I remember seeing clips of this King Kong style film during its cinema release, I had no idea it was based on a video game series, I eventually watched it hoping it would be quite fun, directed by Brad Peyton (Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, San Andreas). Basically, gene-manipulation company Energyne owns the space station Athena-1, which is destroyed after a mutated laboratory rat wreaks havoc. Crew member Dr. Kerry Atkins (Marley Shelton) is the lone survivor and is ordered by Energyne CEO Claire Wyden (The Heartbreak Kid's Malin Akerman) to retrieve the pathogen canisters. She gets away in the escape pod before the station implodes, but she is killed as the pod disintegrates upon re-entry, and a trail of debris falls to Earth. One canister is swallowed by a crocodile in the Everglades, and another is found by a wolf in a Wyoming forest that is exposed to the pathogen. Former Special Forces soldier Davis Okoye (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is a primatologist and member of an anti-poaching unit who works at the San Diego Wildlife Sanctuary. In the past, he saved a rare albino western lowland gorilla baby from poachers who killed his mother. This gorilla, George, has grown up and is cared for by Davis who communicates with him using sign language. One of the canisters crash-lands in George's habitat and he is exposed to the pathogen. It causes George to grow considerably larger and he becomes more aggressive. Following this, Davis is contacted by genetic engineer Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris), who explains that the pathogen was developed by Energyne to rewrite genes on a massive scale. She had hoped to advance research on the pathogen, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), to potentially cure numerous diseases. But she was falsely incarcerated after discovering Energyne's plans to use it as a biological weapon, during which her terminally ill brother died. George escapes from captivity and goes on a rampage at the preserve. George calms down but is soon captured by a government team led by Agent Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and is taken aboard a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airplane. Meanwhile, a private military group led by Burke (Joe Manganiello) attempts to capture the mutated wolf, Ralph, but it goes awry, and the entire team is slaughtered. Claire and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy) were overseeing the mercenaries. Claire reveals to Brett her plan to capture Ralph and use George to cover up her plot. She has built a massive transmitter on top of Willis Tower to lure the animals, using a certain radio frequency, to Chicago, and has no concern about the risks and endangerment to civilians. When the transmitter is activated, George reacts violently to the sound, causing damage to the aircraft. As the plane descends, Kate Davis, and Russell escape with parachutes; Davis saves Russell who is unconscious. After Russell recovers, they find the wreckage and find that George survived the crash and escaped. George joins Ralph as they make their way to Willis Tower, lured by the radio signal. Davis and Kate are brought in by the military who are trying to defuse the situation. But Russell, in gratitude for saving his life, helps them to escape the base, and they steal a military helicopter to pursue the animals. Arriving in Chicago, they see George and Ralph rampaging through the city as the military struggles to contain them. It gets worse when the mutated crocodile, Lizzie, also arrives and causes further destruction and casualties. Davis and Kate infiltrate Energyne's base of operations at the tower, planning to steal an antidote to turn the animals back to normal. They take several vials of it but are caught by the Wydens. Claire reveals that the antidote only eliminates the animals' enhanced aggressiveness rather than reversing the other effects and shoots Davis. George starts climbing the tower, Davis appears after surviving the gunshot, and Claire orders him to distract the gorilla while she tries to escape with Kate at gunpoint. Kate slips a vial into Claire's handbag and pushes her toward George, who swallows her whole along with the vial. At ground level in the tower, Russell persuades Brett to give him incriminating evidence of the scheme. Russell allows Brett to leave the building, but he is crushed to death by falling debris. As the damaged tower topples, Davis and Kate survive by crash-landing a helicopter on the Federal Plaza. They find George on the ground who has returned to his original personality. Davis stays to help George defeat the other animals, while Kate and Russell rush to prevent the military from dropping a large-yield bomb. George battles against Ralph, who is tricked by Davis into advancing towards Lizzie, who decapitates the wolf using her jaws. Lizzie chases Davis, but George intervenes in time for Davis to fire grenades at the crocodile. Lizzie survives the explosions and overpowers George, who is impaled by a reinforced steel bar. Davis fires at Lizzie with weapons in a fallen Apache attack helicopter. He is nearly killed before George pierces Lizzie through the eye with the steel bar, killing her. With the threat neutralized, the airstrike is aborted. George appears to die from his injuries, but with his dark sense of humour, he tricks Davis who is relieved he is alive. In the aftermath, George and Davis, joined by Kate and Russell, help clear the city of debris and rescue civilians. Also starring P. J. Byrne as Nelson, Demetrius Grosse as Colonel Blake, Jack Quaid as Connor, Breanne Hill as Amy, Matt Gerald as Zammit, Die Another Day's Will Yun Lee as Agent Park, Urijah Faber as Garrick, and Jason Liles as George. Johnson is likeable as the scientist hero with former military experience and some one-liners ("Of course the wolf flies."), Harris is fine, and Morgan as the shadowy government enforcer is good, but Akerman and Jake Lacy are too hammy as the sibling industrialist villains. It can be compared to Kong vs. Godzilla movies, it has predictable dialogue and relies heavily on explosive stuff, but the battle sequences, set pieces and violence make it engaging and exciting, and it does have impressive CGI special effects, a slightly silly but not terrible science-fiction monster action. Okay!