Dwayne Johnson's newest action opus is the video game based movie Rampage. The film had its world premiere last night and now critics are talking about what they saw. If you were expecting an over the top spectacle of giant monsters crushing things, then you will get exactly what you were expecting. What might be more surprising is that you'll also get a pretty good movie overall. Our own Eric Eisenberg was at the premiere and he says this is the film that finally breaks the streak of bad movies based on video games.
Up until now, the best movies based on video games have still been viewed primarily as mediocre at best, but based on Eric's opinion it seems like Rampage might change that. It's a somewhat surprising revelation, considering the fact that Rampage has utterly simple set up as a video game. It's all about simply taking control of one of three giant monsters and trying to destroy cities while avoiding damage from the military sent to take you out. It seems like the Rampage movie has been able to fill in the gaps with a compelling enough story to make the entire thing fun. The Wrap's Beatrice Verhoeven echo's Eric's sentiment, though she takes "silly" to the next level, calling the film "ridiculous," but obviously in a good way.
While the giant monsters likely get a lot of the credit, it seems that the film's two stars, Dwayne Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, both do a lot to sell Rampage. Both are actors who can chew scenery with the best of them when given the opportunity and it seems like that is what happens here. Critic Yolanda Machado probably sums it up best, that this is just a great movie to see in the theater with a big tub of popcorn.
Few if any of the early responses seem to be truly negative. Having said that, not all are glowing. Critic Meg Downey just calls _Rampage _"fine," but she does give the movie credit for having a plot that was something more than just an excuse to watch the action scenes.
While we'll need to wait for complete reviews to get the total picture, it looks like Rampage is going to be a fun time at the theater at the very least, and possibly a bit more. Following the surprisingly good Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle it looks like The Rock is back on a hot streak, which is hopefully a good sign for his next film, Skyscraper, which is only a couple of months away.
