Rogue

You know you’re in trouble when the cutaways are more interesting than the main event. That was my assessment during the first half of this incredibly uneven, but fun film. Pretty pictures of the Northern Territory, a visceral sequence of a croc attacking animals, these were arresting images. But the moment a human being entered the equation, the life of the film just melted away. Awkward camerawork, uncertain dialogue timing and awful pacing issues just made me want to shoot the entire cast and throw ‘em away for croc food. But then a giant croc arrives and the boring non-story of thinly written characters takes a backseat to a retread of Jaws in the Northern Territory. Clearly that’s where the heart of this film is: set pieces involving a giant croc eating people. But why couldn’t they just dive into it instead of attempting character development? It’s pretty obvious the film is more concerned about giving you thrills but,sadly, for the most part it fails to deliver them.

In his previous film, Wolf Creek, Greg McLean seemed unable to get the balance right. He wrote some interesting characters, but sacrificed their story and character development for torture porn in the second half of the film. Here, he does the reverse. The dull first half is filled with uninteresting characters (caricatures really) but once they’re stuck on the island with the croc swimming somewhere out there, some of these boring and uninteresting people are transformed into characters worth attention. I won’t say they’re brilliantly written, but I was surprised by how much I started to like some of them. Not enough to be bothered when they get eaten, mind you and overall the sequences on the island aren’t all that thrilling.

Rogue is a mess. There's some good bits here and there but you know how it's going to go down. It's only in the final act that any real; sense of tension exists and then it's worth it. McLean clearly knows how to craft a scene that is tense and claustrophobic and the  final confrontation between man and beast is well constructed. It's a pity such skill only manifests itself at such a late stage but it lifts the film somewhat. Even so, at best, Rogue is a good beer and pizza film.

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