From director Uwe Boll (“BloodRayne”, “Alone In The Dark”) comes “Rampage”, one of the most morally repugnant films of recent years. Normally, I am quick to dismiss claims that violence in films and videogames can create a more violent society but here we have a film that seems to exist merely to glorify mass shootings and terrorism. It goes in to way too much detail about how to plan a massacre.
A young man (Brendan Fletcher “Freddy vs. Jason”) plots and executes a shooting spree. Wearing armour and equipped with guns and bombs, he terrorises a small American town like a mix of al-Qaeda and the Columbine shooters. Nobody is safe from the carnage.
The shooter here has absolutely no personality whatsoever. He’s a loner nobody with no girlfriend, a mediocre job and likes listening to the most distressing news clips he can find. I’m not sure whether the filmmakers intended for him to be seen as an antagonist ruining people’s lives or a protagonist fighting back against the ‘system’. He seems pretty despicable to me as he fires upon unarmed civilians and even toys with his prey from time to time. He even records a confession video boasting of his crimes.
The only brief moment of comedy in the movie occurs when the shooter visits a bingo hall where he is ignored. It falls flat because it is surrounded by a film with very realistic violence. Away from the bloodthirsty elements, the acting is terrible, a lot of the film is very repetitive and the cinematography is atrocious. It feels like the camera is hanging on a piece of string as it shakes all over the place. If the mass shooting subject matter does not make you feel sick, the camerawork will. “Rampage” is a shameless movie from a truly shameless director.