How 'Rampage' Broke the Video Game Movie Curse

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For starters, Rampage recognizes that it is an adaptation. It honors the spirit of the original video game, without being so beholden to it that there’s no room for necessary improvement. Some video games deliver an amazing narrative and complex plot—that doesn’t necessarily translate to the big screen well. If that were the case, the Warcraft movie would have been a lot better received. The climactic scene of George, Ralph, and Lizzie tearing through Chicago was very true to the video games. But, apart from that? Definitely different. And that worked for it.

Rampage is one of those video games that doesn’t have a lot in the way of narrative, and what there is exists to provide a quick laugh and an excuse to smash stuff. The movie holds to these two goals—there is an ABUNDANCE of destruction and George’s juvenile sense of humor are the high points of the low-action moments. But the movie isn’t trying to BE the video game. It deviates. And the decision to do so served the greater narrative, while still being respectful. As an aside—did anyone else catch the woman in the red dress reference?

Genre Savvy

Despite the fact that many video games deliver quality narratives, they don’t do so in the same way as a movie. There’s no direct engagement and that changes the emotional impact and flavor of the experience. Rampage doesn’t treat itself as a video game adaptation. It treats itself as a giant monster (kaiju) science fiction thriller. It focuses on delivering what audiences, who appreciate those kinds of movies, want. Quippy dialogue, explosions, hints of actual fact sprinkled in, so that the fiction element of the science fiction is more believable, beautiful women, and giant monsters breaking everything in sight, including each other.

You can see the embracing of this genre in its marketing campaign posters. This isn’t a video game movie, they seem to say, it’s a kaiju flick. And, because the creators recognized and embraced this, they set about shoring up the typical weaknesses of a giant monster bash. Such as: why do we care about the humans and how do we make them actually matter at the climax as something other than a deus ex machina? One of the biggest problems with kaiju movies (pun intended) is that the monsters are difficult to relate to. They’re basically disaster movies. Rampage takes this to the next level.

The Human Element

“It’s going to be a lot more emotional, a lot scarier and a lot more real than you’d expect,” said movie director Brad Peyton when asked about Rampage in comparison to his film San Andreas (also with Johnson). I’ve tried to block out the memory of that movie, but Peyton learned from it and what he learned he applied exceptionally well in Rampage. He makes us care about the monsters, especially George, brutally yanking on our heartstrings every time anything happens to the giant ape. In fact, the monsters are arguably the most human part of the movie.

As for the humans themselves, Dwayne Johnson plays the same abrasive, yet charismatic, badass with a soft spot that he usually defaults to and that works very well in this movie. He’s almost like one of the monsters. His relationship with George is the driving force behind the whole movie that makes the audience invest in a way that Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider simply can’t match. Is it simple and straightforward? Yes, but did you honestly expect a deep examination of the human condition from a movie based on an arcade game about smashing buildings with monsters? Rampage might not be a contender for an Emmy or a Golden Globe, but it most definitely reigns supreme over every video game adaptation before it, for one exceedingly simple and equally powerful reason: it makes us care.