ReviewRogue movie review: Megan Fox plays action heroine fighting a CGI lion in silly animal attack thriller
- Fox, who plays a marine-turned-mercenary, gives it her all, but it’s hard to believe that her battle-hardened character even cleared basic training
- At its heart, Rogue is an animal attack movie – think Predator on the plains – but without the budget or effects work to get the job done right
2/5 stars
In her new movie Rogue, Fox plays a marine-turned-mercenary, in command of a squad of grizzled combat veterans who regularly risk life and limb to make a quick buck. The actress gives it her all, but it’s hard to believe that her battle-hardened character, Sam O’Hara, even cleared basic training.
What’s worse, Fox is far from being the least convincing component of M.J. Bassett’s film – the script is poorly written and the whole enterprise is a jumble of action-movie clichés, tin-eared virtue signalling, and low-quality computer-generated mayhem. At its heart, Rogue is an animal attack movie – think Predator on the plains, or Alien with a lion – but without the budget, shrewd characterisation, or proficient effects work to get the job done right.
In an unspecified sub-Saharan nation, O’Hara and her band of world-weary mercenaries drop in to rescue Asilia (Jessica Sutton), the daughter of a local governor, from a gang of Islamic terrorists. When they miss their pickup, they are forced to hole up in an abandoned farmhouse, where a scarred and deeply resentful lioness is prowling the compound.
With slicker production values, Rogue could have been an entertaining, no-nonsense grunts versus growls shoot-’em-up. Sadly, Bassett’s screenplay, co-written by her daughter Isabel, who also appears as Asilia’s annoying classmate and fellow hostage, repeatedly trips the film up with its lofty ambitions.