• Review by Leo Mayr - 6/7/18

Andrew Lockington continues his collaboration with director Brad Peyton. Having worked together on 2015's disaster movie San Andreas, seeing the two re-team on a new disaster movie shouldn't surprise anyone. Rampage is a summer blockbuster centered around three animals mutating to colossal size and tearing up Chicago. If you can take it for what it is, it's really rather enjoyable.

The film opens with a fun sequence that surprised me, so I won't go into details here. There's an element I did not expect, and the score really shines during those first five minutes.

While it's easy to label Rampage as just silly all-out chaos, there's a more intimate and personal side to the score. There are more than a few stunning pieces I really did not expect from this movie. Lockington does an admirable job at making you relate to the characters in the time in-between insane action. But at the end of the day, you're here to see giant monsters inflict mayhem and destruction on unsuspecting cities. Well, you've certainly come to the right place.

The film along with it the score, takes a while to really get going and can feel a bit slow at times. But once it does pick up the pace, it doesn't really stop. The last third in particular is basically just non-stop destruction that even rivals San Andreas at times. Lockington has quite a talent for intense action sequences, and here he really gets to shine. The mostly orchestral music is sometimes accompanied by a handful of electronic textures. But for the most part it's the orchestra that takes the lead, and it does so in spectacular fashion. Lockington's style shines through more than once and if you know his previous work, there's more than a few bits that'll sound familiar.

Rampage is just fun. It's not a movie that'll bring in awards, but that doesn't make it a bad one. The fantastic action scenes and most of all Andrew Lockington's music make the experience well worth revisiting. The action is spectacular and the quieter moments really allow Lockington to shine. Fans of his work really shouldn't miss this one.

• 3.5/5