I have already said that Uwe Boll is the worst director of our time. That he has had this long to finally come up with okay movies is a mystery. These two movies represent 2/3 of the watchable movies he's managed to put out, and I have watched many of them. After watching the crap that he has put out, I wonder what made me watch these tolerable ones in the first place.
Rampage (2009)
The biggest problem with this movie is that there is so much time wasted in flash forwards. I would say it is foreshadowing, but that's not how foreshadowing works. It seems like most of it is just ti extend the run time of the movie by letting us see the same shots three or four times during the movie.
The fact is that this movie isn't actually bad - which is a win for Uwe Boll. There are issues with two-dimensional characters and things like that, but once you get passed the main character's parents and friends, you get at least a certain amount of depth from Brendan Fletcher as the disillusioned youth who eventually goes nuts with grenades and guns in the middle of town.
The movie does a good job of explaining the run-up to this incident and how he manages to stay below the radar while planning it. More importantly, it lets you know why he feels the need to go out and randomly shoot people without needing to hit you over the head with political manifestos and the like. However, the movie is generally pretty slow, and there are several things that happen that seem to go directly against the methodical way he planned everything else.
Acting was not great
Direction was okay
Editing was okay
Effects were okay
Bottom Line: Not the worst movie ever. It has more high points than expected.
2.25/5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rampage 2 - Capital Punishment (2014)
As usual, the sequel does not match the original, even though the original really wasn't all that spectacular. In this movie, they have none of the restraint of the first movie. Political messages are shoved down the audience's throat to no end. On top of that, the story that was the most basic of things in the first movie gets convoluted and muddled.
The acting in this movie also takes a step over the line into the realm of, "If I overdo this scene, maybe the director won't yell at me in that horrible German accent." And so, we have monologues that drone on and on, scenes that have neeedless flash forwards (not foreshadowing, these are just a director using the same scenes over and over because it's easier, and his run time wasn't long enough).
All of the subtlety and the limited intellect of the previous movie is completely tossed out for this one. Instead, we are hit in the head with explosions and characters stare at us through the screen to yell their political beliefs at us in no uncertain terms. Nothing unexpected happens, and nothing interesting happens, either. I think it is possible that Uwe saw Transformers and decided that his movies just needed to have more explosions. So, this movie is loud of volume and silent of content.
Bottom Line: Not worth the bits that it would take to stream it.
0.75/5