The classic Kaiju movie formula may have been invented in America with flicks like King Kong and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, but at this point everyone’s aware that Japan is the one that perfected the genre. From Godzilla to Gamera, Japanese filmmakers have made these giant creature features part of their national identity, so it stands to reason that the west can’t quite keep up when it comes to traditional Kaiju movies.
Sure, we’re lucky enough to be living through a Kaiju renaissance with Legendary’s Monsterverse and the occasional dark horse like Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, but it’s really difficult for western cinema to capture the cheesy chaos of giant monsters wreaking havoc in densely populated urban environments. Thankfully, there are exceptions to this rule, and I’d argue that there’s one recent blockbuster that actually managed to reach the heights of its inspirations by embracing its B-movie roots and allowing the monsters to actually act like monsters.
Naturally, I’m referring to Brad Peyton’s 2018 video game adaptation Rampage, a film that I think was unfairly maligned when it first came out despite balancing both old and new Kaiju tropes in a uniquely charming cocktail that would have made the likes of Ray Harryhausen and Shusuke Kaneko proud.
A highly popular 1986 arcade game that that would go onto inspire five sequels, Rampage was set to be adapted into a motion picture once Warner Brothers acquired Midway back in 2009, with the project being officially announced in 2011. However, it would take years for the film to actually get off the ground, with producers commissioning several scripts before settling on one by Ryan Engle – who made it clear that the monsters weren’t supposed to be the heroes.
Frequent collaborators Dwayne Johnson and Brad Peyton were then set to star and direct, with the duo claiming that a shared love of the source material convinced them to sign on. In the finished film, which released in April of 2018, Johnson plays a primatologist (and former special forces soldier) who becomes embroiled in a corporate conspiracy when the Energyne company accidentally unleashes a powerful mutagen onto a trio of animals – including George, an albino Gorilla that Davis rescued from poachers. Before long, Chicago finds itself under siege by giant monsters, with Davis and George being the only ones capable of stopping their destructive rampage.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Peyton’s film wasn’t exactly a critical darling when it first came out (though its 51% approval rating made it Rotten Tomatoes’ highest rated video game adaptation of all time until the release of Detective Pikachu the following year), but its impressive box office numbers make it clear that audiences were craving for big dumb monster movie fun – something that Rampage delivered in spades.
There’s no denying that this is a B-movie on steroids, featuring the kind of monster movie logic usually reserved for SyFy originals alongside some truly expensive-looking visuals. And while this slightly trashy approach may have bothered some critics, I think it’s okay for a movie to aspire only to entertain and nothing else.
Featuring a surprisingly effective combination of crass humor and excessively brutal action sequences (which are boosted by detailed visual effects work and terrifying monster designs courtesy of Weta Digital), the flick’s bizarre lack of polish combined with its insanely high production value result in a blockbuster that’s way more fun than it has any right to be.
Of course, a lot of that is owed to The Rock’s natural charisma, with his patented leading man charm keeping the human portions of the flick almost as entertaining as the titular destruction – a rarity for Kaiju stories. I also really empathized with Davis’ and George’s friendship, and the fact that the two end up fighting together helped to keep the film emotionally grounded even as it delves into Saturday Morning Cartoon territory.
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
As absurd as it sounds, Toho has a long-standing rule prohibiting Godzilla from actually eating people. Even in recent films where the radioactive dinosaur is depicted a villainous menace, he may bite at folks, but he never actually consumes human flesh. Rampage has no such rule (after all, eating people was a mechanic in the original games), and I think that illustrates why the film stands out for allowing its monsters to really let loose.
I know it sounds like a silly detail, but Rampage’s lack of reverence towards Ralph, Lizzie and George means that the film isn’t limited by trying to appease toy-purchasing children or hardcore fans of the games (even if there are quite a few instances of side-scrolling arcade action), which is why the movie can get away with some pretty gnarly stuff. I mean, the filmmakers didn’t just make George albino so he looked less like King Kong – they also changed his appearance so you could actually see more damage during the fights.
From buildings collapsing onto civilians and monsters being decapitated as these walking natural disasters have their way with Chicago, I think it’s safe to say that this is one of the most bloodthirsty PG-13 blockbusters in recent memory, and I’m not just talking about the graphic Kaiju-on-Kaiju violence. While it’s likely that only younger viewers will be scared by the film’s destruction, I think this mean-spiritedness makes Rampage feel more in line with classic Kaiju flicks like 20 Million Miles to Earth and Rodan, which is why I hope future monster movies like the upcoming Kong x Godzilla: The New Empire learn from its cheesy yet brutal approach to chaos.
Rampage certainly isn’t a perfect film, suffering from classic monster movie pitfalls like underwhelming human antagonists and saving most of the memorable action for the final act (though Dwayne Johnson does his best at mitigating these issues), but I think it’s a shame that one of the most unpretentious creature features of our time has mostly been forgotten just because it dared to embrace its B-movie charms.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.