Ridley Scott’s dystopian thriller The Dog Stars, starring Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, isn’t entirely impressing critics despite the level of talent involved.
Based on Peter Heller’s 2012 bestselling novel of the same name, The Dog Stars opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. Elordi (Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein) stars in The Dog Stars as Hig, a young pilot in a post-apocalyptic world who, along with a survivalist, Bangley (Brolin), sets out into the dangerous unknown after receiving a mysterious radio transmission.
Qualley (Happy Gilmore 2) stars as Cima, a young medic and girlfriend of Hig, while Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) plays Cima’s father, Jack, who is a former Navy SEAL.
Rated R, The Dog Stars also stars Oscar winner Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange).
As of Thursday night, The Dog Stars has earned a 40% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 122 reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘The Dog Stars’?
Helen O’Hara of Empire Magazine is among the top critics on RT who give The Dog Stars a “rotten” score, writing, “It’s a beautiful, mountainous spin on the post-apocalyptic genre, but too familiar and too downbeat to really stick in the mind.”
Soren Andersen of the Seattle Times also gives the film a “rotten” score, writing on RT, “The Dog Stars is a clunky contraption that creaks and sputters over the picture’s post-apocalyptic landscape. It never soars.”
John Wenzel of the Denver Post isn’t impressed with The Dog Stars, either. Wenzel writes in his “rotten” RT review summary, “For all its technical confidence and pleasant faces, The Dog Stars squanders its actors’ talents and trades true insight for familiar action. There’s little to chew on after the camera pans up to the stars and the screen fades to black.”
Robert Daniels of Roger Ebert also deems The Dog Stars “rotten,” writing on RT, “It probably takes more effort to make a boring post-apocalyptic survivalist action film than to make a good one. If that’s the case, then Ridley Scott must’ve been working overtime.”
William Bibbani of The Wrap simply writes in his “rotten” review summary of The Dog Stars on RT, “There are way too many faults in these Stars. Woof.”
Tim Grierson of Screen International praises Ridley Scott’s filmmaking in his “fresh” review of The Dog Stars on RT, writing, “It is ultimately redeemed by the veteran director’s careful attention to his characters, who are far more engaging in their shared grief than when combating the sorts of foes one expects in this kind of film.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter is also a fan of The Dog Stars. Rooney writes in his “fresh” review summary on RT, “Jacob Elordi leads with introspective movie-star magnetism that evokes the heyday of Kevin Costner, while cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt’s panoramic vistas lend the unhurried but engrossing story a restorative grace.”
In his “fresh” review of the film on RT, Simon Crook of Time Out praises the film’s subtle moments, writing. “While there are bursts of Mad Max berserking, The Dog Stars is a surprisingly sensitive meditation on what we could have lost.”
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast also gives The Dog Stars a “fresh” review score, but he has reservations. Schager writes in his RT summary, “No amount of aesthetic splendor can compensate for the derivativeness of the director’s latest, a post-apocalyptic yarn that’s stitched together from the decomposing parts of its genre ancestors.”
Adapted for the screen by Mark L. Smith and Christopher Wilkinson, The Dog Stars opens nationwide in theaters on Friday.