Like a Rock

Rampage (2018) is a modern Dwayne Johnson movie. I think we know what that means: An incredibly sweet and heavily muscled man finds himself in the middle of a catastrophe of some sort, and triumphs. Why mess with what works?

It starts in space, with a scientist frantically trying to save her experiment while a beast is killing everyone on the station. She gets into an escape pod, but the mutant beast manages to start tearing it up, and they all go down in a blaze of glory. But pieces of the experiment land on Earth, and infect an alligator, a wolf, and...

The Rock is a primatologist, working with an albino gorilla who knows sign language and likes practical jokes. Note that the gorilla is all CGI - too bad we don’t have a charismatic animal star, but thank god they didn’t subject a noble creature to a film set. Johnson is brilliant, noble, an Special Forces vet and ex-member of an African anti-poaching team. Leading a tour of the facility, you get to see all the girls going gooey-eyed for him, to the annoyance of his buddy PJ Byrne.

And the gorilla gets infected by the mutation from space. He starts going and getting mean. Johnson tries to calm him down, but he goes on a rampage. A government team swoops in and carries him away. Naomi Harris, a disgraced scientist, explains to the Rock about the whole plot, and her plans to reverse the process.

Meanwhile, EvilCorp, who funded this research, tries to lure all the mutants to Chicago by broadcasting a particularly annoying frequency. This technique was developed by Peter Graves to use against giant grasshoppers in The Beginning of the End.

The last act is, of course, a big fight, with Chicago taking a beating, and the Army ready to blow it off the map. There’s some fun stuff where the evil corporate overlord, Malin Akerman, gets fed to the ape. Now that’s justice.

This is pretty disposable stuff, directed by Brad Peyton (San Andreas). But with the Rock providing his super-nice-guy charisma, we don't care. Bring on Skyscraper.