Review of Rampage (2018) by Wayne K — 13 Apr 2018

In my opinion, Rampage is how you do a dumb action movie right. Dwayne Johnson might be dangerously close to being cast in this kind of role for the rest of his career, but even in his worst films his charisma and natural ability to entertain shine through, and they do so here.

The plot is merely thin glue to connect the bombastic action sequences, but there's at least an attempt to comment on human irresponsibility in regards to destruction and the craving for power at all costs.

It pays the usual disregard to how much punishment a human body can take and still remaining functioning, but you try telling The Rock that a bullet to the abdomen would usually fell a man. Despite the action sequences often bordering on Michael Bay levels of incomprehensibility, I still found them to be very engaging, and could feel myself tensing up when the heroes were threatened.

The relationship between Johnson and his giant Ape friend is surprisingly affecting, and keeps the film from descending into complete destructive flippancy. It's a popcorn flick through and through, but it manages to take a video game and adapt it's fundamentals to the big screen, with levels of increasing difficulty, nasty villains and one Hell of a final boss battle.