Rampage

Midway's Giant Monster Mash Rampage bashed into the arcades in 1986. A few more arcade and home games followed before its last incarnation, Rampage: Total Destruction. The monsters are back from their decade of dormancy for a big screen escapade, also called Rampage. It's neither the worst nor the best video game movie. But it's a decent pre-summer monster movie.

Two bad humans, Claire Wyden (Malin Akerman) and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy), run the evil Enegyne corporation. Their latest invention is a pathogen that makes animals bigger and angrier. "Project: Rampage" goes horribly right on their space-station, as its monster lab rat kills all but one crew member. Her escape pod blows up and sends three canisters of the monster pathogen across the States.

One such canister crashes into the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary and is found by an albino gorilla, George. He becomes a big problem overnight. Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), the ex-army man and primatologist who raised George, tries to help him. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), an ex-Energyne scientist, tells Davis what's happening to George. A secret agent man, Agent Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), takes George into custody.

Meanwhile, the other crashed canisters create Ralph the Wolf and Lizzie the Crocodile. Claire uses a sonic transmitter to lure the giants to Chicago. It's up to Davis, Kate and Agent Russell, to go to Energyne headquarters to find a way to reverse the pathogen before the city goes down.

Director Brad Peyton realizes a screenplay by four people, including Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse. It opens with a scene that mixes Gravity with Aliens. Davis and George's first scene sets up their fun chemistry. And when George mutates, it rarely stops to breathe before another action scene. That's true with the Chicago rampage that takes up the last third of the movie. The relentless action may exhaust a few viewers and thrill many more. As for me, I liked the comic bits but the drama didn't faze me. And I can't help but think how short-sighted the villains were in attracting the monsters. Did they have a plan to keep their HQ from getting punched out by angry monsters? I didn't hear one.

The human cast is pretty good. The main humans are memorable for a movie this simple. Johnson and Morgan are their reliable tough guy selves, and Harris makes for a strong ally. Claire and Brett made some entertainingly short-sighted villains. Meanwhile, Burke (Joe Manganiello), an Engyne mercenary, is the most memorable waste of a character in recent cinema. He's got a lot of bluster but he's only here to give Ralph a named snack.

The film succeeds in its technical aspects. The monsters are perfectly rendered CGI characters. The motion capture work for George and his fellow gorillas is strong. Lizzie and Ralph make for formidable giant beasts. Even the mutant lab rat in the opening is creepy. Their rampages provide plenty of destruction and mayhem. The sound designers give them strong growls, snarls and roars. The best aspect is Andrew Lockington's thunderous score, especially in its opening scene.

Rampage is an adequate monster movie. It's sure to fill a good matinee spot before Infinity War comes next week. Its story and characters could've used more substance. But its monster smashing makes it worthwhile. Hopefully, its existence renews interest in the franchise. I'm willing to play the new arcade game out now.

Isle of Dogs

It's hard to believe Wes Anderson has only done two animated films. The first, Fantastic Mr. Fox, came out in 2009. His latest one, Isle of Dogs, is out now. It makes for a visually appealing animated movie even if it has some issues.

In the not too distant future, the city of Megasaki, Japan, is gripped with "Dog Flu." Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura, who is also one of Anderson's three co-writers) orders all dogs quarantined and dumped onto Trash Island. One such quarantined dog is Spots, the bodyguard of the Mayor's ward and nephew, Atari (Koyu Renkin). Atari commandeers a small plane to the "Isle of Dogs" to get him back. The plane sputters out and he crashes. But he's OK.

On the Isle, a pack of dogs, led by Chief (Bryan Cranston), try to stay alive. They find Atari and agree to help him find Spots. The Mayor and his personnel try to get Atari off the Isle. Meanwhile, a pair of scientists, Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) and Yoko Ono (the same), discover a cure for Dog Flu that Kobayashi wants to cover up. An American transfer student, Tracy (Greta Gerwig), organizes a movement to expose the truth behind Dog Flu.

The screenplay, co-written with Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, is a good one. Anderson's deadpan wit sits and stays throughout the story. Its story and stakes play best with pet owners. The ending relies on a masterful bait-and-switch maneuver. The film renders the dogs and some humans in perfect English, while the majority are in unsubtitled Japanese. It renders the language barrier between humans and dogs well, but I understand why it might rub others the wrong way.

The cast is a strong bunch. Chief is a good dog. He starts the film as a loner trying to lead a pack, but the others don't take heed. His bond with Atari and the showdog Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson) makes him lovable. His pack, Duke (Jeff Goldblum), Boss (Bill Murray), King (Bob Balaban) and Rex (Edward Norton), are a funny pack of memorable characters. Atari is a flat protagonist with an understandable goal. Meanwhile, the strict Mayor Kobayashi has a change of heart. The language barrier surely makes me wish I could converse flawlessly in Japanese.

But the artistic and aural values aren't hampered by the language barrier. The puppet characters and their settings are uniquely designed and quirky. The animation is strong; the best bits involved the characters' scuffles mostly obscured by cartoon clouds. Tristan Oliver's cinematography renders the animation in a wonderfully wide field of vision. Alexandre Desplat has composed a memorable soundtrack in traditional Japanese styles; he even throws in bits of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Drunken Angel.

Isle of Dogs has me waiting for Wes Anderson's next animated film. His style translates that flawlessly into animated form. It never loses its quirky appeal throughout its 101 minutes. Hopefully, the film will inspire people to read up on Japan as it is. It's still a winner, though maybe not the winner. I'm waiting for the rest of this year's animated films.

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline's debut novel, Ready Player One, thrives on one's encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. That sounds awesome, but an encyclopedia doesn't have the pace of a film. The book's concepts are distilled perfectly in Steven Spielberg's film version. It's a wondrous distillation.

In 2045, Wade Watts's (Tye Sheridan) reality is an overcrowded and poor Earth. He escapes the dreary existence of Columbus, Ohio into the VR world of the OASIS. As his Avatar, Parcival, he can do whatever he wants at anytime. There's an Easter Egg hidden in the OASIS left behind by its late creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance). The first person who gets all three keys to the Egg inherits Halliday's massive fortune and the OASIS itself. Wade spends his time deciphering Halliday's hints by exploring the man's virtual library.

Eventually, Wade finds the first key and gets the game going. He's soon joined by his pals, Aech (Lena Waithe), Daito (Win Morisaki) and Sho (Philip Zhao) and the enigmatic hacker Artemis (Olivia Cooke). The evil businessman Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) wants the Egg too for his own evil purposes. He'll even kill people to get it. The "High Five" will have to outwit Sorrento in both the real and virtual worlds to get there first.

The screenplay, by Cline and Zak Penn, is just as referential as its source. Most of the references take the form of the players' recognizable Avatars. You'll probably miss one or two references for every one you get in the film's massive crowd shouts. Your understanding won't live or die if you don't get every single reference. There's a meaningful story amongst the iconography. The key to the keys is understanding Halliday as a person and not repeat his mistakes. The film plays peoples' obsession with the OASIS for black comedy early on. But the resolution, which embraces the real world, is a strong one.

The human cast is a great one. Wade is a likable hero with an understandable goal to escape poverty. The in-game Quest and his time with Artemis helps him become selfless. His friends are a likable bunch of misfits in both realities. Rylance perfectly conveys Halliday as withdrawn, socially-awkward and warm. He's a great presence throughout the picture. Mendolsohn is a strong villain with moments of comedy. His henchman, I-ROK (TJ Miller), is wonderful comic relief and a formidable villain too. 

The film succeeds on its technical promises. The OASIS and its Avatars are stunning CGI designs. The Avatars are as photo-realistic as the Orcs in Warcraft.. Even the most obvious CGI is forgiven due to its Virtual Reality setting. Its recreation of the Overlook Hotel lobby from The Shining looks like actual footage. The rest of the production design results in one impressive world after another. That even includes the dreary real world. The soundtrack, whether Alan Silvestri's score or the classic standards, is a memorable mix.

Ready Player One is one of the most delightfully geeky movies in years. It's another great film from the man who helped invent the modern blockbuster. A few elements could've used more depth but its 140 minutes were a satisfying adventure. This is another film that needs to be seen on the big screen. It's worth any price.