Starts off as a revenge piece about a man losing his car to some thugs in the middle of an unforgiving harsh land. He forms an unexpected allegiance with the somewhat simple minded brother of one of the villains.

From here it turns into a road movie of sorts, as the two navigate the perils of the wasteland they're in trying to find his car.

The scenery is undoutedly great to watch, but excessive use of it make the pace lagg a bit. Also there is a lot of scentences being repeated or plain staring into the distance long periods of time, which gets a bit annoying.

Have to say that the performances of most the actors is quite good, taking into account the scope of the film. Guy Pearce does a good job as the ruthless avenger. Robert Pattinson also ok as the half-wit sidekick.

There could maybe have been more nuances to the main character which would have made it easier to understand his violent actions. As it was, large portions of the film you didn't have anyone to root for.

The ending worked for me at least to some degree, which in small part made up for the undeveloped storyline.

The Rover is an anti-blockbuster mainly because of its rhythm : it is very slow, therefore preventing many people to stick to it while watching it.

What you get here is not some amusement but rather gives material to think. We're not escaping from existence, like with e.g. Gravity, Hunger Games or whatever acclaimed propaganda. And it is quite disturbing as the more we go on watching the movie, the more we confront with some reflections about our time : there's no more gods, no more laws and we're getting increasingly isolated. Just the gruesome reality. People are striving to survive and protect what is theirs (always material things), though remains some hints of optimism - and Pattinson is playing quite well on this regard.

'The Rover' is one of many 'post apocalyptic' films, offering us its vision of 'life after society.' This time they don't bother adding zombies to the bleakness, choosing instead to do something dark, gritty and hopefully realistic (think 'The Road' if you've seen that).

We're introduced to Australia, a few years after 'the collapse' (whatever that might be). Either way, it's left people basically to fend for themselves and the Outback is a dangerous place to be. We meet Guy Pearce (who, despite numerous Hollywood films under his belt, I still think of him as 'Mike' from Neighbours) who has his car stolen by a gang of wasters who are on the run. This seems to tip him over the edge and he goes on a crusade to get it back... no matter who or what stands in his way.

I've seen plenty of 'revenge films' where the hero must go on a rampage in order to avenge something. However, this is the first one I've seen the hero base his sole purpose in life in order to take back a set of wheels. Unrealistic as that may sound for a plot, I suppose it's give some added credence by the fact that he doesn't seem that stable to begin with. And here's my first problem with the film. I didn't like Guy Pearce's character. I'm okay with 'anti-heroes' who have to bend and break the rules in order to bring about justice. However, he seems to be pretty much without morals. I won't go into the exact details, but, soon after meeting our 'hero' he doesn't something pretty dark which doesn't really make you identify with him. He then meets a guy who looks a bit like a fat version of Robert Pattinson. I later looked on the internet and was shocked when I realised it WAS Robert Pattinson! I'm guessing he wanted to 'bulk up' and look as different to his sparkly vampire persona as he could. And he succeeded.

Then the two of them generally continue their quest for a car (and stuff). Now, seeing as The Rover has already been in cinemas, I'm guessing that most people will now watch it on DVD. And here's the thing... because the 'story' is basically either or both Mike from Neighbours and Edward Cullen travelling through the Outback and meeting one dodgy person after the next – then 'rinse and repeat,' you can actually use the DVD's 'chapter skip' option to take you through the story and not actually miss anything. Seriously, if you tried pressing the button a few times you wouldn't miss a single pertinent plot detail. It's just 'meet the next grubby character and keep going.

Now, I know I'm being a bit negative about it all, but it does have its good points... namely its look and feel. I mentioned earlier about how it looked like 'The Road' (only in the sunnier Outback, obviously). It too is dark in tone, depressing and does a pretty good job at showing how life might be if society fell apart at the seams.

Most people will either love or hate it. And I can see both arguments. You'll either love how dark and moody it is (dialogue is often pretty light and well spaced-out!), or simply find it dull. There certainly isn't enough action in it to call it a thrilling action movie. Basically, if you're in the mood for 'bleak and slow' then you'll get something out of this. An roller-coaster ride-explosion-fest it is not.