Movie Review: Rampage

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening...whenever it is that you have come across todays entry.  Today, I'm looking at the latest video game turned movie Rampage.  It stars Rocky (Dwayne Johnson but I will always think of him as Rocky), Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  "When three different animals become infected with a dangerous pathogen, a primatologist and a geneticist team up to stop them from destroying Chicago."

First off let me thank Rocky for releasing this on my birthday.  It was a very nice thing he did for his longtime personal friend (sorry I think I just channeled Mean Gene there).  Seriously it was nice to have a good movie to go see on my birthday.

I think I will start with the bad:

THE BAD

The biggest is the fact that the plot just coasted along and several times it felt like a poorly put together D&D game.  Suddenly people know things that are needed to move plot that is very convenient. 

I also felt that the main scientist Naomie Harris phoned in a few of her scenes.  While she was very good at times other times I felt that she flat when her emotions should not have been.  

There was one REALLY bad camera shot after Rocky jumps from the plane.  It looked like it was done with a commercial grade go pro and done at a really bad angle.  It was only probably 7-10 seconds at most but should have been cut because it looked bad and kind of took away from the scene.

THE GOOD

And that is it for the cons.  Mostly because the movie was exactly what I expected it to be.  It had a decent plot but it was exactly what I wanted to see.  Giant monsters destroying a city.  Oh and it was nice to see a city other than New York get destroyed in a film.  Chicago has had it coming for a while!

As always I felt Rocky did an excellent job.  You have to go WAY back in his career to see a bad performance from him.  Honestly what was it?  Doom?  His small role in The Mummy Returns?  However he is great in this role and he is one of those actors that I will see pretty anything he does.  

The effects were really well done.  Considering a large portion of the movie was giant monsters throwing around tanks, people and destroying buildings I cannot think of a time that I was taken out of the movie.

The Alligator/Croc was fantastic especially when they did close ups of him roaring.  I also liked the wolf flying and shooting spikes like he did.  Just another great touch to add to the storyline of genetic manipulation.  

It was also nice to see what causes the walker plague in The Walking Dead and what Negan did before it hit.  Seriously as great as JDM was he was basically Negan right down to the Negan Lean at one point!  

These points don't really fit bad or good but a few things I thought.

I was sad not to see more of the team at the wildlife center from the beginning.  I felt the one guy would have made a great side kick for Rocky!

I was also surprised not to see more to do with the rat that the bad guy and JDM kept alive used more.  I was expecting a post credit scene with them working on the rats DNA

I know as of 4/15/18 IMDB has it rated as 6.4 but I give it a much higher rating.  8.0 because it was just a fun disaster flick!

Oh and seeing a giant gorilla flip off the Rock was worth every penny I paid!