For the second time in a month, a movie based on a video game has hit theaters. This time around, it is “Rampage,” from director Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Incarnate) with Dwayne Johnson (Pain and Gain, Moana), Naomie Harris (Skyfall, Moonlight), Malin Akerman (Watchmen, 27 Dresses), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Losers, Red Dawn), Jake Lacy (Carol, Miss Sloane), Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Magic Mike XXL), Demetrius Grosse (13 Hours, Straight Outta Compton), P. J. Byrne (Vinyl, The Wolf of Wall Street), and Marley Shelton (Planet Terror, Bubble Boy). In this film, the evil Claire (Akerman) and her dimwitted brother, Brett (Lacy), have been doing illegal genetic experiments resulting in three canisters of a gas getting released into the world that infect three different animals. One of the animals, a rare albino gorilla named George, gets infected with only his handler, Davis (Johnson), being able to communicate and help him out as the gas makes him, bigger, faster, stronger, and crazier. The other two animals (a wolf and a crocodile) are not as lucky and wreak havoc, so Davis teams up with Kate (Harris), who used to work for the genetics company, to try to stop the animals.
The film has a ton of CGI, but it is done very well, and even though the screening we went to was not in 3-D, but if that is an option, I would say that could be worth it. Since this is one of those popcorn action films that does not rely on award winning action, it is still pretty good. Johnson does well, reminding me of his role in “San Andreas” (also directed by Peyton, as well as his “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”). Harris and Akerman also do well, but I have a shout out, I give it to Morgan, who plays the perfect agent with the devil-may-care attitude.
I was also actually surprised at on much how fun “Rampage” is. I was worried that this would be a high-budget flop like “Doom”, but I found myself truly surprised. It does have a few small nods to the video game (which was cute), but the plot kept me interested and moved along nicely. I will recommend this film as a twilight showing in theaters.