Rampage Film Review

Finished watching Rampage, directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Liles, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy and Joe Manganiello. The film opens on a space station own by the Energyne company which is destroyed by a lab experiment on a rat going incredibly wrong when it's mutated and attacks the crew. Meanwhile at a wildlife preserve in San Diego primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson)is leading a small group to see a group of gorillas where he meets with his gorilla friend George (Jason Liles) before heading home for the day. Later that night as the debris of the space station burns up in the atmosphere three containers containing a dangerous pathogen lands in America one of which is found by George who is infected by it as he begins to grow at an alarming rate along with become very aggressive. This gains the attention of Doctor Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) who try's to help Davis and George who ends up escaping the facility he's in as a government agency lead by Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) stops George and plans to find out what is wrong with him and who is responsible. While this is happening two of Energyne's top employees Clare (Malin Akerman) and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy) try to capture one of the containers by hiring Burke (Joe Manganiello) to try and retrieve one only for him and his military team to be attacked by a giant mutated wolf which leads to the two siblings to come up with a way to bring the mutated animals to them. Overall this was a good film as it delivers on the explosive action which also brings a surprising level of suspense thanks to the stakes of the film along with how well the film has developed its characters before the action set pieces. There is a nice amount of character interaction and intrigue that helps to give each character enough of a backstory to show what motivates them and shows how close of a friendship Davis and George have with one another. 7/10.