Several friends were really keen on Rampage and kept hassling me to see it, but I never seemed to get the chance. When I finally go to it, I found Rampage fairly underwhelming, as I've never played the games and was just hoping for some Kaiju action, but what I got was a whole load of Rock and only the one monster fight. Not that there isn't a lot of fun stuff in the film, but I was in the headspace for Kaiju so Rampage couldn't help but disappoint. The opening, with a lone woman running from an (unseen) mutant rat through a space station is really well put together and quite tense, in fact, the tense scenes work well, like later when Ralph (giant mutant wolf) is picking off a team of mercenaries in the woods, but most of the "big" monster action leaves something to be desired. I'm not sure I buy the Rock as former special forces soldier/park ranger/bounty hunter turned zookeeper Davis Okoye, as he may be a competent actor, but basically only has one "action" mode. Compared to Jeffery Dean Morgan, playing Agent Russell, the Rock just doesn't seem to be having as much fun in the role as the premise would demand.
What Rampage reminded me of most was the Transformers films, with the emphasis on military technology and what seems to be a lack of good ideas as to what to do with the actual monsters people turned up to see. Not that I expected Rampage to be Shin Godzilla or anything, but was Kong Skull Island too much to ask? I'm pretty sure only two helicopters get trashed, nowhere near enough. Though there is a cool bit where the Rock uses a broken helicopter to break his fall from a collapsing building, which is pretty neat. I guess if I'm grading on a curve for being a "video game movie", Rampage is actually pretty good, but when do we stop expecting these game adaptations to be lesser, and demand the same quality we get from comic book films? I still think the first Tomb Raider and Resident Evil are perfectly serviceable and will keep defending Street Fighter as a fun romp; not everything is the animated Donkey Kong Country film, you know?
So what does really work in Rampage? Well, the size of the Kaiju is nice for gaming. Seriously, some larger animal action figures and model kits are pretty affordable around the 12 to18 inch mark and would sit well next to 28mm miniatures. My Gamera is around that size (he's 15mm if we're getting technical) and "looks" about right on the table. The Godzilla I've been eyeing off is a little taller and would probably be around perfect. Of course, I've seen Kaiju played at 10mm and 40mm, and most of mine aim for 6mm, so what you can afford and store is up to you, but I like a couple of big nasties to really give the "wow" factor for display games. Warmachine and D&D Miniatures have a nice giant Crocodile and Wolf respectively, and a few places do large apes in toy lines, so putting together a Rampage set would be pretty easy if that's your bag. For me, it's off to find more suitable Godzilla and Gamera Kaiju.
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