Ridley Scott’s 118-Minute 'The Dog Stars' Leans on Romance Over Thrills

Q: Does the stunning Italian landscape masking as a ruined Colorado distract from the underdeveloped villains in this new film?

Not really. The Italian locations appear to be one of the film’s strengths, not a distraction from its weaknesses. Across reviews, Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography and Ridley Scott’s use of the Italian Alps, Abruzzo and Rome are consistently praised for creating a haunting, expansive stand-in for post-apocalyptic Colorado. Critics describe the aerial shots, mountain ranges and deserted urban spaces as visually striking, with several saying the landscape is among the movie’s biggest assets. The larger issue is that the villains seem thin on the page. Reviews repeatedly say the Reapers and Allison Janney’s sinister Grand Junction figure are eerie and memorable in flashes, but lack explanation, motivation or enough screen time to feel fully threatening. That leaves the danger more atmospheric than dramatically satisfying. Some critics also argue the marauder imagery is clumsy or troubling, which further weakens the antagonists rather than making them more compelling. So the scenery does not so much mask the villain problem as sit beside it. In fact, the handsome visuals may make the imbalance more noticeable: the world feels richly realized, while some of the people meant to menace it do not. That helps explain why many critics say The Dog Stars works better as a moody, character-driven story about grief, hope and connection than as a suspense-heavy thriller.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 27

Ridley Scott’s new post-pandemic film is framed as an apocalypse thriller, but the review says it plays more like a romance between survivors than a tense fight for survival.
Set in Colorado in 2035 after a flu devastates the population, the 118-minute movie follows Hig — played by Jacob Elordi — and his dog Jasper as he leaves a fortified airstrip to search for other survivors.
The review says Mark L. Smith’s script, adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, gives little context for its villains or heroes, blunting threats from the Reapers and Allison Janney’s psychopathic flight attendant.
Casting is cited as the film’s main strength, with Elordi, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley giving life to familiar archetypes in a story more interested in intimacy and hope than suspense.