Most of the human characters, on the other hand, are lame enough to explain why Davis has written off the whole species. Sure, the bond they share is interrupted by the fact that George is essentially possessed for most of the movie, but the gorilla’s sense of humor - along with Davis’ general distaste for people - allows for a semi-believable bromance. Brought to life by sign language so fluent that Koko could follow the film without subtitles, the friendship between Davis and his primate pal is the closest thing this story has to an emotional core. If the monsters can’t be the heroes, “Rampage” compromises by making George into something of a co-lead. The special effects are almost photo-realistic, and yet whenever George and Davis are in the same shot it feels like you’re watching a joyless modern riff on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” An average run through the original arcade game offers more excitement and surprises for the price of a quarter. There’s no poetry here, no personality or sense of purpose. So many buildings quake and shatter, so many animals are thrown against things. “Big meets bigger” isn’t just the tagline it’s practically half the screenplay.ĭirector Brad Peyton knows his way around animal-on-animal violence - after all, he got his start by directing “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” - but he shoots the carnage with little imagination. Cue a handful of bloodless CG-driven setpieces that feel like cut-scenes from a next-gen “Rampage” video game, as the action builds towards a colossal showdown at Sears Tower. Overnight, all three animals grow really huge and get really mad. One is chomped by a croc in the Everglades, one lands near a wolf in Wyoming, and the third crashes into the California wildlife sanctuary where muscular primatologist Davis Okoye ( Dwayne Johnson) cares for an albino gorilla named George (brought to life by Jason Liles’ exquisite motion-performance work and WETA’s digital magic). As her body erupts upon re-entering our atmosphere, three vials of the crazy animal growth serum pop out of the escape pod and scatter across the planet. to buy Midway Games for $33 million in 2009, or if this film’s premise is so generic that the studio could have just made it from scratch.Īnyway, a mutant rat has gotten loose in a space station owned by the evil Engyne corporation, and poor scientist Marley Shelton isn’t going to make it out of there alive. It’s hard to imagine that anyone will care all that much (are there “Rampage” super fans?), but the decision makes you wonder if it was necessary for Warner Bros. The movie - boasting stunning effects work on par with “War for the Planet of the Apes,” but none of its courage - flips that idea back to its default position by putting the humans front and center. Very loosely based on the video game franchise of the same name, “Rampage” manages to screw up the source material’s signature idea: The 1986 arcade cabinet was so popular because it flipped “King Kong” on its head and allowed players to control a trio of gigantic monsters as they fended off military forces and reduced Earth’s cities to rubble. This is one of those rare times when a toxic personality would’ve been preferable to not having one at all. It’s an empty golem of multiplex entertainment so bland it will make you beg for Michael Bay to direct the sequel. It’s the placebo version of the glorious drug that Warner Bros concocted with 2014’s “ Godzilla,” the majesty and grace of which the studio has been trying - and failing - to replicate across a half-dozen monster movies over the last four years. Reuniting the dream team that brought you “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” and “San Andreas” (the only 9.6 degree earthquake that anyone has ever slept through), “Rampage” isn’t bad so much as it’s barely even there. Trying to say anything of substance about this standard-issue spectacle is like mounting a flat-screen TV on a shower curtain. No, “Rampage” is only critic-proof because it’s one of the few studio films in recent history that’s too hollow to support any critical thought. It can be misleading to call a movie “critic-proof.” When this critic humbly concedes that “ Rampage” is critic-proof, it’s not because the Rock could open a movie with a Rotten Tomatoes score of negative 12% and still cook up a small fortune.
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