‘The Dog Stars’ Rotten Tomatoes Review Score Is In

The Dog Stars

Courtesy of Disney

The formula sounds great. Ridley Scott directing a post-apocalyptic movie starring premium actors like Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Jacob Elordi, Guy Pearce and Benedict Wong. That would be The Dog Stars, out this weekend, and critic reviews have arrived on Rotten Tomatoes.

Bad news. Quite bad news, in fact. The Dog Stars is currently getting thrashed by critics. With nearly 70 reviews in, The Dog Stars has a 38% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Ridley Scott, obviously, has directed some of the most storied movies of all time, from Thelma and Louise to Alien to Blade Runner to Gladiator. But with so many movies in his catalog, some have been bombs. And now, The Dog Stars is among them as one of his lowest-scored features on Rotten Tomatoes. Here is the bottom of the list.

• G.I. Jane (1997) – 51% critic score
• Robin Hood (2010) – 43% critic score
• Hannibal (2001) – 39% critic score
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005, not the famed director’s cut) – 39% critic score
• The Dog Stars (2026) – 38% critic score
• The Counselor (2013) – 33% critic score
• Legend (1985) – 33% critic score
• Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) – 30% critic score
• 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) – 30% critic score
• A Good Year (2006) – 26% critic score

The Dog Stars

Rotten Tomatoes

There’s just so, so many films here, some I haven’t even heard of (1492) and others I didn’t know he directed (Exodus: Gods and Kings). As you can see, there was a pretty sharp down period between 2005 and 2014. Scott only had two “fresh” movies in that period out of eight releases, American Gangster and Prometheus. Though he ended that streak with the 91% scored The Martian. So you really never know what you’re going to get with him.

The Dog Stars is an adaptation of a 2012 novel by Peter Heller. It is set after a pandemic that has almost wiped out humanity. Survivors band together to fight marauders and other threats. The film, which opens this weekend against the sky-high-scoring Coyote vs. Acme, is projected to make anywhere from $18-23 million, above its rival’s forecasts. Both films are still contending with the reverberations of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has won every weekend since its July 31 release, passing $2 billion at the box office. One of the only films in history to do so.

Why are critics not on board? Here’s a sampling:

• RogerEbert.com – “It probably takes more effort to make a boring post-apocalyptic survivalist action film than to make a good one. If that’s the case, then Ridley Scott must’ve been working overtime.”
• AV Club – “This messy look at the end of the world isn’t Scott’s darkest film, but it’s one of his worst misfires.”

So, a miss, but Ridley Scott, now age 88, has promised to continue making movies until he’s dead. He compares himself to Clint Eastwood, still making films at 94. So, who knows, we may see some more hits from him to come.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.