Rampage

2018  PG-13  ACTION  1h 47min

CAST— Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Åkerman, Jake Lacy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Joe Manganiello

MUSIC— Andrew Lockington, Damjan Jovanovic  DIRECTOR— Brad Peyton  BASED ON— Characters appearing in Rampage (video game)

     One no longer needs to jostle other arcade patrons in order to enjoy the destruction of Rampage; it’s now gotten the big screen treatment and it’s just as one would expect. The crew of a space station has been working on illegal genetic research when their experiment unexpectedly destroys everything in sight. One crew member saves the genetic material and manages to use the escape pod only to perish in flame… but the material she saved makes its way to Earth. Meanwhile, meet Davis, a bulky yet somewhat sentimental primatologist whose best friend is an albino gorilla (with blue eyes) named George whom Davis once saved from poachers. Now the two share an unbreakable bond and a twisted sense of humor. But all that will soon change. As the space debris plummets to Earth some lands in Wyoming, some in the Everglades, with the final piece landing smack dab in the middle of George’s enclosure. Curious, George (or would that be Curious George?) inspects this debris and is contaminated by the nasty genetic mixture within, as are a gray wolf in Wyoming and an American crocodile in the Everglades. What ensues is these three creatures going on a destructive rampage, all headed for Chicago, where Energyne, the investment team behind the illegal genetic experiments, have activated a beacon that will cause the creatures to instinctively hone in and send them into a foaming frenzy, enraged at the beacon’s signal. As the three creatures tear through the country the military is ineffective at stopping them… but just maybe Davis’s newfound partner, a former Energyne geneticist, might have a means to stop the aggression. Now with the help of a chilled out George, Davis may be able to lend a hand in bringing the pain to these larger than life mutations. A pretty silly cash grab by Warner Bros., using a bankable star in what amounts to a rather average Godzilla-like clone, minus the corny charm. Overall, fans of the game series will probably go on their own frustrated rampage over this movie, but newcomers will no doubt appreciate it more.

OUR RATING— **