Rampage lives up to its title as a goofy, larger-than-life action movie

With a charismatic performance by Dwayne Johnson, Rampage will enthrall those who have lost faith of ever seeing the giant monster movies of their youth.

There’s a point in the third act of the Warner Bros. big-budget monster movie Rampage where dialogue, characters and plot prop their feet on the table and just relax. The film becomes little more than a video game of destruction all for your entertainment.

If you thought Godzilla or Kong: Skull Island had too many humans and too little sweet carnage, then Rampage is for you! Director Brad Peyton hands the keys for his film to star Dwayne Johnson and an albino gorilla for nearly two-hours.

Peppered through it all are wacky Southern stereotypes, oddly political villains and a cadre of excellently rendered CGI characters who just enjoy giving you some good, old-fashioned rampagin’. It’s a big dumb action movie and all that that implies.

Rampage, based on a video game that very few people in my screening theater knew about, borrows from all manner of sources, both anticipated and expected. At its heart, it’s akin to Mighty Joe Young with its story of a benevolent animal trainer, in this case Dwayne Johnson’s Davis Okoye, and the gorilla he saved as an infant. On top of that, there are elements taken from everything including 1954’s Them! to the 2006 action film 300.

(If you ever thought “Hmm, I wonder what a gorilla acting like Leonidas against a giant gator would be like,” this film’s got you covered.)

A heavy influence on Rampage is the 1950s creature features, particularly Godzilla. An opening title crawl tells you about something called CRISPR that’s seemingly wiped out all diseases. Though CRISPR barely comes up enough to fully understand why it’s important it’s seemingly a smokescreen for a science/tech company called Energyne, run by brother/sister duo Claire and Brett Wyden (Malin Akerman and Jake Lacey) to engage in “genetic editing,” altering the DNA of animals.

Johnson’s Okoye is brought into the whole “villains want to make weaponized DNA” plot through his best buddy, George, the aforementioned gorilla. Okoye is a man who doesn’t “like people,” though he tells this to so many people it feels like a put-on. George is seemingly the only long-term relationship he has, and there’s a Turner and Hooch-like element, especially when the two band together to stop the other monsters attacking Chicago.

Johnson, to his credit, has a great grasp on acting opposite a CGI creature. His relationship with George is tender, and the film certainly wants you to see them a buddy duo. In fact, George is at times so hyper-intelligent you’d be able to believe he speaks English considering the lack of sign language Davis uses. It comes out to about one sign for every three lines of dialogue.

Naomie Harris’ Dr. Kate Caldwell is the only one who seems to know she’s in a movie called Rampage. Harris is spunky, but never annoying; strong, but never otherworldly. A third-act attempt to force a romance feels like just that, but Harris is more than able to hold her own against Johnson.

Okoye is the burly man with a soft heart you’d expect in a movie like this, and he’s complemented by a group of bit characters who feel ripped out of many an ’80s movie you probably enjoyed.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Agent Russell is such a stereotypical Southern gent it’s surprising he doesn’t have a ten-gallon hat to go along with his three-piece suit. He’s the FBI agent who doesn’t play by the rules but who can easily drop words like “reckon” into sentences while discussing what his “grandpappy” told him. Some of his lines are so hilarious you’ll expect them to be dropped into conversations with cool guys who think they’re inventive: “What are you, some international man of mystery?”

The rest of the men in the movie are buzz-cut rocking commandos in search of a Chuck Norris movie who wonder if they “should have brought the 30 cal?”

And of course the animals aren’t the true villains of this movie. That honor goes to the Wyden’s, whose intelligence mirrors that of Pinky and the Brain. Malin Akerman’s Claire never has a hair out of place and rocks a wardrobe that you’d expect to see on a First Lady. She’s cool because she’s evil, ready to drop a line that will make you want to slap her with all the ease of a hair flip.

Lacey’s Wyden looks like he missed the bus to an Izod commercial and is generally seen as a bumbling fool. No joke, it’s HIGHLY evident who we’re meant to see these two as and without getting a series of troll comments I’ll just say, they look like a famous pair of siblings we all know at the moment.

Using the same visual effects company employed for the recent Planet of the Apes films gives Rampage’s creatures an otherworldly quality to them. While not nearly as photo-realistic as the Apes series, the effects here are far better than they have any right to be. There are a few moments where an uncanny valley develops, particularly in crowd scenes where it’s obvious the group doesn’t know how to respond to nothing. The third act attack on Chicago is nothing short of gut-pounding, full-tilt animal madness. It’s When Animals Attack on steroids.

Compared to comic book movies where the script comes up with countless reasons to explain away mass devastation and death, Rampage throws out the rulebook. Not only is Chicago irreparably destroyed, but thousands of people are squashed, eaten and just generally doomed in the wake of these monsters. It’s never presented as exploitative but seems to acknowledge how impossible it is to believe that people wouldn’t die in these situations.

This non-stop action also extends to some truly intense action sequences including an extended plane crash scene that will leave you gripping the armrests.

Rampage has some brilliant visuals and is a fun throwback to the creature features of old. If you go in planning to poke fun at its terrible dialogue and overly florid yet stereotypical characters, you’ll have a great time! Stay for the wolf that flies. Or the gorilla that can wield a spear.

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