Rampage

UK Release Date: 11 April 2018
Certification: 12A
Director: Brad Peyton
Cast: Marlin Akerman, Naomie Harris, Dwayne Johnson, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, Jeffery Dean Morgan
Rating: 42%

Curious George?

Review:
Rampage is an action movie based on an incredibly simple arcade game from the 1980s where a variety of monsters climb tall buildings and eat people. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) as an albino ape's trainer - a character who has a greater bond with animals than he does with humans. The albino ape, George and two other animals inhale a toxic gas that makes them massively increase in size and become more aggressive. Dwayne Johnson's character and Naomie Harris' character must prevent the monsters from destroying Chicago.

This movie has many problems. Rampage's plot is predictable and on many occasions you can guess what is going to happen before it actually happens. For me the jokes in this movie fall flat because most of them are about The Rock's muscles and coincidently, and conveniently how his character was part of the military (Special Forces) before his life as an animal trainer. Also the characters are lightweight, generic and don't really add anything new to the action-genre. And, of course, as The Rock stars in this movie there were a couple of  legendary moments of "smouldering intensity" where he looks into the sunset to add dramatic effect. I wonder if he does this on a day to day basis in real life? 

For someone who can switch off, watch a movie and not think too much about what is actually happening you will enjoy Rampage. But I can't. I like movies with strong plots, endings that satisfy me and compelling characters. And there isn't a strong plot, there isn't an ending that satisfies me and there aren't any compelling characters in Rampage, apart from Harvey Russel (played by Jeffery Dean Morgan). Harvey was really the only thing that kept me entertained during Rampage.