The Dog Stars

The Pre-Match Setup: A Desolate Pitch

All you Pikashow viewers, break out your snacks, 'cause we're really diving into Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars. This movie has the potential for a really great high suspense survival film after the pandemic, and I think this premise is cool. It's about this man with a dog, living with a pretty grumpy gunman, in an airplane hangar in Colorado. It's not just another survival film with this the whole premise with hope springing up due to radios. Hope shoots off this whole crazy adventure. The post-apocalypse is something we have seen many times with the one strong protagonist. The Dog Stars pulls a little air from this, but adds a foundation for something really great in survival films. Scott is a great director, of course, so those expectations are really high above our protagonist's old Cessna. Scott is great when it comes to creating a world and atmosphere. The hangar is really peaceful, but it's actually a great premise for starting the adventure. Scott nails this premise, and I'm looking forward to more of this film.

The Star Players: Craft and Performance on the Field

The Dog Stars boasts some serious talent and one of its stars, Jacob Elordi, has some of the toughest and most important work to do. He must communicate the depth of a man whose life has been reduced to the essentials. As with any character that is so distant and remote, the cast must convey resilience and loneliness, which is where Elordi shines and lights the flame of interest of everyone keeping up with this man on his journey. The Dog Stars is a tale of a reluctant partnership against a backdrop of a lonely world, and so the tremendous presence and stoicism of Josh Brolin’s character is brought to bear to sit alongside Elordi. Also bringing humanity to the world of the Dog Stars is Margaret Qualley, whose role is key to the journey of the protagonist for connection. The talent on-screen of the cast is remarkable, but Scott has also exhibited his prowess as a director to capture a remarkable empty world through strong visuals. He has an ability to create the sense of an ominous world with a great deal of inhabitation and it's the same here. The desolate Colorado landscape serves as a living character of the Dog Stars, reflecting isolation whilst beautifying the peril of existence. The cinematography of Scott and his team have ensured that every building, every sky filled with emptiness has added to the world of the Dog Stars.

Momentum Swings: Where the Game Finds Its Rhythm and Its Stalls

Every movie has its quieter moments and The Dog Stars has them as well. In fact, where the movie shines is during quiet moments as the audience gets to witness the character battle himself internally and witness the strong relationship between character and man’s best friend (dog). At the heart of the movie is the struggle of living and the thought of loss. Scott does a fantastic job establishing the feeling of being the lone survivor and the constant feeling of danger. When it comes to the storyline, a lot of people feel like the movie has fleshed out protagonist enough and in return has not shown enough innovation to provide consistently excellent opponents to beat, and in turn, has lost a lot of its originality. The pacing of the movie is very deliberate but there are points in the movie that, in turn, make the movie slower than it needs to be. The mystery of the radio transmission is a great addition to the premise of the movie, but the radio doesn’t always manage to engage the audience and provide a direct focus for the extent of the hunt. Many wished that the in-betweens of the world’s people were explored and not used to retread well traversed post-apocalyptic themes. At the end of the day this movie was better than it was and had so much potential. It is clear that the director had a very good idea, maybe the best idea but wasn’t able to put together a full execution of that idea.

The Full-Time Scoreline: A Decisive Call

So it's been about two hours, what do we have with The Dog Stars? Since it has star power and a talented director, expectations were high for this atmospheric film, and it delivers. The cast brings an emotional core, led by Elordi and his quiet desperation against the backdrop of the challenges survival brings and the beauty of his environment. The film visually offers grit and the yearning for a connection in a broken world. It’s an admirable accomplishment, however, it doesn't manage to position itself as unique and important amongst the various other post-apocalyptic stories. Even though the audience scores of 7.5 indicate a positive experience for most, this film, with its uncharacteristically slow and methodical pace, has very strongly implied critiques of why people liked it so much. Still, for the audience most familiar with the world Ridley Scott has created in his stories and with a relaxed evening on Pikashow, this film is highly entertaining. If you want raw emotions and rapid surprises, The Dog Stars is likely to be a disappointment. If you don't mind a slow build, the film is still worth a watch. This is a clear B- movie. It has a lot of potential, but falls a little short of expectations.