Ridley Scott's "The Dog Stars" arrives as a filmmaking misfire that squanders the talents of Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin on a post-apocalyptic survival narrative fundamentally devoid of tension. The film, adapted from Peter Heller's 2012 novel, positions Elordi as Hig, a pilot navigating the final remnants of human civilization in Scott's deliberately rustic vision of collapse. Yet Scott's approach produces something peculiar: a survival thriller stripped of the very thrills that define the genre.
The casting of Elordi and Brolin suggested promise. Elordi, fresh off his nuanced work in HBO's "Euphoria," brings a certain introspective quality to Hig's isolation and routine. Brolin, a seasoned character actor with range across prestige and commercial projects, offers weight and gravitas. Their presence alone signals that Scott intended this as serious material, not pulp entertainment. What emerges instead is a film caught between artistic ambition and narrative inertia.
Scott's directorial choices compound the problem. Known for his visually commanding work in science fiction ("Blade Runner," "Alien") and historical epics ("Gladiator," "Napoleon"), Scott here opts for restraint rather than spectacle. The rustic aesthetic he constructs feels deliberate, almost academic. Yet restraint without purpose reads as stagnation. The film dwells in quiet moments that accumulate weight through nothing but their own repetition. Hig's daily routines as a pilot in a depopulated world might carry existential resonance in another filmmaker's hands, but Scott's execution leaves them inert.
The narrative itself struggles with pacing. Elordi's character exists in stasis for much of the runtime, bound by survival protocols and solitary routine. When Brolin enters as another survivor, the film promises conflict and revelation. Instead, the encounter generates confusion rather than combustion. Their dynamic never achieves the dramatic friction necessary to galvanize the story. Both actors perform with competence, but competence cannot overcome screenplay problems rooted in passivity masquerading as contemplation.
The source material by Heller presented challenges Scott apparently could not solve. Translating introspective, lyrical prose about isolation to cinema requires either visual reinvention or dramatic escalation. Scott pursues neither. He photographs emptiness without creating meaning from it. The post-pandemic landscape becomes mere backdrop rather than character, a missed opportunity given the 2024 release date and lingering cultural consciousness of pandemic survival.
IndieWire's assessment of the film as "bizarrely inert" captures the core failure. Post-apocalyptic cinema thrives on tension, either external (threat, danger, conflict) or internal (psychological decay, moral compromise, desperation). "The Dog Stars" generates neither. Elordi and Brolin walk through their roles without discovering anything beneath the surface. Scott, a director capable of commanding massive resources and complex narratives, delivers something closer to a meditation that never quite meditates on anything worthwhile.
The film represents a curious stumble for a director still working at the highest industry levels and star power that should guarantee audience attention. Instead, it stands as evidence that prestige behind and in front of the camera cannot compensate for a story that refuses to move.