'The Dog Stars' is a Ruff Watch
Ridley Scott is a tough act to follow. Yet, time and time again, he just phones it in. Gladiator II is a soulless cash grab that bastardizes the original. And what Scott did with his Alien sequels is laughable. Yet, Prometheus works when it challenges the audience. Once it turns into a slaughterfest, everything falls apart. Why? Because it’s generic. Scott can be brilliant, or he can be lazy, and The Dog Stars is no exception. Everything from its poster to its title screams diet Cormac McCarthy meets Neil Druckmann. When walking into the theater, I noticed s poster for Heart of the Beast. Featuring Brad Pitt and a dog. I thought for a moment that was for Dog Stars. It might as well have been, as even the dog refuses to star in 90% of this film.
The picture’s genericness flies from the get-go as we’re introduced to a slew of slow opening credits set to Harry Gregson-Williams’ forgettable score. God, how I miss the Hans Zimmer days. But he’s moved on to better projects. After the opening credits end, we’re introduced to a post-apocalyptic world where a COVID-like flu has ravaged society. The film doesn’t show much of how society has been annihilated. We see few decimated towns or cities. Most of the atmosphere is set in small base camps filmed in what looks like a forest preserve.
Our main character is a pilot and mechanic. Hig (Jacob Elordi) has skills that make him indispensable in a world gone tribal. With the help of the militaristic Bangley (Josh Brolin), the two can defend their little town. But for how long? The film asks such questions, but only briefly, to set up an atmosphere that should be harrowing but is overplayed and simplistic. The antagonists' name alone is eye-rolling in its familiarity. The Reapers. A gang of shaved headed heavily tattooed psychopaths. Or at least that’s who I think they were as the movie progresses through threats like they’re leveled hordes in a video game. By the time the film reaches its final boss, it goes from believably dark to Fallout. The shift in tone suggests the Director is no longer taking the dystopian setting as seriously as he once did.
There’s shocking imagery in the film, yet its characters and setting are so dull that it numbs the audience. Whenever the film examines its characters, the backstory is a flashback the movie builds up to, yet ends on a lackluster delivery. Grim settings don’t simply make good movies. You need strong writing behind it. The characters in this movie are anyone you could pull from The Walking Dead’s central casting, whether it's the tough, grizzled old guy or the disheartened yet hopeful youth.
The Dog Stars is more by the numbers than it is by the heart. There’s little reason to care about these characters or this setting, since the weak script makes it more dull than daring. The film's only strong moments are the ones it should be focusing on if it wants to stand out among the corpses of other post-apocalyptic media.
The film is striving for a message that is sweet but sour in delivery. In a world full of despair, even when we lose everything, we must hold onto hope. I was just hoping for the movie to end. And you may too. The movie progresses through its plot like a road movie set in a rusty old plane that can’t fly very far. Most of the destinations feature predictable love interests paired with grizzled, protective fathers. Everyone’s more of a cliché than they are a person.
But don’t worry, Ridley Scott has your back if boring talking scenes aren’t your thing. Much of the movie features Higs, Cima (Margarett Qually), and Pops (Guy Pierce) shooting down hordes of bad guys who, like all movie goons, have a stormtrooper’s aim. It’s hard to take the end of the world seriously when it seems too easy to survive in.
Ridley Scott can and should do better than this. His last good film, The Last Duel, shows a filmmaker who wasn’t afraid to take chances, much like how Blade Runner was a risk. Scott should let himself be Scott Free and find something beyond conformity to make his picture soar. The Dog Stars is Ridley Scott not trying hard enough. It’s a forgettable-looking picture shot in presumably digital IMAX that doesn’t need the big-screen experience. Such a shame coming from one of the former masters in visual storytelling. The Dog Stars certainly didn’t feel like the end of the world, but it would certainly be a sad way for a director’s career to go out.
