Rampage 2: Hollow Earth wisely abandons subtlety in favor of awe, catapulting the monster-movie premise to its logical, spectacular extreme. This isn’t just another outbreak; it’s a full-scale geological invasion, as ancient, gargantuan fauna from a hidden inner world erupt onto the surface, treating our greatest cities like termite mounds. The film’s central, brilliant pivot is this “vertical war,” creating breathtaking, terrifying set pieces where skyscrapers become cliff faces for creatures to scale and crumbling infrastructure becomes a deadly avalanche of glass and steel.

Dwayne Johnson returns as the steadfast, embattled Davis Okoye, a man whose connection to George, the hyper-intelligent gorilla, provides the franchise’s enduring, if strained, emotional anchor. Naomie Harris lends crucial scientific gravity to the escalating chaos. The true stars, however, are the creatures and the jaw-dropping scale of their destruction. The film delivers on its promise of relentless spectacle, with parachute drops over monster-infested metropolises, desperate aerial battles, and ground-shaking confrontations that feel genuinely massive and urgent. The visual effects are top-tier, making each new titan a unique and imposing force of nature.

Where the film embraces its most intriguing and debated ideas is in its expansion of the mythology. The suggestion that the Hollow Earth is not a chaotic ecosystem but a structured, adaptive domain introduces a chilling new layer to the conflict. This bold narrative swing reframes the invasion from a natural disaster to a potential territorial war, culminating in a finale that provocatively questions humanity’s place on the planetary food chain. While this grand ambition occasionally stretches narrative logic thin in favor of the next big set piece, it’s a worthy trade-off for the sheer cinematic thrill provided. With an 8.4/10, Hollow Earth is a triumphant escalation. It understands its role as a blockbuster rollercoaster, delivering the monster-mashing mayhem fans crave while daring to imagine a bigger, more terrifying world lurking just beneath our feet.

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