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Star Cast: Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin
Director: Ridley Scott
What’s Good: The cinematography is outstanding, and with all the beautiful people on-screen, it is hard not having a pleasant experience.
What’s Bad: The pacing, the story, and the character development is quite shallow, and so it is the world these characters inhabit.
Loo Break: You can take a break at any point, nothing of worth really happens in the film.
Watch or Not?: Watch only if you are a huge fan of the actors, other than that, this is a pass.
Language: English (with subtitles)
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 119 Minutes
User Rating:
Ridley Scott is one hell of a veteran director, he has had one of the most impressive careers in the industry, directing some legendary films in his time, but lately, the veteran director doesn’t seem to hit the nail on the head, releasing films of great scope but very low level of self-control and a strange lack of style, which is sad, because The Dog Stars, his newest film, falls into the same trap, making the film a very boring and messy experience.
The Dog Stars Movie Review: Script Analysis
There is no denying that Scott can make a film, he basically closes his eyes and the film is finished, and going by what he says in interviews, his current approach is very much one of aiming the camera, shooting, and moving on, and while this strategy is efficient when it comes to making films fast, it also hurts the film, because all mistakes are passed by.
The Dog Stars is based on the novel by Peter Heller, but the script, written by Mark L. Smith, doesn’t really work as a film; the plot, which involves following characters through a post-apocalyptic setting, starts to meander pretty early, as if it was meant to be a mood experience, but Scott believes that the movie has a traditional plot, but it doesn’t.
The movie also goes really fast, too fast actually, and at times you feel like The Dog Stars should have been a miniseries, where there is enough time to explore the world and the characters at length, because as it is, right now, it all feels quite shallow, which affects all development for all the characters, and the actors only can do so much to elevate the material.
In the end, the writing falls flat, thus making the entire film feel very uninspired, which is a shame but also expected, because, at this point, we have seen this setting too many times, and there is really nothing here to make it unique, especially in a world post-The Last of Us.
The Dog Stars Movie Review: Star Performance
The Dog Stars has a very impressive cast, and they are all doing their best efforts, especially our main characters, Hig, Cima, and Bangley, played by Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Josh Brolin, all of them riding the high of their careers and making the film easy to watch, which reminds me of a Hollywood movie of old, where everyone was pretty and obviously attractive, and that was enough for a big box office.
Elordi is a great actor, but the script defeats him at every step, making his character quite boring and passive, while Margaret Qualley, who is one of our greatest young actresses, also feels underused, which is a crime, because she is quite expressive and intense, but in here, her presence is barely felt, and Josh Brolin, well, he is always welcomed, but he feels in autopilot.
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The Dog Stars Movie Review: Direction, Music
Ridley Scott is a great director, or at least he was, as one of his greatest weak points, his lack of personal style, is really showing in this later part of his career, and The Dog Stars is a great example of that. The visuals are incredible, though, thanks to the cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt, who right is working with Matt Reeves in The Batman Part II, making me more excited about that film.
The music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams goes exactly where expected, sounding very similar to The Last of Us score, which is not bad, at all, but makes The Dog Stars feel more and more like a spin-off of that series instead of its own thing.
The Dog Stars Movie Review: The Last Word
The Dog Stars is not Ridley Scott’s best film, far from it, and right now, with so many misses on his recent track record, I don’t know if Scott has another great film in it, or if he is just burnt from being a filmmaker, and this film is proof of that as it has the taste of being made with a template in mind, instead of trying to achieve something new or fresh with the story; and while all the actors are doing the best they can, they cannot save the film from having a messy script that should have been a miniseries and not a condensed version of a story that everyone is too familiar with.
The Dog Stars Trailer
The Dog Stars released on 28th August, 2026.
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