Ouch — The Dog Stars is flirting with Ridley Scott’s worst Rotten Tomatoes score
Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars has taken a bruising on Rotten Tomatoes, landing among his worst-reviewed projects — and the score will raise eyebrows.
Not all records are worth celebrating, and Ridley Scott’s latest outing with The Dog Stars is proving the point. The legendary director of Blade Runner and Alien has just seen this new post-apocalyptic thriller crash into the lower end of his review scoreboard, at least according to the ever-watchful eye of Rotten Tomatoes.
The Dog Stars currently holds a 42% Rotten Tomatoes score from 50 reviews, making it Scott’s second-lowest rated film on the site.
Critical Reaction: More Bark Than Bite
If you had high hopes for a fresh Scott classic, brace yourself. Critics are wading in with mostly mixed-to-negative reactions, some making it quite clear just how far this one misses the mark. The film sits just a few notches above Scott’s previous low, Kingdom of Heaven (that one scraped together 39%), and given the early chatter, The Dog Stars could even plummet further as additional reviews drop. Not the kind of sequel fans dream about, is it?
The main quibble seems to be emotional depth (or lack thereof), with ComingSoon’s critic giving it a flat 5 out of 10 and calling out the film’s attempt to be “deeply emotional without giving its characters enough specificity to earn those emotions.” Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com was more direct, scoring it 1.5 out of 4 and saying it “probably takes more effort to make a boring post-apocalyptic survivalist action film than to make a good one.” Meanwhile, The AV Club didn’t pull punches either, labelling it “one of his worst misfires.”
Some Praise...Sort Of
If you’re desperate for a silver lining, a handful of reviewers found merit, or at least comfort, in Scott’s touch. David Rooney over at The Hollywood Reporter offered perhaps the gentlest take, describing The Dog Stars as “an appealingly mellow watch,” though he admits it’s miles away from Scott’s greatest hits. Tim Grierson of Screen International singled out Scott’s “careful attention to his characters” as something worth salvaging amidst the rubble.
On the other hand, Variety’s Guy Lodge seemed astonished at just how sleepy it all was, slamming it as “a surprisingly low-energy, low-incident blockbuster.”
- Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, and Guy Pearce headline the cast.
- Screenplay by Mark L. Smith, adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel.
- 20th Century Studios are rolling it out in cinemas from 28 August.
If you’re curious which way the wind’s blowing, the rest of the critical crowd is mostly shoulder-shrugging. Liz Shannon Miller at Consequence handed the movie a C+, calling the script “a tonal mishmash.” Benjamin Lee from The Guardian echoed that burnt-out feeling with 2/5 stars, saying “the beats are now far too familiar.” IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio, grading it a C, did at least tip his hat to Elordi’s screen presence, but admitted it wasn’t nearly enough to “rescue material that inevitably heads straight into its own apocalypse.”