Don't Look Up | Film Review

I had seen quite a few people talking about this film, in both a really negative and really positive way, before seeing it. I didn't know much about it before watching, but all of the varying opinions really made me want to see it.

Two astronomers, Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) go on a media tour to warn the world about the incoming comet that will destroy Earth.

I have mixed feelings about this film. I certainly didn't dislike it, and I understood what it was going for, but it wasn't as effective as it could have been.

I really liked the concept, particularly at the beginning of the film. I wasn't quite sure where it was going to go and was interested to find out more.

It was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. I think it's really interesting when extremely dramatic movies inject elements of humour, and this does that successfully. A lot of the comedy is satirical rather than laugh-out-loud, and it worked for me.

The film was saying a lot about the media, politics and public reaction, and it felt realistic. You can completely imagine all of those groups reacting to this situation exactly the same way they do in the film.

I felt that the story needed a lot less time than it was being given. It lost my attention after a while and never really regained it. It could have lost at least half an hour and still would have worked. It is also a bit slow, so it feels like you're watching it for a lot longer than you are.

You never really care about any of these characters, which could be because they are only being used to get this message across. But they had distinct personalities, so it seemed a shame not to give them a bit more background. Even my favourite character, Kate Dibiasky, was one that I ultimately didn't care about.

The film clearly has a message that it wants to put into the world, but it didn't really tell me anything that I didn't know. I watched it solely as a piece of entertainment because it didn't affect me in any other way.

Overall, this was an interesting satire. It wasn't as bad as the negative reviews, but it also doesn't feel as effective as it was supposed to. It's worth a watch, but I can't imagine wanting to see it again.

5.5/10