RAMPAGE

RAMPAGE

RAMPAGE REVIEWED

“Rampage” shouldn’t have been this good. Hell, it was never anyone’s first choice to play in the arcade. I used to find myself playing it at Grinder Station when too many kids were hogging Wrestlemania or the X-Men arcade games. All the while, my 8 year old brain wondered…who could make a movie out of three monsters smacking the hell out of buildings? That question tore through the space-time continuum and was answered by Dwayne Johnson. Johnson stars as a former soldier turned anti-poaching crusader. He befriends the albino gorilla George, as he tries to keep his friend safe from all outside threats. Unfortunately, an evil CEO accidentally causes an incident that transforms George into a new King Kong. Couple with other incidents involving a giant flying wolf and a big lizard, the stage is set for craziness. Jeffrey Dean Morgan shows up as the slightly evil, yet morally ambiguous figure that wants to bring the animals to justice. But, Dwayne Johnson is here to team up with a scientist to bring the animals safely back home at a normal size. What follows are giant animals destroying building, fighting mercs and eventually working with Dwayne Johnson for a happy ending. I’d go so far as to call the ending a cop out, but then something hits me. I’m arguing over a movie that was based on a game whose rounds lasted about three minutes. There comes a point in the creative process where adaptations that start scraping the bottom of the barrel. Sometimes, it’s bad and sometimes it transcends the art form. Rampage dares you to poke holes through the intellectual pursuit of watching giant animals making a mockery of man’s world. While you stare at these creatures and look at the resulting box office, you need to understand something. Roger Corman won and it’s freaking beautiful.