Rampage | Teen Ink

Rampage

March 14, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Rampage is a surprisingly adventurous drama that combines advanced genetics and animals to create a tale that is sure to please. The movie revolves around Davis Okoye, who works as a primatologist for the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary. Davis is close with all of the apes that he works with, but he has a special bond with a rare gorilla named George. The two of them are able to communicate together through sign language, and they even have their own inside jokes. George is an extremely intelligent animal and has been with Davis since he was little, because he was rescued by Davis from dangerous poachers. However, a giant corporation has been working on advanced genetic experiments in space as a way to make sure that it doesn't get tested on Earth before it's completely ready, and when the containers holding the tested pathogens come crashing down to Earth and land in San Diego in the enclosures of where the animals are, it spells danger. The pathogens eventually enter two animals in particular: a wolf and George. Nobody finds the wolf at first, but people immediately discover that George is inside of the Grizzly enclosure and has grown to a much more massive size, seemingly over night. Because of this, the story eventually gets put on the news where Dr. Kate Cadwell, who used to work on the genetic experiment, sees it and races down to San Diego. While there, she informs Davis about the potential dangers of what's occurring to George. Unfortunately, things are made more difficult by the fact that the US government attempts to obtain George and doesn't allow them to deal with the gorilla. The pathogen soon works all too well and creates two enormous beasts in George and the wolf, and the duo head to the headquarters of the company in Chicago, destroying everything in their path, including military units, which means that they might potentially demolish the entirety of Chicago, with the only two people capable of stopping them being Davis and Kate, except they're not sure how they can possibly go against genetically engineered animals meant to be unstoppable. 
 Rampage is overall a decent drama that includes an incredibly powerful relationship between Davis and George, helping to make the movie have some pretty intense conflicts. The beginning of the movie does a fairly good job of introducing characters and their relationships with one another and immediately showcases the unique bond between Davis and George, illustrating how Davis prefers to be with animals rather than humans. The middle of the movie does an okay job of progressing the movie along, but there are some faults in this portion of the movie, since there are definitely some concepts that don't make that much logical sense and aren't really that thought through. The enticing ending of the movie actually proves to be one of the movie's main highlights, and the actual charismatic conclusion of the movie is able to connect back with the start of the movie to create a cohesive story for the most part. 

 Rampage mostly revolves around Davis and his connection to George, so luckily for the movie, George is one of the better characters in the entire movie. The gorilla has personality, spunk, and is absolutely one of the best parts of the movie, since watching him interact with Davis is fun, creative, original and showcases how powerful of a bond the duo really have, making just about anyone and everyone watching jealous that they aren't friends with a gorilla. The movie is able to demonstrate just how far one man will go to protect his friend and is able to depict how cool the unusual friendship really is. 

 Rampage has some truly outstanding visuals in the movie that help in aiding to bring the somewhat abstract ideas of the movie come to life even more so. Because of this, it makes the typical animals actually transform into the massive beasts capable of laying down an entire city. This helps to conjure up a significant amount of drama, and due to the fact that the visuals are called on early and often, they are a major factor in allowing the movie to seem more realistic. 

 Rampage also has the ability to say that the famous Dwayne Johnson is the lead of the movie in an unusual role for him. It is quite interesting to see Dwayne portray a primatologist, because his hulking muscles are something that some would definitely not expect to belong to a brilliant scientist with a love of primates. Dwayne does a fantastic job of playing Davis, and his role is certainly one of the better ones in the film. Although it is true that it doesn't seem like he has as much fun with this role as he has had with others, it still seems like he is able to find some entertainment with the movie and is able to find enjoyment with his interactions with George. 

 Although Rampage didn't receive the best marks from critics, typical movie-goers are able to find satisfaction with the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an alright 53%, and IMDb gave the movie a mediocre 6.1/10, which isn't the greatest but could be worse. However, an impressive 92% of Google users liked the movie, demonstrating that people were still able to enjoy the movie, regardless of how critics felt. Because of this, critics' opinions shouldn't have the greatest influence on potential viewers of this movie.

 Rampage isn't perfect, but it is able to showcase a tremendous relationship between a gorilla and a man and that is definitely going to sit well with viewers, making this movie worth watching. Although the whole movie isn't worth a rampage, George and Davis's relationship certainly is. 


The author's comments:

"They get me. Animals like you, they lick you. They don’t like you, they eat you. You always know where you stand." - Davis Okoye


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.