“Rampage,” directed by Brad Peyton, is a lackluster, action-packed film with an unoriginal plot and strange characters, leaving viewers feeling as though they sat at a restaurant never to be served.

The film is based on a video game with the same name that allows players to control monsters and destroy cities. The film, while based on this game, strays from this premise in its plot and focuses more on the human characters, making it a loose connection. It is more fitting to say the film is inspired by the game rather than based on it, seeing as so much of the main focus differs.

Davis Okoye, played by Dwayne Johnson, is the film’s main protagonist, an animal lover who is close friends with an extremely intelligent gorilla named George. When a genetic experiment goes wrong, George grows to an immeasurable size while also becoming ferocious and out of control, adding a science-fiction touch to this already messy film. Other animals become genetically modified as well, lending to the film’s main problem: Davis and his friends must stop the animals from destroying the world.

While the plot is slightly different from other films, it seems to follow a similar formula and parallels can be drawn to so many others including “Jurassic Park,” which set up the idea of giant monsters taking over decades ago with its 1993 release. A giant gorilla destroying the city rings some bells too as viewers recall the countless “King Kong” films they’ve seen hit theaters year after year.

At the beginning of the film, there are three main characters, but the script cuts them with an odd ease. The shift in main characters causes a sort of disengagement from the audience as they struggle to follow along with who to sympathize with.

The villains of the film, Claire and Brett Wyden, appear a bit too cartoon-like, as if they came out of an early 2000s movie. The actors playing the villains, Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy, perform their roles well but still manage to feel inconsistent with the rest of the film.

Like their presence, the tone of the film is inconsistent, constantly bouncing between dramatic and funny.

The film has intense action sequences with a particular string at the end featuring ravenous radioactive animals tearing through Chicago which is by far the film’s highlight. as it engages with the audience. While the writing is bland, the action scenes do give the film some kind of credibility.

The plot is bored and overused, but Johnson does a keen job in trying to rescue it. It is easy to tell he is having fun in the role, making it appear as though he isn’t acting at all but is instead simply being himself. Besides a few quirks the writers added in like his hate for people and obsession over animals, Johnson appears to be reflecting himself.

“Rampage” lacks 90 percent of the excitement viewers need from it, and the writing simply adds to the destruction as the map of the movie makes no sense, leaving strange character motivations and inconsistencies. George and Davis’ friendship is admirable, and the film does try, but it simply cannot succeed and instead feels like just another cliché.