Watch while drunk
Summary
The first 20 minutes make Rogue worth watching and there are some slick action scenes but the awful visual effects for the lions are distracting and takes you out of several scenes. Megan Fox tries hard but ultimately never convinces as the lead.
Plot: Megan Fox (Transformers franchise) tackles a thrilling new role as a battle-hardened mercenary in this explosive action saga. As team leader O’Hara, she leads a lively squad of soldiers on a daring mission: rescue hostages from their captors in remote Africa. But as the mission goes awry and the team is stranded, O’Hara’s squad must face a bloody, brutal encounter with a gang of rebels – and the horde of ravenous, enraged lions they encounter.
Review: I think Rogue would be a perfect double bill with the Nic Cage film Primal as it’s an action flick also centered around poorly CG’d animals; at least Primal has Cage and Kevin Durand hamming it up.
Rogue does have the benefit of coming from MJ Barrett who directed a bunch of episodes of Strike Back; it also has said TV show’s Philip Winchester who provides some of the humour and steals the movie from Megan Fox who is clearly trying so hard to be taken seriously but never really convinces as a military hardass.
I understand working on a budget but there really is no excuse for effects this shoddy in 2020; as another review said, the animals in the original Jumanji were better and that was in 1995. Why do they look this shitty now?
Aside from the crappy CG lions the rest of the action scenes are slick with real explosions and the first 20 minutes is essentially one long shoot-out. It’s a relentless opening sequence and really grabs your attention but then never really gets as intense for the rest of the runtime.
The villains are one note and there’s nothing about them that you’ll remember 10 minutes after viewing; I couldn’t even tell you their names.
There really isn’t anyone to care about as no one gets any characterisation and the dialogue is mostly forgettable too.
I liked the message about trying to save the lions and it just gives you another reason to hate humans… not that we needed any.
The score was impressive and gave the action a sense of scale and is one of the movie’s highlights.
Overall, Rogue is pretty much what you’d expect it to be with some impressive action scenes which are then let down with piss poor CG. Megan Fox is hilariously miscast and I would have preferred someone like Zoë Bell in the lead as she is convincingly badass. Watch while inebriated/stoned or as a double bill with Primal (or both) and you’ll enjoy the silly ride.