1. One of the great Guy Pearce performances -- mean, minimalist, and without a trace of vanity
2. The Rover is a hugely stressful tone poem in which on-screen characters are constantly being shot and killed by off-screen characters... [It] at least makes for a better Cormac McCarthy movie than The Counselor did.
3. Bleak but beautiful. An arty, ultra-realistic take on the post-apocalyptic genre.
4. Anyone who lived through the past 40 years, with its cycles of economic crashes and fuel crises, might see this as a plausible horror scenario.
5. "The Rover" is bleak and gorgeous and has a soulful center thanks to Pearce.
6. The central performances are excellent if not capable of being too finely cut given the meandering, dare I say roving, narrative.
7. Like many a late 21st century Western -- regardless of the land of its origins -- The Rover asks what happens on the downslope of Manifest Destiny? As hot, parched and heated as the atmosphere is, the answers are chilling.
8. Whatever [Michod's] screenplay lacks in terms of explicit dialogue or narrative complexity, however, it makes up for in subtle, reflective details and sun-scorched tension.
9. A beautifully shot, hyper-violent, post-apocalyptic Twin Peaks car movie starring a mud-caked murderous road hobo that either needs to be more articulate or more absurd, but sort of gets caught in between.
10. The Rover is so intentionally vague and shapeless, it doesn't leave much of an imprint other than Pattinson's odd, melancholy performance.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?
Fueled by engaging performances from Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, the tension-filled The Rover overcomes its narrative faults through sheer watchability.