First Take: Rampage- cue the Kool and the Gang track, this is a GOOD VIDEOGAME FILM

SYNOPSIS:

When three different animals become infected with a dangerous pathogen, a primatologist and a geneticist team up to stop them from destroying Chicago.

Last week, Rampage was predicted to be another box office bomb purely due to its ties with a 1980 Midway game- we all know how these adaptations work out, don’t we? But once a little bit of Dwayne Johnson’s magic (debated by many cinemagoers) is added, I am very proud to report that this week’s UK number 1 is actually pretty good considering how skeptical the general public have been with these kinds of releases.

Brad Peyton takes the directors’ chair on this film, he feels like the natural choice after directing San Andreas (another film full of destruction and carnage, but more due to nature than genetic editing), and as such, he does a decent job, with some good pacing at times as well as some CG that raised the eyebrows of the colleagues I ended up watching this with- but where this film ultimately struggles like many adaptations before it is the script. Ryan Engel, Carlton Cuse, Ryan Condal and Adam Sztykiel give us a story that is packed with some funny moments at points, but struggles with its initial expositionary dialogue, something which casual audiences won’t have an issue with whatsoever. It’s shot well by Jaron Presant, and Andrew Lockington’s score does the job nicely.

Performance wise, well, The Rock is just The Rock- Dwayne never puts in any bad work at all, and paired with Naomie Harris, the pair are very likable leads that are able to carry the film nicely. Alongside the ‘Great One’, the supporting cast are good too, with Malin Akerman playing a damn good villain, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacy and Magic Mike alumni Joe Mangianello filling out the cast pretty well. I wanted to enjoy this film a lot, and I did- this isn’t a film you should take seriously, but at the end of the day, Hollywood have finally made a good video game adaptation.

THE VERDICT

It isn’t a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but Rampage is a damn fine way to spend 2 hours having fun in a cinema screen. Yes, the writing is questionable, yes, the performances vary, and yes, the pacing’s all over the place- but this is pure escapism, something which isn’t often done right.

RATING- 3.5/5