movie review

By: Will Adeboyejo
Twitter: @YinkaAdeboyejo
Email: adeboyejoa@findlay.edu

Rampage is a film that is based off of videos games from the 80’s and 90’s. In the video games, you are one of three animals that go around a city and destroy things. Rampage is directed by Brad Peyton and Star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, they have worked on other films together such as San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. However, to me, these films are all lacking something.
I feel like they are all weak when it comes to the screenplay as the dialogue in Rampage is poor and there is little to no character development. I question the screenplay because I’ve seen a lot of these films start to pop up, I think screenwriters are becoming lazy and don’t care about character development.
This film isn’t the type of film you go into thinking that it’s going to change your life or open your eyes about some inner turmoil; it’s a film that Hollywood makes just because they are bored. The Rocks’ character in this film is indestructible, watching what felt like every two minutes that he would be put in some crazy situation where his life was in danger but he would get out of it easy.
Also, the other characters in the film just seem to be included to ask The Rock questions. The Leading Female Role Naomie Harris runs around kinda not being useful for a majority of the film. She figures out how some technology works, but other than that she moves around being The Rocks’ sidekick. The motivation of villains in the film is only to make money, this reminds me of the old bond villains, lazy character development and not a lot of thought put into it.
This film doesn’t remind me of the video game at all, and I’m not sure if the writers were going for something different, or something similar. Rating this film, I’m going to give it a two out of five stars, the film had some potential and dropped the ball.

BY: Will Adeboyejo
Twitter: @YinkaAdeboyejo

Ready Player One, a film directed by legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg, is about a futuristic world set in Columbus, Oh.
In the film, the audience follows a teen named Wade who would rather spend his days in this virtual world called the Oasis. This world, the Oasis, was created by a genius who has recently passed, the creator leaves behind a challenge for all the Oasis users. If one user can find three keys that will lead to a golden egg, that will give the user official ownership over the virtual world.
Ready Player One succeeds in the same areas most Spielberg films do, the action sequences. Spielberg is one of the best when it comes to chase scenes or action in general, this shows in Ready Player One among other films. This film also does a really good job showing a vast amount of characters from different pop culture long enough for us, as viewers, to get the references and get excited to see the characters again.
Ready Player One is picking up on a trend that many media outlets are doing to be successful. Films like Deadpool and IT, as well as TV shows like Stranger Things, are popular because they pander to the need of reliving ones’ childhood. When people are spending their hard-earned money to go see a movie, and it does well, Hollywood takes notice and will try to replicate that. Ready Player One is not the first movie to do this and it won’t be the last: do all of the references in this film slow it down or make it cheap?
The character development of Wade is lacking to me and I wish the story would touch on why Wade does what he does. The film briefly shows his home life and how undesirable it is, but that is really it. The film also doesn’t dive in deep as to why all these people want to use Oasis so much and not be in their own lives.
Overall, I would give this film a three and a half stars out of five, it was visually pleasing and technically sound, but the story, I feel, was lacking.