Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars dazzles visually but struggles to find its purpose

Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars has divided critics with its stark vision of a world reshaped by a viral apocalypse. Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley bring commitment to the survival drama, while Scott’s aerial imagery and action craft impress. Yet reviews argue that the film’s familiar ideas, muted emotion and uneven storytelling leave its ambitions underdeveloped.

Key takeaways

• Critics praise the film’s mountainous landscapes, aerial photography and bursts of action.

• Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley are seen as stronger than the material.

• The story is faulted for thin world-building, tonal shifts and familiar post-apocalyptic themes.

• The film’s central question—whether to survive alone or rebuild community—never fully lands.

For Era-zine readers interested in how cinema reflects social anxieties, The Dog Stars offers an intriguing but incomplete study of isolation, distrust and the search for meaning after societal collapse.

A stark world with limited explanation

Adapted from Peter Heller’s novel, the film follows Hig, an engineer living at a remote Colorado airfield with his dog, Jasper, and his heavily armed companion, Bangley. Hig flies a small plane into abandoned areas to find medicine and supplies, while also investigating a radio signal that may point toward other survivors.

The film communicates its collapsed society through visual clues: abandoned vehicles, medical equipment and empty settlements. However, critics found the underlying catastrophe frustratingly vague. The virus, its spread and the scale of the remaining population receive little meaningful explanation, making the world feel less mysterious than unfinished.

Scott’s images remain the strongest asset

Shot in Italy, the film replaces much of its American setting with the rugged Dolomites. The result is a visually imposing landscape of sharp peaks, empty skies and isolated airfields. Its aerial sequences give Hig’s flights a sense of scale and danger, while Scott’s staging demonstrates why he remains a formidable action director.

Several set pieces also provide jolts of energy, particularly moments in which Brolin’s Bangley confronts violent raiders. Yet the action often lacks emotional force because the opposing gangs are portrayed as indistinct threats rather than fully developed characters. The imagery is memorable; the stakes are less so.

A survival story caught between ideas

At its center, The Dog Stars contrasts Hig’s desire for connection with Bangley’s defensive isolationism. Hig sees potential in community, including a nearby Mennonite settlement, while Bangley treats outsiders as dangers to be eliminated. The setup suggests a timely examination of xenophobia, self-reliance and the costs of permanent suspicion.

According to the critical response, that debate fades once Hig leaves the airfield. His journey introduces Cima, played by Qualley, and shifts the film toward a romance shaped by shared grief. Their relationship provides moments of warmth, but reviewers considered the courtship underwritten and the emotional transformation unconvincing.

An uneven tone limits the impact

The film’s somber mood is consistent with its devastated setting, but critics felt it often tipped into inertia. The narrative slows considerably in its second half, while abrupt comic or eccentric sequences appear disconnected from the surrounding melancholy. Familiar touches from films such as I Am Legend and Mad Max further reinforce the sense that the story is revisiting established genre territory rather than renewing it.

The ending gestures toward hope, suggesting that Hig has found a reason to continue living and a greater appreciation for human connection. Still, the conclusion relies more on recognition of what he already possessed than on a decisive change in his circumstances. Like its characters, The Dog Stars appears to be searching for a future without fully imagining one.

Sources

• Boring vision of the future has no luster, Roger Ebert.

• The Dog Stars Review – 'Too downbeat to really stick', empireonline.com.