Energyne, a company specializing in gene manipulation, headed by Brett (Jake Lacy) and Claire Wyden (Malin Åkerman) have plans to develop the first medicine to cure incurable diseases. When the company's space station implodes due to an escaped animal experiment, the canisters that contain potent pathogens crash-land across the United States. One of these pathogens exposes the Albino Gorilla, George. This causes George to grow in size and strength. This forced Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), scientist Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), and government agent Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to work together to stop his rampage.
Based on a video game by Midway Games Inc., "Rampage" is directed by "San Andreas" director Brad Peyton and now available for streaming on Netflix
No doubt an exhilarating movie. In "Rampage," Expect city-scale destruction, huge mutated animals, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson be an action star. It's the perfect mayhem movie 10-year-old kids will gush over. So who needs a convoluted plot when the purpose of the movie is be as destructive as possible?
At the onset of this movie, it's obvious that "Rampage" is anxious to introduce the CGI monsters already. So the movie settled on shortcuts and tropes to move the story forward, disregarding any science logic. It results in a sloppy monster movie that seems to glorify itself by the chaos it brings rather than the potential carry. This is the exact opposite of monster movies such as King Kong and Godzilla. Where King Kong is used to symbolize slavery and colonialism and Godzilla as the embodiment of the nuclear bombing on Japan. George, however, is a straight-forward angry Gorilla.
"Rampage" is only bearable for its cast. Though I have issues with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's absurd skill set, its fun to see him in action among the giants. On the other hand, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a stand-out. His cool approach to every role he plays is very satisfying and super fun. The women of this movie, especially Harris, I think, deserve more action. Yes, I get it, the selling point of this film is The Rock himself but its unreasonable to lessen a woman's role to just plot devices to make storytelling easier.
Nevertheless, there isn't much to dissect about "Rampage." There are a few jabs on poaching yet the movie shied away immediately after mentioning it. Animal experimentation and corruption are also suggested but the message got lost before it even materializes. In a nutshell, "Rampage" is one of those movies that would instead satisfy itself rather than send a meaningful critique.
2/5
