The rampaging Giant Beast is handled by Dwayne Johnson.
Imagine a movie that reminds you that while most 45-year-old men sport bulging bellies that protrude when they bend, Dwayne Johnson's shaved head displays two or three ripples when he looks up. The back of this human mountain's neck creases like mini spare tires.
He's doing a lot of muscle-bound gawking at the massive creatures wreaking havoc overhead in this delightfully absurd summer action flick, based on the 1980s video game of the same name. Brad Peyton, who also directed Johnson's helicopter-heavy San Andreas, is at the helm.
Johnson experiences awe, fear, anger, and a strange kinship with these mega-beasts. He seems to empathize as the enormous animals roar, rear up, and cause extensive CGI damage in urban settings, their furry hides bristling with ineffective tranquilizer darts fired by uncaring military personnel.
This tale centers on one big-hearted giant and his touching friendship with George, a gentle albino gorilla accidentally dosed with an illegal growth-enhancing drug. George starts growing uncontrollably, like a bizarre mix of Alien and Elsa from Born Free.
Johnson plays Davis Okoye, whose effortless masculinity matches his scientific expertise in primatology at the San Diego nature reserve. A former special forces operative who tackled poachers, Davis chose to retrain as a zoo specialist, albeit one built like a tank. He teaches young postgrads, including attractive women whose interest he politely deflects, reinforcing his heterosexual family-man leading role credentials.
Meanwhile, a shady corporation in space develops a genetic editing program to alter the size and energy levels of ordinary animals.
Why conduct these experiments in space? Something about zero-gravity or just an excuse for a giant rat scene in a spaceship? Either way, these questionable procedures go awry, and canisters full of growth hormones explode from the craft, plummeting through the atmosphere into the San Diego reserve. Their microscopic particles enter George's nostrils - the same lovable gorilla Davis was joking with in sign language just yesterday.
Soon, George grows out of control, along with other animals including a wolf and a crocodile-warthog hybrid. Only Davis can communicate with George and potentially enlist his help in addressing the giant animal chaos.
In classic monster movie fashion, he's aided by Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), a legitimate scientist formerly employed by the same dubious corporation until she realized their recklessness.
They receive reluctant assistance from Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a government agent and stereotypical Texan sporting an open-carry pearl-handled revolver. "When science messes up," Russell bluntly states, "I'm the cleanup crew." As for the evil corporation, it seems to be run by just two people - possibly married or bickering siblings - played by Malin Åkerman and Jake Lacy, though they could easily be Amy Poehler and Will Arnett reprising their Blades of Glory roles.
The movie is entertainingly over-the-top, though the CGI work isn't quite top-tier. Perhaps if less budget was spent on the opening space-rat scene, the helicopter crashes could have been refined. As for a potential sequel, surely one screenwriter will wonder what would happen if Johnson himself accidentally inhaled the growth drug. The possibilities are mind-boggling.