Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
Critics are tearing apart The Rock's new movie 'Rampage,' calling it bland and ludicrous trash
Critics are tearing apart The Rock's new movie 'Rampage,' calling it bland and ludicrous trash
Travis ClarkApr 12, 2018, 20:16 IST
Warner Bros.
Advertisement
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new monster movie "Rampage," based on the 1980s arcade game, crashes into theaters this weekend, but it will have to fight off some dismal (and hilarious) reviews if it wants to succeed.
Critics aren't being kind to the movie, where Johnson plays primatologist Davis Okoye who has a strong bond with George, an albino silverback gorilla that Okoye rescued as an infant from poachers.
It sounds like a cute friendship - until George is mutated by a chemical and goes on a (you guessed it) rampage. There's also a giant wolf and crocodile.
Business Insider's own Jason Guerrasio said in his review that the movie "is a CGI wonder with little plot and a whole lot of awful cliches and bad dialogue," but Dwayne Johnson's charisma "proves why he's making millions of dollars a movie."
Advertisement
Johnson and co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan seem to be the only silver lining in the movie among critics, but not even they can't save what they call a surprisingly bland monster movie with a horrible, unfocused script.
Check out some of the most scathing "Rampage" reviews below:
"The objective of the original 8-bit video game was to, while controlling one of three giant monsters (a gorilla, dinosaur or werewolf), reduce a city to rubble. Naturally, a story of such pathos and originality brought Hollywood rushing with a check for millions."
"This should be a 'Hold on!' sort of movie, where the most complicated line of dialogue is simply: 'Hold on!' (Johnson says it, and it’s very satisfying). Instead, 'Rampage' periodically stops dead for tedious scientific explanations."
"It’s aggressively dumb, and I’d feel safe in the assumption that everyone was in on the joke if it weren’t for the absence of any good ones ... I’m not terribly convinced that the overtly campy version of this film would be any better, but I’m very certain that this one is bad."
"I admit that 'Rampage' is a neat excuse to supersize. Animals. A crumbling Midwest city. Johnson’s muscles. Even the actors play to the rafters, with a special nod to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s deliciously wily Black Ops character."
"It sure isn’t [drama], but sometimes it tries to be, giving Johnson and [Naomie] Harris back-to-back scenes where they tediously explain why they're the way they are. As if people seeing a creature feature called 'Rampage' wanted to see anything except creatures, you know, rampaging."
"[Jeffrey Dean Morgan is] the only person on screen who seems to a.) be having any fun, and b.) understand exactly what kind of ludicrous trash he’s in. I would have gladly watched a movie just following his character."
"The movie feels like exactly what it is: a mega-budget studio tentpole reverse-engineered from an 8-bit arcade classic (by no fewer than four screenwriters), designed to eat dollars in much the same way the original game gobbled quarters."
"Director Brad Peyton hits all the expected beats: You can set your watch by the fight scenes. Sometimes, he hits them too often ... Peyton has clearly studied mediocre action movies, and it shows."
"The setup could hardly be more bland (or stupid): An experiment in genetic editing is taking place in space (because why not?). It goes wrong (because why wouldn't it?). Capsules containing the experiment crash land on Earth (because where else?)."
