There's a lot to be said about Dwayne Johnson as an
actor. Sure, he started out with arguably the worst rep in the world
(former professional wrestler), mostly stuck to garbage roles in his
early career (Scorpion King, Doom) occasionally sprinkled with bouts
of brilliant action movies (The Rundown) but, through perseverance
and kind of shameless ability to not be picky about his roles (The
Game Plan, Tooth Fairy), the man has managed to excel at his craft as
both a great voice actor (Moana) and a actor who is far too talented
to be doing the movies he's actually in (San Andreas). Now, with yet
another Rock-flavored action movie in Rampage, he's finally getting
to the point where he needs to ask the age-old question all
legitimately great actors eventually have to ask: maybe I should find
GOOD movies to star in for a change.
Okay, look, if you like action movies and you also
happen to like Johnson's The Rock persona from his WWE days, chances
are Rampage will entertain you and you will find this money well
spent. Johnson still possesses some of the strongest on-screen
charisma of any actor currently working today, he's backed up by an
equally charismatic, if under utilized, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the
simplistic plot is complimented by enough “Ooh, look at that!”
moments that you'll likely forget about most of the human characters
anyway, and, come on, if you came to this movie for any other reason
than to see a bunch of giant animal hybrids fight each other to the
death, you're probably in the wrong movie theater to begin with. This
is a movie meant for an audience who knows exactly what they are
paying for before they even see the theater in the distance. Big,
dumb fun with the occasional plot dump followed by more big, dumb
fun, while not necessarily the makings of a great movie, is still a
pretty solid way to sell tickets.
Unfortunately, if you're hoping for Godzilla-style
action without the Bryan Cranston widower-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder
or Pacific Rim-style
punch-the-giant-Cthulu-monster-in-the-face-with-your-robotic-rocket-arm
kind of action, you'll likely leave disappointed. Johnson's Davis
Okoye, despite being easily the most interesting human character,
largely remains a blank slate outside of the whole hating humanity
for hatred's sake and despite their very worthy efforts, neither
Naomie Harris nor Malin Akerman come off as anything more than
attractive mouthpieces for the next pointless plot dump that is the
overly cheesy dialogue and melodramatic script. Seriously, Hollywood,
get Johnson a good director for a change!
As for watching it, did you like San Andreas despite
its near-fatal flaws of being both dour in tone and wordy in
exposition? Chances are you'll find much to love here and, even if
you won't get to see what we all truly want to see (The Rock punch a
giant monster in the face), you'll likely get a close facsimile of it
(The Rock shoots giant monsters in the face with EXPLOSIVES). Bored
with these kind of movies and totally aware that this summer will be
full of this kind of thing? Feel free to look up Isle of Dogs or A
Quiet Place for your entertainment fix this week.
Brad Peyton (San Andreas) continues to get work in
action movies courtesy of his buddy Dwayne Johnson despite not really
having anything resembling a feel for it with Rampage, a sometimes
entertaining, mostly too dramatic take on giant monsters and how
people fight them. When his gorilla charge George is infected with a
genetic engineering hormone and grows to the size of a van (then a
school bus, then a yacht and so on), Primotologist Davis Okoye
(Johnson) seeks both answers to why his friend is currently rampaging
across the United States and revenge on the people responsible.
Basically a lot of heavy-handed dialogue followed by Johnson punching
out his problems (and occasionally blowing stuff up). If you're after
giant explosions and creature fights, you can't really go wrong here.
My score: 4/10. Goodbye, Milos Forman. Sure, you are
guilty of directing Hair, but I'll never think of a man tearing a
water fountain off its hinges and throwing it out a window after
smothering his best friend without thinking of you (One Flew Over The
Cuckoos Nest).
No comments:
Post a Comment