Well, it seems like Warner Bros. went double or nothing this year in terms of potentially producing the first ‘great’ film based on a video game. Last month, they released Tomb Raider, a reboot of the series’ film franchise that was based on the more recent entries in the video game franchise. And while the film didn’t really end up breaking the dreaded ‘video game film curse’, it did technically fare better than most films of its genre both critically and financially. With that in mind, we now come to Warner Bros.’ second major video game film adaptation of the year, which is a rather fascinating one considering its source material, Rampage. Rampage was an action arcade game developed by Midway in 1986 in which players took control of three gigantic monsters who, as the title suggests, rampage through various cities and cause all sorts of property damage. Upon its release, the game proved to be a huge hit, which helped Midway a lot considering that it came out just three years after the video game industry’s infamous period of recession in 1983. As a result, the game ended up getting four sequels and a puzzle-based spin-off, and even though the most recent installment of the series came out more than a decade ago in 2006, Rampage now makes its big return into the world of pop culture via a feature film adaptation headlined by the one and only Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The film also sees Johnson reteam with director Brad Peyton, as the two previously collaborated on the 2012 family adventure flick Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and the 2015 disaster flick San Andreas, two films that proved to be big box-office hits despite receiving generally mixed reviews. And this trend ultimately continues with their latest endeavor, because while Rampage still isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about the potential for quality video game adaptations, it is at least a decent popcorn flick that’s very much bolstered by its charismatic lead actor.
At a wildlife preserve in San Diego, ex-Special Forces soldier Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) works as a primatologist. During his time there, he has developed a strong connection with the preserve’s collection of primates, most notably a rare albino gorilla named George whom he rescued from poachers at a young age. However, their peaceful lives are soon threatened when debris from a destroyed space station results in canisters of a mysterious pathogen crash-landing all over Earth. This pathogen then proceeds to affect all animals that come across it, including George when one canister ends up on the preserve. Because of this, he starts to grow considerably larger and begins to develop a more aggressive behavior. Soon afterward, Davis is approached by scientist Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), who tells him that George has been subjected to a genetic editing experiment codenamed ‘Project Rampage’ that was developed by a company called Energyne. However, while Caldwell (a former Energyne employee) had intended for the experiment to be used to cure diseases, Energyne CEO Claire Wyden (Malin Akerman) and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy) have instead used it as a biological weapon. Thus, when Claire uses a transmitter to coerce George into traveling to the company’s headquarters in Chicago so that he can be studied, Davis and Kate find themselves in a race against time to try and find a cure for George’s condition before that happens or the military ends up taking him out. This situation is only compounded further by the arrival of other creatures affected by the pathogen, including a flying gray wolf named Ralph and a giant crocodile named Lizzie.
Back in my reviews of the Tomb Raider films, I mentioned that arguably the most important thing for a film based on a popular video game to do is to maintain an accurate representation of its source material. If anything, it’d give the film an advantage over something like 1993’s Super Mario Bros. or the multiple adaptations that were directed by Uwe Boll because, at the very least, it wouldn’t completely alienate fans of the games by being such a radically different take on the source material to the point where it doesn’t even remotely resemble it. With Rampage, though, admittedly it goes about this in a 50-50 manner. Obviously, there wasn’t that much to the plot in the original games aside from destroying everything in sight; thus, the film attempts to bring a little more depth to the story by having a main human character who shares a special bond with one of the three original monsters, all of whom do appear in the film, for the record. However, there is one notable difference from the games, and that is that instead of having the creatures be portrayed as mutated humans who were subjected to all kinds of experiments by an evil corporation, here they’re just regular animals who were subjected to such experimentation. Despite this, however, along with sharing the same narrative issues that plagued the new Tomb Raider film by having its biggest action sequences be reserved for the third act, Rampage does boast one major advantage over Tomb Raider; it never feels sluggish at any point. Now don’t get me wrong, this is very much one of those mindless action films with little to no character development. Still, when the film does get into the franchise’s main selling point of seeing monsters cause all sorts of chaos, represented here by the big finale in which the monsters tear through Chicago, it does pave the way for some highly entertaining action sequences.
And really, if there’s anyone who could have potentially been able to break the ‘video game film curse’, it would be Dwayne Johnson. Despite all its silliness, this film serves as further proof as to why he’s one of the most charismatic actors in the business. Because while this is obviously by no means an Oscar-worthy screenplay, Johnson does give it his all here just like he does with every other role that he takes on. In the case of this role, a lot of this is due to the solid friendship that he shares with George even though, technically speaking, the two of them spend a considerable amount of the film’s run-time separated from each other. Just like what Andy Serkis and company did in the recent Planet of the Apes films, George is portrayed via motion capture, and actor Jason Liles does an excellent job of making the character sympathetic even with all that he goes through in the film. Johnson also happens to have solid chemistry with Naomie Harris; sadly, though, she ends up being quite underused in this film. Despite a plotline that establishes a ‘dark’ past for her character, whose reputation was tarnished when she was fired by Energyne when she tried to expose their sinister intentions, she’s mostly just a simple love interest for Okoye who ultimately doesn’t contribute that much to the overall plot. But then there’s the other major standout of the cast, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Harvey Russell, a government agent who Okoye and Kate constantly cross paths with, though it should be noted that he is not a villainous character. Like Johnson, he brings much charisma to the role and the tense dynamic between the two results in some of the best character moments in the entire film.
So, in conclusion, I admittedly find myself repeating quite a few of the same points that I mentioned in the conclusion of my review for the new Tomb Raider film in this review. Like that film, Rampage isn’t exactly going to be bucking the trend of mediocrely received films based on popular video games. Now, granted, also like Tomb Raider, it has managed to maintain a higher score on Rotten Tomatoes than most other entries in the genre. Still, aside from a recent animated TV series adaptation of Castlevania that premiered on Netflix last year, we’ve still yet to see a freshly-rated video game film adaptation. But for what it’s worth, I surprisingly found myself enjoying this film a bit more than Tomb Raider, which is saying something considering that I have more experience with that franchise than I do with Rampage. I mean, sure, it does share the same general plot structure of that film, meaning that it doesn’t get to its biggest action set-pieces until the finale. But to its credit, when the film does get to these action set-pieces, they are at least entertaining and live up to the franchise’s premise of having giant monsters wreak havoc in a city, even if the plot itself isn’t the most faithful of adaptations as far as this genre is concerned. Plus, this film boasts stronger pacing compared to Tomb Raider and is bolstered by a pair of terrific lead performances from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan; heck, they’d even be the main reason to go see this film if it wasn’t for all the fun monster action. In short, while this is very much a dumb action film, if you’re just looking for a decent popcorn flick that attempts to resurrect a classic video game franchise from the 80’s/90’s, you could obviously do far worse than this one considering all the other films in its genre.
Rating: 3.5/5
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