Rampage

The 80's and 90's were a fun time for computer games and especially for arcade games. Shinobi, Snow Brothers, Final Fight, Toki, Streetfighter 2, Wonderboy, Pang etc. All good fun but there wasn't much to these games beyond how hard and how fast you could wiggle your joystick (err) or press the punch/kick button. Rampage was one such game and involved you taking control of a giant monster who's aim was to climb a skyscraper and punch it til it fell down. This one was seriously lacking depth. So imagine my surprise when I heard it was being made into a film.

Now imagine the even bigger surprise that it has turned out to be pretty darn entertaining. Sort of.

Dwayne Johnson plays Davis Okoye, a primate expert who has created a warm and friendly bond with an albino gorilla called George residing in San Diego zoo. One night a mysterious asteroid hits the zoo and infects George causing him to grow rapidly and get very angry indeed. Other asteroids have landed in other places too. Places with animals a lot more vicious than George.

This is a blisteringly silly watch, filled with plotholes that don't bear thinking about, terrible villains and lines like "If we do this we can stop George and the wolf before they level Chicago!!!" The plot is awful and parts of the film move so rapidly you get the feeling whole lumps have been removed to shorten the time between action scenes. It shouldn't work, it should make you angry at its stupidity but it's..........it's just so much fun.

I grinned like a fool throughout the 100 minutes of this. Logic takes a backseat here as the film sets out and succeeds in it's primary objective which is to entertain its audience. Only Dwayne Johnson could carry off this film. His immense presence somehow tempers the sillier aspects and it's only when he's absent from the screen does the film stutter. Thankfully it's a film doesn't take itself seriously either. I mean come on, how could it. It's silly and it knows it. Everyone Davis meets is in awe of him. At certain moments he looks as much of a special effect as the creatures around him. We get a moment of soldiers vs monsters that's a hugely knowing wink at other scenes in the genre. The human baddies are hilarious examples of the boo-hiss villains in suits we usually see in monster movies. One of them is so much the opposite of Johnson that he needs a protective glove to hold his hot pop tart. And then of course there's the carnage. The Godzilla loving child in me smiled gleefully during the final 30 minutes of this. Seeing a city get torn apart is nearly always entertaining (Fuck you Man Of Steel) and it's here that Rampage delivers on it's premise and thankfully shows it all in broad daylight while showing a spectacular disregard for human life in the process.

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Johnson doesn't have to do much emoting here but as always is fierce likable in the lead role that is more or less interchangeable with every role of his in the last 5 years. Naomi Harris as his sidekick Dr Kate doesn't get to do much either but she can run and jump with the best of them. Best thing about the pair of them though is the rare but always welcome sight of people of colour headlining a big film without being relegated to the comic sidekick or the first person to die. Between the success of this (it's going to do well, Johnson is a licence to print money) and the massive success of Black Panther, it's a good year for diversity on screen and hopefully this will continue going forward. 

Don't go see this if you like your films with depth, subtlety or silly things like a plot, you'll hate it from the off. But it you want 100 minutes of brainless entertainment you'll have a good time here. One word of warning though. It's a 12 cert film but it's surprisingly violent and intense at points. Be wary with the more delicate kiddies.