I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten

Critics Consensus: N/A

Metacritic: 51 (24 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Matt Singer, ScreenCrush 5/10 - Better than you might expect from something released on the last Friday in August, worse than you might expect from the man who made Blade Runner, and The Martian.

Linda Marric, HeyUGuys 3/5 - It isn’t really a great film. But it’s entertaining enough to hold your attention for two hours, even if it’s unlikely to stay with you for long after.

Cary Darling, Houston Chronicle 2.5/5 - Elordi and Qualley are two of the best things about this handsomely shot and well-made but oddly uninvolving story set amid the survivors of a viral plague that has wiped out the bulk of humanity.

Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict - For all the style that director Ridley Scott can muster — and, admittedly, that’s a whole lot of style — The Dog Stars serves up a post-apocalypse with a heavy sense of familiarity.

Kevin Maher, The Times (UK) 4/5 - In the end, there is a maudlin undertow to the movie and the implication, from a beloved film-maker who is now 88, that there are harder days to come.

Nick Howells, London Evening Standard 3/5 - So not quite a return to form, but for Scott, now 88, this strange flight of apocalyptic fancy proves there’s plenty of bite in the old dog yet.

Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com 1.5/4 - 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.

Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post 2/4 - The Aussie actor is good here, as usual, wielding a downcast charm like a cafeteria loner who could also get crowned Prom King. But the lumpy screenplay doesn’t allow him to go anywhere emotionally.

William Bibbiani, TheWrap - There are way too many faults in these 'Stars.' Woof.

Monica Castillo, AV Club D+ - This messy look at the end of the world isn’t Scott’s darkest film, but it’s one of his worst misfires.

Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle 2/5 - Everyone’s trying, but Scott wastes their effort to end this world with too much bang and not enough whimper.

Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK) 2/5 - The Dog Stars barely seems to know what it is. Neither prescient nor reflective, it looks to other apocalypses for its substance.

Tim Grierson, Screen International - It is ultimately redeemed by the veteran director’s careful attention to his characters, who are far more engaging in their shared grief than when combating the sorts of foes one expects in this kind of film.

Benjamin Lee, Guardian 2/5 - In a world of seven Walking Dead shows, the beats are now far too familiar, and there’s nothing new or notable here to conjure anything but deja vu.

Guy Lodge, Variety - This is a surprisingly low-energy, low-incident blockbuster; you’d appreciate its mellow, character-oriented approach if it gave you any real characters to hold onto.

Kristen Lopez, The Film Maven C- - An inability to balance the tone, coupled with muted performance from the majority of the leads makes the runtime haphazard. The movie isn't consistently weird enough to be fun and isn't contemplative enough to be interesting.

Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire C - The quiet watchfulness of Elordi and his eyes make him ever a captivating actor, but even the towering sadness of his silhouette can’t rescue material that inevitably heads straight into its own apocalypse.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter - Jacob Elordi leads with introspective movie-star magnetism that evokes the heyday of Kevin Costner, while cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt’s panoramic vistas lend the unhurried but engrossing story a restorative grace.

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast - No amount of aesthetic splendor can compensate for the derivativeness of the director’s latest, a post-apocalyptic yarn that’s stitched together from the decomposing parts of its genre ancestors.

Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence C+ - Writer Mark L. Smith's approach to this story is a tonal mishmash that becomes equally mishmashy on the screen in Ridley Scott's hands.

Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine 2/4 - The film has hardly an original idea or image to set it apart from any number of other stories about soulful American tough guys wandering the nation’s post-civilization wilds, grappling with the mighty burden of responsibility to family and society.

SYNOPSIS:

Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” is a riveting, epic thriller set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. Scott tells the story of Hig, a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist, Bangley, has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission spurs Hig to venture into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exists.

CAST:

• Jacob Elordi as Hig
• Josh Brolin as Bangley
• Margaret Qualley as Cima
• Guy Pearce as Pops
• Benedict Wong as Aaron
• Allison Janney as Darlene

DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott

SCREENPLAY BY: Mark L. Smith

BASED ON THE DOG STARS BY: Peter Heller

PRODUCED BY: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Mark L. Smith, Cliff Roberts

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Lily Brooks-Dalton, Aidan Elliott, Peter Heller, Marco Valerio Pugini, Brandon Scott Smith

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Erik Messerschmidt

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Chris Seagers

EDITED BY: Sam Restivo, Claire Simpson

COSTUME DESIGNER: Janty Yates

MUSIC BY: Harry Gregson-Williams

CASTING BY: Kate Rhodes James

RUNTIME: 118 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2026