Without a shadow of a doubt, Ridley Scott is one of the most prolific filmmakers of our time. Praised by the likes of Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino, the impact the filmmaking titan has had on the industry cannot be understated. Yet, his filmography has always been something of a coin toss. For every cinematic landmark like Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, there’s an Exodus: Gods and Kings or Robin Hood waiting on the other side. Alas, his latest work, The Dog Stars, finds itself firmly in the latter camp.
The Dog Stars opens on a striking note, with sweeping shots of mountainous terrain that are undeniably beautiful. Unfortunately, the novelty wears off rather quickly as the film continues to linger on its scenery long after the point has been made. One would be forgiven for expecting a National Geographic logo to emerge in the corner of the screen as the shots go on and on. What initially feels atmospheric soon becomes repetitive, contributing to a film that feels considerably longer than it needs to be.
The post-apocalyptic setting itself might have felt fresh had The Dog Stars arrived 15 years ago. In the years since, audiences have seen the genre explored from just about every conceivable angle. To be fair, the film is based on a novel published in 2012, which perhaps explains some of its sensibilities. Still, the parallels to projects like The Walking Dead and The Last of Us are hard to ignore, except Scott’s The Dog Stars lacks the rich world-building and sense of discovery that made those stories so compelling in the first place.
Which feels like a missed opportunity, particularly considering the strong ensemble of actors at the film’s disposal. Starring Jacob Elordi, The Dog Stars follows Hig, a brooding pilot surviving in an abandoned Colorado hangar with his dog Jasper and his gun-obsessed neighbour, Bangley, after a devastating flu pandemic wipes out most of humanity. Elordi’s reserved performance is bolstered by a charismatic supporting cast in Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce. The character dynamics are often interesting, though they’re rarely explored to their fullest potential, while the central romance is cute, if not a little embarrassing in how heavily the film leans into the tired “will they, won’t they” trope — as if audiences haven’t seen that one before.
In the current climate of genre filmmaking, The Dog Stars needed its world-building to be considerably stronger than it is. While the character interactions are entertaining enough, the moment-to-moment set pieces rarely carry much tension, largely because they are deprived of the build-up needed to make them truly impactful. What could have been a tense and atmospheric meditation on survival instead feels like a familiar story stretched far beyond its limits. There are flashes of the Ridley Scott who gave us some of cinema’s greatest genre films, but they are buried beneath an underdeveloped world, a meandering pace, and a script that never quite makes the most of its considerable talent. The Dog Stars isn’t an outright disaster, but for a filmmaker of Scott’s calibre, merely being watchable feels like a rather disappointing consolation prize.
