Rampage

Rampage – Davis Okoye is a primatologist at San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary, and works closely with rare albino gorilla, George, who can communicate through sign language. When a space station pod carrying gene mutation pathogens is attacked by a mutated rat, the ensuing debris lands on Earth creating monsters of the creatures that are curious enough to get too close. George is one such animal and, when the creators of the pathogens call back the creatures via a painfully loud radio frequency, Davis faces a race against time to save everyone in their path, but can he also save George who has now lost his human connection?

Rampage (2018) – Director: Brad Peyton

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55814302

Rating: 12

Running Length: 107 mins

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Genre: Science Fiction, Disaster

REVIEW: ‘RAMPAGE’

While he has proven to have great range, at this point in his acting career, Dwayne Johnson seems to have settled into disaster movie everyman roles. This time, loosely based on video games of the same name, ‘Rampage’ follows what happens when experimental mutations are inadvertently unleashed onto unsuspecting animals. These creatures are a wolf, a crocodile and a loveable gorilla called George. Johnson plays Davis Okoye a character with a gamut of helpful skills (particularly a primatologist and former Special Ops soldier as well as having a saintly demeanour). His ‘likeable but tough’ character could be cut out of this movie and plonked into any of his others but it’s what audiences love about his roles so lets not complain too much!

As you may have seen, we recently reviewed ‘Godzilla vs. Kong‘ and to be honest, ‘Rampage’ is essentially ‘Godzilla vs. Kong plus a wolf’. I have to say I preferred Godzilla but what that lacked was fleshed out characters and ‘Rampage’ fairs much better in that regard. Naomie Harris plays genetic engineer Dr Kate Caldwell, who had the potential to be the brains to Davis’ brawn but is disappointingly reduced to ‘the girl’. Thankfully, Jeffrey Dean Morgan brings a huge amount of charisma to what could have been very much a background character and is easily the most fun out of the main three.

I’m not going to lie, ‘Rampage’ isn’t the best film I’ve seen recently (that prestigious honour goes to ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music‘ – no YOU stop banging on about that movie!) but it is a huge amount of fun for when Mr / Mrs Brain wants a rest and corn has been readily popped.

CONTENT: IS ‘RAMPAGE’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

On a devastated Space Station, there is a graphic 3 second close up shot of a dead man’s face. It has turned grey and has blood on it, Blood also pools around his empty eye socket. A woman, who is the sole survivor of the attack is fraught and desperately tries to escape the large mutated rat that his killed everyone else. She manages to get into an escape pod but it puts deep scratches in the window which affects its integrity.

When Davis talk to George the gorilla through sign language, George holds up his middle finger to playfully insult Davis.

After being exposed to the mutating pathogen, George is found in a nearby bear enclosure. A bear lies dead with blood on its body and flies buzzing around it and it becomes clear that George killed it although he is shown to feel remorse and has deep scratches on his chest indicating that he may have acted in self defence.

A huge wolf attacks a group of men that have been sent to capture it. There is quite a lot of blood and gore in this scene and there is a close up of a body that appears to have been bitten in half. One man looks for the wolf and the audience sees the creatures snarling mouth move into shot, directly behind him. He becomes aware of it and attempts to shoot it before it can get him.

During a fight, George is impaled on a large spike and while he continues to fight, he is clearly in pain and his actions could result in his demise.

George uses an obscene hand gesture to indicate that he believes Davis and a female character are romantically involved.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘RAMPAGE’ FOR KIDS?

Fun but superficial, ‘Rampage’ is an action packed movie to watch while stuffing your face with your unhealthy snack of choice. Due to a lot of bad language, we recommend this movie for kids aged 10 and over.

Violence: 3/5 (Lots of action. A man is crushed by falling debris and killed).
Emotional Distress: 3/5 (George is a very empathetic character and his emotions are clearly shown through his facial expressions so when he is distressed, kids are likely to be upset for him. A character seems to have been killed and those that care for them are saddened)
Fear Factor: 2/5
Sexual Content: 3/5 (The obscene hand gesture that George does may have kids asking what it means!)
Bad Language: 4/5 (frequent moderate cursing and blasphemy throughout)
Dialogue: 0/5
Other Notes: Deals with themes of animal mutation, animal experimentation, understanding the nature of a gentle but potentially dangerous animal, protecting vulnerable creatures and the dangers of scientific experimentation.

Words by Laura Record