Film Review - The Dog Stars (2026)

The Dog Stars is the new movie by Ridley Scott and stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, a mechanic who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where an unknown virus has killed most of the population but he still likes to fly his plane into a nearby town for supplies and lives with his friend Bangley (Josh Brolin), one plane trip he is forced to land where he meets Cima (Margaret Qualley) and Pops her father (Guy Pearce) and the three decide to team up to try and find the lost Grand Junction,

The Dog Stars like Gladiator II which was Ridley Scott’s previous film looks good on a big cinema screen, the overgrown/run down look of the world, the various green hills and farm land, the empty buildings that looked rotted away and dirtied down are all very effective and they do a good job of bringing you into the world of the film which Ridley Scott has been so good at for so many decades be it Alien/Blade Runner/The Martian as well as movies like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven,

The film also has a solid cast giving good performances, Elordi makes for an effective leading man and on a couple of occasions he reminded a little of Mel Gibson in the Mad Max movies and he would’ve made a good Max in a different timeline of movie making, Josh Brolin is fine as the typical grizzled survivor who shoots first and asks questions later if at all while Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley also deliver good work in their roles,

But where this movie falls over is the screenplay and this is a sadly too common an occurrence with Ridley Scott and his movie making, the best films of his combine his great eye for world building and visual immersion with good storytelling and compelling characters and his best 2 films (for me at least) Alien and Blade Runner do this perfectly, those films have tremendous visual design where the sets look like 3 dimensional paintings combined with memorable characters and storytelling that compels you,

Here the storytelling is so all over the place you find yourself going “what the fuck” on a couple of occasions whether it be the attempts at romance between Hig and Cina, Cina’s character arc in general feeling confusing at times, the Mad Max-esque crazies that roam the world which felt like knockoffs of the War Boys from the recent Mad Max movies and then one section with Allison Janney that honestly felt like a different movie altogether,

And also the world the film takes place in feels so vague and ill explained that I sat there wanting a Mad Max 2-esque opening that sets up this world and how we got here especially given how the real world has been 6 years since its own pandemic in Covid and it’s a connection I found myself wishing the film had made,

And so that was the Dog Stars and this is not one of Ridley Scott’s worst but it is very very clear that like Tim Burton he really needs a good screenwriter at his side to bring out the best in his work, it has happened before and I hope it happens again before Ridley either retires or passes away, 2 out of 5.