The Dog Stars movie is Ridley Scott's lethargic misfire
Ridley Scott's new postapocalyptic movie The Dog Stars, a $110 million adaptation of Peter Heller's 2012 novel starring Jacob Elordi, lands as a lethargic misfire. Critics say the 118-minute 20th Century Studios drama never finds its footing, with familiar survival beats, a glum lack of energy, and a blank lead performance that cannot sustain the dreary dystopian adventure.
Key Takeaways
- The Dog Stars is Ridley Scott's R-rated postapocalyptic movie, written by Mark L. Smith from Peter Heller's 2012 novel.
- Jacob Elordi stars as survivor Hig, with Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, and Allison Janney in key roles.
- The Guardian called the $110 million film a limp, lethargic misfire; Variety found it a surprisingly low-energy blockbuster.
- The movie opens in Australian cinemas on 27 August and in the US and UK on 28 August.
- Northern Italy doubles for Colorado, with cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt.
Why is The Dog Stars movie being called a misfire?
The Guardian argues the film was yanked from a more encouraging March date into a cursed late-August slot, and that the timing fits a limp survival tale. In a crowded postapocalyptic subgenre, the beats now feel too familiar: artfully dishevelled actors grieving the past and scrambling for resources.
A flu pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. Mechanic Hig lives with dog Jasper and former marine Bangley as they protect a remote Colorado compound. Variety, reviewing the picture at London's Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, said that shrugging just-getting-by mood is tough to sustain dramatically.
Screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who also wrote The Revenant and The Midnight Sky, forgoes the novel's first-person narration. The Guardian says his script details Hig and Bangley's differing views too loudly, as if the characters were having those conversations for the first time.
Who stars in Ridley Scott's postapocalyptic drama?
Jacob Elordi, a recently Oscar-nominated rising star and the best part of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein according to The Guardian, leads as Hig. That same Guardian review found him on less sure footing here: a boringly absent performance of empty, stoic stares. Variety said Elordi's gift is mining humanity in unappealing characters, but a simply dull one leaves him a bit of a blank.
Josh Brolin plays Bangley, the grizzled fellow survivor whose gruff friction Variety says the opening act desperately needs. Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley appear as a father-daughter pairing Hig meets after leaving for a nearby hub. Allison Janney features in a late sequence critics called derivative, unscary, or a jarring swing into macabre, borderline-camp horror-comedy. Benedict Wong also appears.
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What happens in The Dog Stars, and when does it open?
Set most pessimistically in 2035, Hig ekes out a life on an abandoned airstrip in Erie, Colorado, less than a decade after the plague. He regularly flies a battered Cessna to Denver, now a bombed-out ghost town, for supplies. Bangley wants intruders shot on sight. Hig the optimist believes something more is out there.
Hig's search leads him to crash-land near the farm of rancher Jack, also called Pops, and his lonely daughter Cima. A thin romance ensues. So-called reapers, described as bloodthirsty goth invaders or feral men on horseback, arrive late. Variety compared the liveliest set pieces to a frontier Western, including a briefly spectacular buffalo stampede.
The Film Verdict notes Hig also shares supplies with an agrarian Mennonite community led by Aaron. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt turns aerial sequences into dazzling vistas, with the Italian Alps standing in for the Rockies. The Guardian still flagged weirdly janky visual effects, including one explosion that looks laptop-made.
The Dog Stars is out in Australian cinemas on 27 August and in the US and UK on 28 August. It is rated R and runs 118 minutes. Critics agree the scenery is stunning and the four leads can play stoic, sorrowful notes. They also agree that is not enough: The Guardian wishes Scott seemed more interested in the day job, while Variety says he never seems more than intermittently invested in this material.