[HorrorScience] Rampage (2018)

Rampage was an arcade game from the 80s where three monsters devastated cities and devoured people while fighting with the army. It was so successful that it was brought to many different consoles, and years later it had several sequels that gradually lost public support until leaving this saga completely forgotten.

That is precisely why it surprises me to be talking about a 2018 film based on Rampage, although I think its appearance is due to the fact that we are facing the new era of giant monster movies, as demonstrated by recent films like godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Shin Godzilla (2016),  Jurassic World (2015) and its sequel Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom (2018).

Although its original title coincides with that of the video game, in Spanish-speaking countries it suffered from the unnecessary dance of names, so this film is also known as Project Rampage (Spain) and Rampage: Devastation (Spanish America).

A terrible accident happens in a laboratory that is in space, apparently the test subject (a rat) has mutated and has become tremendously dangerous, which ends up destroying the laboratory, but not before let the remains of the experiment fall to Earth.

One of the containers containing the material that mutated the rat is found by an albino gorilla named George, who lives under the supervision of primatologist David Okoye, with whom he has a family relationship, having raised him since he was a baby. George begins to act violently and grow in size, which causes him to escape and cause real chaos.

But George is not the only animal to have encountered the feared substance; in another part of the world, a giant wolf appears causing death and devastation. The creators of the substance decide to use their tower to emit a frequency that both monsters will notice., which will cause them to head towards it, and thus they will be able to kill them and take advantage of their DNA to experiment with it.

The chaos wreaked by George and Ralph (that's what the wolf is called) is so great that not even the army can stop them, but the biggest problem is yet to come, since a giant crocodile emerges from the river that is twice the size of the other monsters. How will they stop the monsters? Can David do anything to save George?

As a “popcorn” movie it delivers remarkably, and the truth is, I don't understand that there are critics who complain about its script or development. This film, unlike others, delivers what it promises, although obviously, it does not promise anything too complex.

As a giant monster movie it is entertaining, it has action, good effects and obviously, its script is tremendously simple, but that also means that He doesn't do strange things, nor does he try to act smart without being smart., and then fall into shame.

Nor are we talking about a parasitic film, a sequel made in haste with the sole intention of exploiting a brand (yes, it comes from a video game, but one completely forgotten, from more than 30 years ago and whose last part came out in the PlayStation 2 generation and went unnoticed).

There are similar films that for one reason or another aspire and promise us something much better, something that is worth seeing, something that aims to tell a unique story, with important characters that in some way will make the film worthwhile, but then when push comes to shove they fail, not only in their aspirations, but in the art of entertaining and that already makes them Rampage stay above them.

godzilla (2015), Jurassic Park – The Lost World (1997), cloverfield (2008), Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) are some examples of giant monster movies, which, regardless of their quality, promised something more than "a monster movie" and in the end they were just that, but they also turned out to be boring, tedious and unoriginal.

Even similar films designed to entertain and focused on a youth audience who only want to see explosions and special effects are usually far below Rampage (for example, movies Transformers by Michael Bay or the mythical godzilla (1998) by Roland Emmerich).

fans of the saga Rampage they can be more picky, since although this movie is faithful (if we compare it with other video game movies) it skips over some things that represent it.

Por un lado, el sentido del humor del juego ha desaparecido. ¿Es eso malo? Pues, un poco si, la verdad. No es que yo esperase tantísimo humor, pero me habría gustado ver a un monstruo electrocutándose al tocar un cartel publicitario, que comiese algo en mal estado y vomitase o que al arrancar un retrete le cayese un chorro de agua en la cara y mirase con cara de tonto a la pantalla. Eso es Rampage 100%.

Por otro, que los monstruos mutados no se parecen demasiado a los del juego, ya que no son antropomórficos y tienen diseños diferentes (George es el que más se asemeja, pues solo le han cambiado el color). Además, ya no son personas mutadas, son animales mutados. ¿No habría sido genial que al final de la película quedasen desnudos y se arrastrasen fuera de la cámara como cuando perdíamos una vida? Yo creo que sí.

Sin embargo, no lo voy a negar, que esta película no tenga mucho humor absurdo por parte de los monstruos o los protagonistas (hay humor, pero no es algo exagerado) tampoco es algo necesariamente malo, ya que de haberlo usado de manera incorrecta o pesada, esta película se habría convertido en godzilla (1998).

Resumiendo, como película de monstruos gigantes, le doy un notable alto.

Como película de videojuego, le doy mi visto bueno.

Como película de cine en general, es un producto de consumo rápido para pasar un rato entretenido y luego olvidarlo como si nunca hubiese pasado.

Quizás, lo único que deja Rampage en mi mente tras verla, es pensar que de alguna manera el cine de monstruos gigantes ha logrado volver a la actualidad, pese a que la cartelera actual esta saturada de películas de acción a manos de sagas míticas (Star Wars) y superhéroes de todos los bandos.

Curiosities:

• En la película aparecen dos roedores, uno mutado al principio y otro es la mascota de uno de los villanos. Muchos espectadores han considerado que esto es un guiño a Larry (monstruo que aparecía en la versión de Atari Lynx de Rampage) o quizás a Curtis (Rampage 2: Universal Tour) y Rhett (Rampage: Total Destruction).
• En una entrevista le preguntaron al  director (Brad Peyton) si la rata mutada era Larry y él contestó que no le habían puesto nombre, pero que en caso de que se haga una secuela y salga una rata mutada, le llamará así.
• Uwe Bowl puso una demanda debido a que esta película se llama igual que una que dirigió él y eso «dañaba su marca y confundía a los espectadores».
• Con motivo de esta película se estrenó un nuevo juego arcade similar al original pero con gráficos actuales y los diseños de los monstruos de la película.
• Según algunas fuentes, el diseño de Lizzie y el color de George fueron alterados para evitar posibles confusiones con Godzilla  y King Kong, debido a que actualmente ambos monstruos tienen películas planeadas.