Rampage is a highly entertaining, rousing action/adventure story with an ape as the hero along with a man named Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson). Davis is a primatologist that rescued George, an albino gorilla, years before when some bad guys who had cut off George’s mother’s hands in order to make ash trays were about to do the same thing to George. George and Davis are very close, communicating with each other via sign language, and even humorously teasing and antagonizing each other. George is an outstanding character in the movie, and the filmmakers did a remarkable job in bringing him to life. He displays very human-like emotions such as compassion, kindness, a sense of humor and a sense of mischief. He’s quite likeable.
However, the peaceful life George has known at his enclosure is interrupted by a genetic editing experiment performed by two not-so-nice people, Claire and Brett Wyden, from Energyne, whose interests lie in making as much money as possible. Due to a space accident and the gorilla’s exposure to a certain device, George undergoes amazing growth and a change in his temperament, not to mention the unleashing of a giant wolf and undersea creature that soon are endangering the lives of thousands of people in the city. Davis’s only hope of turning George back into the peaceful loving primate that he was, comes in the form of Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) who once worked with Claire and Brett and knows exactly where the antidote is. She has a score to settle with the Wydens as well. She joins forces with Davis as does intelligence agent Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a southern man who at first butts heads with Davis but winds up forming an alliance with him.
The action sequences are almost non-stop. One amazing scene features a plane is going down with George, Davis, Kate and Harvey onboard. Will they survive and, if so, how? And when George goes rogue along with the wolf and sea creature, the challenge for Davis, Kate and Harvey becomes finding a way to stop them before a certain general winds up using the military to bomb the city with thousands of lives at stake. Is there a way to resolve things more peacefully?
This movie will definitely promote deeper thinking regarding just how far rogue genetics gone awry could affect humans and animals alike. The raging animals fight against the humans and then ultimately themselves. And Dwayne Johnson is always fun to watch as he is determined to get the antidote to his friend to bring back his kind but mischievous personality. There are plenty of laughs along the way to add to the bombastic action which features helicopters attacking the creatures, the creatures attacking the helicopters, lots of shooting, explosions, and a few jump scenes as well. Unfortunately, the language and violence levels are high, with several scenes of blood included in the movie, including blood splattering against glass. So this particular film doesn’t receive our Dove Seal.
