The Rover (2014)

The Rover takes place ten years after an economic collapse and sees cold-blooded drifter Eric traversing the Australian outback trying to track down the men who stole everything from him. After losing their trail, Eric soon crosses paths with Rey, a badly wound member of the gang who was left for dead. Eric and Rey soon form an uneasy partnership to recover what was stolen.

Overall Review Score

0 out of 10

Review

The Rover is a dystopian drama that sees Eric, for the majority of the films 98-minute runtime, attempt to get back his car...which was stolen from him by a gang. Along the way, he bumps into Rey and works with him to get his car back. While the plot of this film sounds simple, the Director David Michod and the cast somehow manage to turn it into a snoozefest. The Rover fails to explain some key components, such as, the back-story of the characters; what collapse Australia has been through to turn it into a dystopian society and what the gang originally did that resulted in Rey getting hurt and being left for dead. While these issues are bad, they are just a small proportion of the problems this film suffers from. Overall, The Rover is a film to avoid, it has undeveloped characters that delight in speaking monotone voices, a disappointing soundtrack that udnermines an already weak film and plenty of pointless scenes that literally add nothing to the film.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 0 out of 10

Comments:

The Rover is a 98-minute film that I was hoping would get better after the painfully dull start. Unbeknown to me this should have been an indication that this was going to be one of the most boring films I have watched in a long time. Eric (Guy Pearce) is frankly obsessive about retrieving his car, the whole way through the film the audience is left guessing its significance to him, when it is finally revealed in the last minute or so of the film the audience will be left stunned, and thinking was this it. In addition the poor acting of the main actors, Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, and the lack of any backstory or explanation of what the collapse is, results in the audience not being able to connect or enjoy the film. Further to this the film's annoying soundtrack acted as a distraction throughout and made me question why it was even included as it did not help set up any scenes but made it more easy for the audience to tune out. All in all this meant that when major plot lines were revealed, and later when a main character is killed, the audience would feel nothing but relief that the story is actually doing something entertaining.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 0 out of 10

Comments:

I spent most of this film trying to work out what was going on, why everyone was paying in US Dollars and equally what was so important about a specific car that an entire film would be based on it. None of the characters are fully explained; they all speak in the same monotones; the people who stole Eric’s car mysteriously disappear for the majority of the film only to reappear about 20 minutes before the end when the same old ‘drive, stop, talk’ scenes are getting stale and the Director / Writers need something to wrap up the story. While The Rover is not completely boring as there are some action scenes and minimal character development, I could not connect with any of the characters, the musical score did not add anything to the film and I was ultimately left wondering why this film was created and how it got produced in the first place. Overall, The Rover is a film I would not recommend even if I was in a desolate, economically collapsed dystopia.

#guypearce #robertpattinson #crime #drama