Film Review/Discussion: Rampage (2018)

So, after hearing about how surprisingly good Rampage was I decided to watch it, and I thought I'd share my thoughts about it on here. Though given how recent this movie is I will do my best to avoid spoiling anything.

So, for starters, as my overall impression I'd say it's pretty good. On a scale of All Monsters Attack to Godzilla (54) I'd say it's at least a Godzilla 2000. More plainly, I'd give it a 3 or maybe even 4 out of 5.

The pacing and story structure of the movie is surprisingly sound. Introducing you to the key bit of sci-fi in just a few words of text at the start, before throwing you into the event that will trigger all other plot points in the movie. From there the story is tightly knit, introducing characters and beats at the most appropriate times, never dragging its feet, but never really rushing either. Furthermore, it knows exactly what it wants to be, and doesn't try for anything more or less. That being an action movie centered around giant monsters. Which is not an insult by any means. It shows that the guys making the movie had a good solid idea of what they wanted it to be. Sure, kaiju movies can be more than action flicks, but not every one needs to be. They knew what they wanted to make, and they made it.

For the characters and their depictions, not many of them are very standout. They're not bad characters, but they aren't interesting either. Dwayne Johnson's character, David Okoye, is predictably depicted to be a top-of-the-line badass, and for the most part succeeds at everything he does. This isn't surprising given Dwayne Johnson strives so hard to be like Bruce Willis, in my opinion. That isn't to say he's some godly hero who stops the monsters, though. No, despite fighting them alongside his ape friend George, the only time Dwayne's character manages to even hurt the kaiju is when he gets a lucky grenade shot into Lizzie's gills, which doesn't do any last harm to her anyway. For the most part, when it comes to the kaiju, he just serves as a distraction to give his otherwise outmatched ape friend a chance. Which is a sensible to handle it.

George is a CGI gorilla. There's...not much more to say than that. When he's not fighting he's mostly comedic. His main point in the plot, though, being to serve as an emotional motivator for Dwayne's character, and to be the good monster that beats the bad monsters. Predictable, but nothing wrong with it.

The villains are unrepentant evil fucks, and I mean that in the best of ways. Their lack of any further depth other than being evil actually makes them somewhat charming and definitely entertaining. Almost in a Lord Zed kind of way, but never quite that deliciously hammy.

The only character I found really interesting was a government agent named Harvey, who is best described as a slick cowboy. He's a smooth operator, with a country twang  and a sense of practically that just makes him a joy to watch in my opinion. The guy's great.

As for the monsters in general, the ape George has the least interesting design, but I guess that's a result of them not wanting to mutate him much other than size. So he appeals as a hero more. Consequently the wolf, Ralph, and the gator, Lizzie (though never named in the movie), have much better designs. Though Lizzie has the best one I have to say. In size, though, they're surprisingly smaller. I don't have exact measurements, but Lizzie couldn't be any bigger than Shin Goji's 2nd form (the one that makes landfall).  George is probably about the same size as the original King Kong, and so is Ralph. Because of this, the fact they completely dominate organized military responses throughout the movie is a lot less believable. But the action scenes with them are still great and display what they're really capable of.

I should also comment that at this time I recall some video of Dwayne Johnson angrily defending the movie, where he said Lizzie could kick the crap out of the Godzilla. I'm sure you can guess, but I find that funny now that I've watched the movie. Cause pretty much every incarnation of Godzilla could literally squish these monsters like bugs. Nothing against the movie there, just a funny thing to me.

And finally, on the note of the military, they're just as incompetent as you'd expect in this kind of movie. With the Colonel in charge actually having the two characters who could give him real advice on how to take down the monsters arrested after they tell him the advice he ignores. He also tries to blow up Chicago to kill the monsters before the city's even had a chance to actually evacuate. Like...this dumbass needed to be removed from command. The only thing I can give him is that the bomb he planned wasn't a nuke.

That's about all I have to say on the matter, really. Rampage isn't exceptionally impressive or special, but it's definitely not a bad movie either. Worth a watch for any kaiju fan.