result of a rogue genetic experiment gone wrong), and become huge and mutate a bit, rampage across North America and converge on Chicago – and fancy destroying it. Primatologist Davis teams up with unlikely geneticist Dr Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) – admittedly she’s a discredited genetic engineer only recently out of jail – to try to secure an antidote, stop the monsters and save the world.

Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy are just right as the villains Claire and Brett Wyden (she a vicious toad, he a bumbling toady), whose evil machinations start off the plot. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is engaging as the fast-talking CIA-type official Harvey Russell who comes round to helping Davis and Kate.

Peyton gets the tone just right, mostly quite dark and adult, but then also quite campy and jokey. There is a very good tally of scares and laughs. It has a great B-movie feel about it, but done on a A-movie budget (it cost around $120 million), and that is ideal for Fifties-style monster movie. Yes please, just this once, for more monkey business in a sequel.

It is rated 12 or PG-13 for sequences of violence, action and destruction, brief language, and crude gestures. Its tough tone is good, though why it has a 12 and the much milder A Quiet Place has a 15, heaven only knows.

Ryan Engle wrote the story and screenplay (with Carlton Cuse, Ryan J Condal and Adam Sztykiel), based on a video game. It is surprisingly good, and the movie is much better than expected. Jaron Presant’s cinematography and Barry Chusid’s production designs are excellent too.

The North American opening weekend looks disappointingly downbeat at just over $30 million but Chinese first-day grosses impressed at $15.7 million and topped the charts with $58.1 million from its three-day opening weekend. At the UK box office, it did well with an opening weekend total of £4.102 million across 555 screens.

Rampage also co-stars Joe Manganiello (TV’s “True Blood”), P.J. Byrne (“The Wolf of Wall Street”), Marley Shelton (TV’s “Rise”), Breanne Hill (TV’s “Frontier”), Jack Quaid (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”), Matt Gerald (TV’s “Daredevil”), Jason Liles (“Death Note”), Demetrius Grosse (TV’s “The Brave”), and Will Yun Lee (TV’s “Hawaii Five-O”).

Rampage is produced by Beau Flynn, John Rickard, Brad Peyton and Hiram Garcia.  It is the third collaboration between Johnson, Peyton, Flynn and Garcia, after San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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