Rampage (2018)

I know I’m far from the only one delighted to see that giant monsters have at last come back to the forefront of blockbuster cinema – and it’s intriguing to note how much of this is the handiwork of studio Warner Bros. They might still be finding their feet when it comes to their superhero movies, but they’re really getting the job done when it comes to big battling beasts: Pacific Rim, Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, upcoming giant shark flick The Meg (ooh, the crossover possibilities); even the recent Ready Player One found room for a cameo from a kaiju eiga icon. Sure, it’s unlikely any of these will ever be held up as great works of cinema, but they’re all tons of Saturday morning cartoon-esque fun.

Just about the only thing this new wave of giant monster movies has been lacking thus far has been the presence of lead actors who really embody that larger than life sensibility. Happily, WB have recognised this Achilles heel by casting Jason Statham in The Meg, due August; but for right now, we’ve got wrestler-turned-actor and all around Hollywood money printing machine Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in a big screen adaptation of arcade game Rampage, in which a giant ape, giant wolf and giant crocodile smash stuff up in the big city. Sounds like simple, undemanding fun – and happily, that’s just what director Brad Peyton’s film delivers.

Johnson is… well, he’s Dwayne Johnson. Remember how in most old Jackie Chan movies, they just call him Jackie? It really feels like they should just do that with Johnson’s movies too by now, as every single movie he does is a minor variation on the persona that’s made him such a bankable star. But hey, for the purposes of clarity, here Johnson is Davis Okoye, a former Special Forces operative turned primatologist (regular career path? Who knows, who cares, it’s a monster movie). Naturally, he’s The Best There Is in his field, with an unusual ability to communicate with apes; but he has an especially close bond with George, an ultra-rare albino gorilla who he rescued from poachers as a baby (yes, I looked it up, baby is the official title for a baby ape), and has raised to adulthood, even teaching him sign language – but, regrettably, not linking him up to a speaker that interprets signing and speaks it out loud, like in that much-loved 1995 classic, Congo.

Anyway, just when it all seem fine and dandy, the weirdest thing happens: some sort of debris falls from space, landing smack-bang in the middle of George’s enclosure. The next thing we know, George is displaying uncharacteristic aggression, and – rather more alarmingly – he’s significantly increased in size. Davis doesn’t know what’s going on, but the audience has an advantage, as the prologue scene (with a cameo from Planet Terror’s Marley Shelton, and a possible origin story for The Princess Bride’s ROUS) saw some ultra high-tech, ultra-illegal genetic editing experiments released from an orbiting space station. This technology, developed by a shady corporation, is intended to weaponise animals, making them many times bigger, stronger and more violent. George, of course, is not the only creature exposed to this material: debris has also landed in the woods of Wyoming, populated by wild wolves, and in the Florida Everglades, known for their crocodiles. No prizes for guessing what happens next.

Rampage marks a couple of interesting landmarks in 2018 cinema. Firstly, it’s the third major cinema release in as many months to heavily feature sign language (though not nearly so extensively as The Shape of Water or A Quiet Place); plus, it’s the second movie in as many months to feature an oversized computer-generated character flipping the bird (and more than once; take that, Pacific Rim Uprising). In a curious sort of way, this illustrates the tonal dichotomy of Rampage; studious and sensitive, yet also filled with yuck-yuck tomfoolery. It may come as a surprise how straight and dark the film plays at times, with an opening scene that’s straight out of Alien, and an early hunt sequence (with a brief but scene-stealing turn from one of the few contemporary actors to rival Johnson in the big and buff stakes, Joe Manganeillo) clearly riffing on Predator. As those reference points might suggest, these early sequences boast violence that’s surprisingly graphic and bloody for a PG-13/12A. However, while Rampage has its moments of both grimness and goofiness, it never gets too grim or too goofy to keep from being a simple good time.

All of it adds up to a popcorny blockbuster that might easily have seemed a bit samey and forgettable amongst the many large scale cinematic spectacles of recent memory, were it not for one key element: Dwayne Johnson. If you’re not already sold on Johnson as a leading man, Rampage probably won’t do anything to change your mind, but for everyone else his presence makes all the difference. It’s been quite a while since Johnson and his sometime rival/co-star/arch nemesis Vin Diesel first rose to prominence in Hollywood, leading many to declare them the new Stallone and Schwarzenegger – although at the time, the jury was out as to which was which. When 9/11 put the old school action genre out of favour, it took a while for both actors to get back to the gung ho man’s man roles they had always coveted, but now that the dust has settled, it seems safe to say Johnson is very much the new Schwarzenegger. Not since Arnie has a leading man been at once so ridiculously superhuman, yet inherently likeable and relatable, with a knack for lending a sardonic wit to a movie that makes it clear to the audience that they’re in on the joke. (Diesel, meanwhile, clearly fits the Stallone mould, as he struggles to carry much weight outside his signature franchise and takes himself way too seriously.)

Simply put, if you enjoy watching Dwayne Johnson in action, you’re bound to enjoy Rampage; the presence of giant marauding monsters is just the icing on the cake. Naomie Harris provides fine support as the geneticist who teams up with Johnson; but the actors who revel in chewing up the most scenery are Malin Ackerman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. That’s right, it’s a mini-Watchmen reunion, only this time around no one involved appears to be under any illusions that they’re actually making an ‘important’ film; they’re just there to have a bit of fun, much as the audience should be.

Rampage is in cinemas now, from Warner Bros.