Well Since nostalgia is the theme of 2018 I guess this movie falls right in its place. Take a button smasher video game that glued kids to an arcade machine as it sucked down quarters in what seemed like a never-ending barrage of levels, modern CGI, and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) and you have the first action packed, explosion filled movie of the summer season. So let’s be honest with ourselves here guys. We all know the audience this movie was catered to, so I will mainly be speaking to that audience.

I don’t know what it is about The Rock, but he can sell anything. “Hey, I’m a sports agent”, sure thing Rock. “Hey, I’m a lifeguard.”, no problem Rock. “Look guys, I’m a former special forces primatologist.”, ok, I’ll buy it, and we just go along for the ride. He just has that charisma that you just buy whatever he is selling you. As you can imagine we are at a point in CGI where it is truly hard to mess it up unless you’re in the DCEU. The deciding factor for approval on CGI now is essentially the funds the studio allocated to the project. I think the studio wasn’t fully confident in the success of this movie and pulled back for most of the beginning of the film on showing the “monsters” of the movie. We don’t really get to fully experience them until the third act of the film, however, the amount of CGI used in that third act must have cost a fortune. As a born Chicagoan, I am minorly biased, as I do enjoy seeing buildings I have been in often and see every day being destroyed. As far as destruction junky movies go, this was on par or above.

As far as the acting is considered, it was enjoyable. The Rock has stolen America’s heart a long time ago, so it already has that going for you. They toss another heart throb in Joe Manganiello to appease all the women dragged begrudgingly into another summer smasher. I thought Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a poor job of playing what I think was a Texan cowboy FBI agent, but he always lends a strong presence on the screen and this was no different. Malin Akerman plays the ruthless CEO developing the gene altering gas and I wasn’t sold. I can’t really place my finger on it but there was something with her co-star, who in the movie plays her brother, that didn’t seem genuine. By no means does it ruin the movie, but it was something I noticed for sure. The relationship between Dwayne and the primate was very entertaining.
Overall, I left the theatre entertained. This movie is exactly as it presents itself. If you go in expecting to be moved or have a philosophical break through, then prepare to be disappointed. If the trailer gave you an urge to get out to the theatre, then I by no means am here to tell you not to go. I didn’t have time to go to the IMAX for this one which I’m sure would have enhanced the experience to some degree. If you have young children I would only gauge whether they scare easily from monsters. There is no major cursing or gory blood; only screaming monsters. If they can handle Jurassic World, they can handle this. So dads grab your son on a Saturday and let mom have some quiet for a few hours, then hit a vintage arcade with a handle full of quarters and school that kid on a time where you had to leave your house if you wanted to play the best games.