THE DOG STARS

Skip it. Foul language alone justifies that verdict, despite the movie's positive outlook. This one delivers real action if you like gritty, dystopian thrillers. But it also carries so much melancholy beauty that you can forget the story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The way the movie cuts together blurs genres. Danger lurks close by, yet it never touches the main characters for a good stretch of the movie.

The story picks up the pace at times, and those tension-filled moments make the movie shine. Make no mistake, though: this movie plays out as a slow burn. Most action sequences end within minutes, then long, drawn-out stretches follow with little happening. The cinematography may be stunning, but the plot doesn't pull you in. The visuals alone don't justify a trip to the theater either. In the end, skip this one altogether. Between the language and the slow burn, you won't miss much.

After a deadly flu pandemic nearly wipes out all of humanity, a select few survivors live sequestered, defending their territories against unwanted guests. Among the survivors, Hig, a former mechanic who lost his wife and unborn baby to the flu, navigates the landscape. He flies in his plane daily, searching for supplies and other survivors, accompanied by his ally and housemate, Bangley, a former Marine. After a dangerous attack, Hig decides to abandon this life and sets out on his own, leaving Bangley to fend for himself.

Three stars represent the film's visuals, along with sequences that show legendary director Ridley Scott (ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER) still has it in certain aspects. No surprise to fans of Scott's work: the scenes that work best spring from suspense and stakes. However, it ultimately plays out as a slow-drip science-fiction tale that wanders more than it tells a story.

The movie has tense sequences, but so much melancholy that it's easy to forget the story takes place in a dystopia. Honestly, both the movie and its characters stay oddly passive toward the danger around them most of the time, and that passivity genuinely intrigues. The movie battles itself in other ways too. Strange, even amateurish cuts mar the sharp cinematography, and certain story choices leave contradictory impressions of many characters.

The movie has a light biblical worldview and ultimately leans toward hope. Some characters turn pessimistic, standoffish, and quick to distrust everyone around them; others stay empathetic and open, and the story's tone favors that second group.

Hig anchors that hopeful half. He trusts and empathizes with humanity more than Bangley does, though grief for his old life weighs on him, and he can't quite let it go. Bangley trusts no one and almost seems to relish the chaos around him. Most other characters fall into one of these two camps, though a few break the pattern.

That same split carries into how the story treats religion. A community of Mennonites plays a small but grounded part, the closest thing to steady faith in the movie. A different group that appears later claims belief in God but drifts from it in practice.

Someone quotes a Bible verse completely out of context, and that person doesn't act very Christian about it either, which undercuts whatever weight the verse might carry. Bangley adds his own confusion when he calls the Mennonites "Mormons." Faith shows up here and there, but the movie never treats it as a serious throughline.

The story never explains the larger world outright. Primitive, predatory people roam this dystopia, but plenty of ordinary survivors still hold onto hope for a better tomorrow. That detail points to a Romantic view of human nature: even after civilization collapses, most people still choose decency on their own, without any real biblical or moral framework behind them.

THE DOG STARS carries more beauty and hope than most dystopian thrillers even attempt. The movie can't quite hold that balance, though. It loses the tension it builds too often and rarely creates stakes that actually grip you. In the end, no one should bother with this one at all. Turns out a story built on hope can still drown in excess: too much language, too much bleakness, and way too much melancholy for its own good.