Story: 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.
When I first saw the trailer for Rogue (not the crocodile one) the first movie that came to mind is one that got overlooked last year and for good reason because it sucks: Primal. A movie starring Nicholas Cage about a white jaguar roaming free inside a ship while he tries to catch it and avoid certain death. They share a couple of similar things like the feline is recreated by using terrible cgi, that aspect of the story is completely unnecesary and our lead has to survive said animal.
From M.J. Bassett, director of a really good movie from the early 00's called Deathwatch and Silent Hill: Revelation (a movie everybody seems to hate but I've grown fond of). Rogue won't win any awards but is definitively amusing as hell. Intense from beginning to end. Actually, those first 25 minutes or so are pretty bad-ass and thrilling. Regrettably, things slow down a bit during the second half, which is when the lioness runs wild and the group has to find ways to escape the wild animal. I found this whole section to be a bit dull and unimaginate. Bringing every cliché and cheap jump scares in the book, with characters you won't give a shit about getting torn down to pieces.
Fortunately, before you fall asleep the action kicks in paving the way for a solid third act filled with enough action to give you an erection. The movie works better when the cgi lioness is out of the picture. I feel like that was an after-thought. Like a sorry excuse to stretch a thin plot.
By the way, it's great having Megan Fox back in something that actually looks interesting other than a Machine Gun Kelly music video. She delivers a good performance and holds well throughout even if she's not entirely convincing as a "battle-hardened mercenary". A better way to exploit her talents than those crappy Transformers movies. The rest of the cast does a fine job but you won't give a shit about anyone and will cheerfuly enjoy their demise.
The special effects involving the creature are bad but thankfully kept under shadows for the most part so it's never a turn-off.
The movie never really aspires to be anything is not. It's simple plot-wise (even if it vaguely tries to say something about poaching and human trafficking), it's loud, violent, thrilling, predictable, cheesy, but nonetheless, entertaining, which is what I was expecting. Probably better than it had any right to be. I'm surprised Netflix didn't pick this one up.
Here's the trailer:
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