Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Sir Ridley Scott’s latest film is all bark and no bite.
“The Dog Stars” was released Friday. With it, the “Alien” and “The Martian” director tried something new. Led by middling performances from Jacob Elordi as Hig and Margaret Qualley as Cima, the film follows a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic Colorado reeling from a devastating flu pandemic. Elordi and Qualley, supported by significantly stronger performances from Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce, as Bangley and Pops, respectively, face off against the Reapers, a group of anarchist scavengers. The cast is rounded out by Allison Janney as Darlene, who delivers a delightfully evil performance. While “The Dog Stars” has stunning cinematography and heart-pounding action scenes, the film is hindered by subpar performances, poor screenwriting and a meandering, confused plot. The film is not a thriller, and, frankly, it doesn’t seem to know what it is at all.
Elordi’s performance as Hig, a former mechanic living in a rural base, is neither exceptional nor terrible. Elordi appears to be attempting a “Robert Pattinson” in his film choices as he tries to distance himself from his romcom origins – delivering a “serious” performance in a science fiction film. However, a mediocre leading performance reveals that Elordi is much more compelling when relegated to the love interest. His strongest moments in the film are his carefree flirtations with the former doctor Cima, ironically reminiscent of his “Kissing Booth” role. He falters during the film’s emotional moments, such as the death of his beloved dog Jasper. While the death of a pet seems like it would be a sure-fire tearjerker, Elordi’s stilted delivery and inability to convincingly portray vulnerability leaves viewers dry-eyed in their seats.
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Qualley is slightly better as Cima, but neither make a particularly compelling lead – in large part because neither are believable as apocalypse survivors. Elordi seems to have found time to shop Abercrombie and Fitch’s new fall collection while navigating the end of days, while Qualley is seldom seen without a stain-free Brandy Melville hoodie. Both are unrealistically clean-shaven and seemingly managed to find room for eyelash curlers in their Doomsday packs.
Brolin and Pearce are comparatively stronger as the scruffier secondaries of Bangley and Pops – although one would not be faulted for confusing them, since they play almost indistinguishable iterations of the jaded father figure.
Ultimately, the chemistry between the leads is also mediocre, as Elordi, Qualley and Pearce seem like coworkers on a nature bonding retreat rather than any sort of found family.
The cast’s acting is certainly not helped by the dialogue, which is awkward and loaded with exposition. During an early scene between Hig and the homesteading Mennonite, Aaron (Benedict Wong), Aaron notes how vaccines ran out years ago – something Hig, who has survived this entire, unspecified amount of time, would have known. This scene, a testament to the writers’ effort to spoonfeed information to the audience, exemplifies one of many moments where “The Dog Stars” still manages to reveal frustratingly little. Throughout the entire film, no information is actually given about the virus other than the fact that it wiped out the majority of humanity. The film also provides no information about how Hig and Bangley constructed an unrealistically high-tech compound.
Poor dialogue is symptomatic of the largest ill of the film – lazy screenwriting. The narrative pacing is terrible. The first act meanders and drags, fluctuating between an alright romcom between Hig and Cima and a discarded National Geographic documentary, as Scott lingers meaninglessly across excessive sweeping shots of the lush green mountains. Meanwhile, the action scenes take forever to show up, and last mere moments, failing to deliver the action-thriller that the trailer suggested.
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While fleeting, the action scenes are some of the strongest moments in the film overall – pounding music and satisfying fight choreography leave the audience gripping the edges of their seats. Scott builds effective tension – when Hig, Cima and Pops arrive in Grand Junction, the performances delivered by Janney and her supporting cast of organ harvesters are chilling. Janney seems to be the only one having any fun – while evil, she is positively delightful. She plays the role of the stewardess-turned-cult-leader with a combination of menace and charm, delivering an on-screen energy sorely lacking in the leads. However, the climax of the film lasts for what feels like mere moments, and the characters are able to escape without seemingly breaking a buffed and manicured fingernail.
While beautiful cinematically, with gorgeous shots of the Colorado countryside, the story is fundamentally unsatisfying and confusing. The film seems to not understand its identity – it tries to be a romcom, thriller and Hozier music video, while failing to deliver all in any capacity. Nothing is resolved, explained or learned across the two hour runtime, and as a result, nothing can be gained through viewership, either.
Scott should have let sleeping dogs lie on this one.
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