The Dog Stars (dir. Ridley Scott)
By: Adam Freed
It seems unfair that Jacob Elordi should seemingly be blessed with everything. Beyond an effortlessly handsome face and a set of eyes that seem to whisper an apologetic acknowledgement that the ascending star just woke up looking as good as he does, is the tall and angular frame of a professional athlete. And somehow, despite checking almost every perceptible box one could ask for in the genetic lottery, Elordi is yet to strike performance paydirt in a starring role in which his face and name are centered on the film’s marketing materials. There is little debate about the impact of Elordi’s Oscar nominated performance in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025), as the young star outpaced his prior performances (Saltburn, Priscilla) by instilling Mary Shelley’s monster with a dynamic emotional and intellectual evolution. But in the laudable film, Elordi was unrecognizable beneath the considerable prosthetic and makeup work required of his transformation. The curse lurking behind the gift of Elordi’s most memorable work is the weight of expectation that follows in its footsteps. This is why teaming with legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Alien) for the screen adaptation of Peter Heller’s best-selling post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars makes an abundance of sense for all involved. But rather than acting as a propulsive force behind Elordi’s ascension into Hollywood’s A-list, Scott’s near-future adventure does little more than leave its star wading through the boggy amalgam of a film betrayed by its editing and leaving fans of Heller’s novel likely disappointed by the shabbily assembled product of the author’s considerable design.
Set in a world ravaged by an unnamed virus, Hig (Elordi) an airplane mechanic and pilot, and his ally Bangley, portrayed with captivating intensity by Josh Brolin (Sicario, No Country for Old Men), subsist by repurposing the ruins of nearby Denver in addition to defending their rather impressive homestead from a roaming band of scavengers known as Reapers. The chemistry shared between Brolin and Elordi represents the unquestionable apex of all that The Dog Stars has to offer. While there isn’t a great deal of depth offered behind the nature of their relationship, the biting aggression of Bangley’s delivery and the juxtaposition of the calm with which Hig chooses to exist, sets the octogenarian director’s film off on a promising note. Whatever charisma Jacob Elordi musters in the quiet and contemplative moments nestled in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains only carries his character so far in a film that despite a promising opening sequence and some inspired aerial cinematography, otherwise feels mired in mediocrity.
Despite being given a centralized position on the film’s marquee, Margaret Qualley (Kinds of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls) and Guy Pearce (Memento, The King’s Speech) don’t enter frame until beyond its midpoint, giving Scott’s literary adaptation a temporary boost of adrenaline, but also a hurdle it never quite learns to navigate. In a film with almost no female presence, the moment Qualley’s Cima is introduced, her character arc becomes inevitable. While plenty of great films have found a way to balance perilous adventure with budding romance, The Dog Stars treats the two concepts as if they must remain mutually exclusive. The result is a fractured presentation with plenty to enjoy, but little seamlessness or narrative cohesion of which to speak. Despite its insistence on forcing the film’s two most attractive characters together, there are a few things less romantic than a world-ending virus combined with the constant threat of violent death at the hands of a band of ruthless savages scouring the Colorado countryside. One can’t blame Jacob Elordi, or anyone for that matter, for taking a swing at a best-selling story directed by a filmmaking legend, it's just a shame that The Dog Stars delivers on so little of its considerable promise.
Target Score 5/10 Ridley Scott’s literary adaptation The Dog Stars straps itself to a successful premise and some inspired natural cinematography yet loses its way with a choppy narrative and a romance the film may have been better off without.