'Rampage' - First Trailer Released!

It's still really hard to believe that a movie based on the giant monster video game  from the late 80s is actually happening sometimes but with the release of the first trailer we can no longer ignore it's existence. Check it out!

Is it weird that it looks surprisingly good? Looks like we may have another fun Giant Monster film in 2018 to satiate our thirst for destruction! I really wasn't sure of the tone they were going to take with this property since there really isn't much of a story in the old games but I like that the giant monster side of the story seems to be a somewhat serious affair. Also I love the charisma the Dwayne Johnson always brings to his roles so that's another check in the "will Kyle enjoy this movie" box.

What do you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments!

Kaiju News Bits - 'Rampage' plot, 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' Jaeger, and 'Shin Godzilla' release!?

Well these last few weeks have had an interesting peppering of giant monster news and we here at Tokyo Lives have been very busy recently, thus unable to cover these stories as they occurred (Sorry about that!). I know we'll be talking about most of these during our next episode of the podcast that will be releasing towards the end of the week but I thought why not release an article as well. Let's dig in! 

First up we got some juicy plot details for the 'Rampage' film from Dwayne Johnson's instagram account. Take a look:

Goin' primal. 🦍 Good to finally have boots on the ground here in Georgia for production of #RAMPAGE. I head up an anti poaching unit out of Rwanda. My best friend is a rare albino gorilla named, George. Very bad people infect George, an alligator and a wolf with a serum. All three animals grow at an unprecedented rate. Their size, speed, agility and violent aggression is off the charts. They go on a deadly rampage and want to destroy the world. George not happy. Me not happy. When animals like you, they lick you. When they don't like you, they kill you. I will hunt down the bad people who did this to my best friend. And when I find them, I will not lick them. We have the best VFX monster making team (WETA) on the planet. Our actors and crew have been working very hard to raise the monster genre bar. As always, let's have some fun. Let's shoot. 🤙🏾 #PrimalDNA #George #Lizzy #Ralph

There was also a nice plot breakdown that might be a little spoiler heavy so I will just link you to it here.  Overall there aren't too many surprises within these first plot details since they basically describe the plot of the games. Well technically in the later Rampage titles the creatures are actually humans that have been mutated into the monsters so I guess this does point out that they are basing the film on the first game. Interestingly enough, I feel like the humans into monsters angle may have been a bit more compelling for a film adaptation (maybe some horrifying transformations).  But anyways lets move on to the next news bit!

'Pacific Rim: Uprising' has finished filming and is currently deep into post production now which is great for us fans because now we will start getting gems like the above image. This schematic was spotted at a toy convention in Japan and it gives us the best look at a new Jaeger we have had so far. It looks like Gypsy Avenger (Gyspy Danger's replacement) will have a similar arsenal to the original Jaeger. This includes the return of the Elbow Rocket, Chain Sword, and the Plasma Caster. It seems like the turbine in it's chest has been upgraded to a "Dual Vortex Turbine" which kind of hints that maybe Gyspy Avenger is still a analog Jaeger. Cool stuff all around.

Last but certainly not least, it looks like we have a tentative release window for the american 'Shin Godzilla' Blu-Ray/DVD.  According to Blu-raydisc.de Germany is getting their 'Shin Godzilla' home release on August 8th. Now you may be saying "Kyle that's the GERMAN release not the American release" and you would be right in questioning this. But hear me out! One thing to note is that the English Dub is being put onto this version of the film. Also the time frame fits from all of the other live action Funimation releases that they have done (like Attack on Titan). So due to these pieces of evidence, I am predicting that we are looking at a July-September release for the film in the states.

Do these news bits excite you? Let us know in the comment section below! 

'Rampage' - Writers Focus On Characters And Humanity With Latest Rewrite

Enough about ‘Resurgence’ and ‘Skull Island’. Everyone’s dying to know what’s going on with the ‘Rampage’ Movie! Last summer, we learned that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson would be starring in a feature film based on the 1986 video game ‘Rampage’. We have now gotten a slight update on the film from the writers and it gives us a glimpse at the route thy may be taking with this adaptation.

For those whippersnappers who don’t remember, ‘Rampage’ was a multiplayer arcade (and later console) game that revolved around 3 massive monsters. Players controlled these monsters who were actually humans that had been turned into the monsters through various accidents. There was Lizzie, a lizard exposed to radioactive material dumped in a near-by lake, Ralph, a werewolf-ish thing mutated by a mysterious food additive, and George, a gorilla grown to incredible size after eating an experimental vitamin. The object of the game was to smash a generic city-scape to bits while fighting the military and civilians who somehow got a hold of dynamite. I assume they had it beforehand, and when the giant monster showed up, they thought “If not now….” The game was totally bonkers with a cheeky sense of humor and the most fun a kid could have in between viewings of “The Thing That Was From Beyond Space That Shouldn’t Be But Was”.

So where are we in the big screen translation? Well, writers Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condol are waiting to see if their rewrite of the script will be green lit by New Line Cinemas. In an interview at the 2016 TCA summer press tour, Cuse told IGN:

“...they seem super enthusiastic about it at New Line. Last I heard they were trying to work out schedule and budget. Dwayne [Johnson]’s obviously a really busy guy.”

The waiting is to be expected in show business, but Cuse did give us a little news on what the movie will be like, promising to “bring real character and humanity to a story that is basically about giant rampaging monsters.”

So we know they’re making a movie, and The Rock is in it. Carlton Cuse was a showrunner on ‘Lost’, and he and Ryan Condol created FX’s ‘The Colony’. Between the two of them there is a lot of creativity and talent, and I have a deep and passionate love for Dwayne Johnson. But a movie based on ‘Rampage’? The game didn’t really have any story, you were just smashing things for the sake of smashing them. It makes me a little nervous to hear about “character and humanity” when describing a monster movie.

It's great for the films 'Godzilla' and 'The Host' to have “character and humanity” (given that those monsters are representative of bigger problems) but Lizzie, George, and Ralph are parodies of old b-movies from the 50’s and 60’s. Cuse mentions a “disaster-type movie”, but I don’t think the ‘San Andreas’ plot line is going to work here. This should, I think, be a love letter to drive-in creature features. I don’t want to see Johnson reunited with his estranged wife at the end of a catastrophe where they have to band together to survive and learn more about each other and grow along the way. I want to see a 10 story werewolf ride an airplane to Europe so he can smash the Eiffel Tower.  

Do you remember Rampage? Who was your favorite character? What snacks did you eat in between levels? Let us know in the comments!