Perhaps it would have been smarter of me never to watch this movie, because generally I don’t do humour well. But the star power of the cast drew me in and with the US elections coming up, I was feeling a bit apocalyptic, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Unfortunately, I think Don’t Look Up underdelivers massively on what could have been an very poignant message.

The message that the ‘system’ is running society off a cliff because popularity matters more than truth is painful and bears repeating in every medium and every style. Satire could be a great tool to wake people up, and I really hope Don’t Look Up made some people question their convictions.

But as a movie, it failed to convince me. After the initial ‘shock’ where the main characters are rebuffed because their message is unpopular, the rest of the script follows a supremely predictable course.

That is not supposed to be a problem because Don’t Look Up is supposed to be funny. Caveat: I do not do humour. But Don’t Look Up didn’t make me laugh, it just made me sad. The ‘realness’ of the subject matter gives every joke a bitter aftertaste. And because reality is already so desperately laughable, the movie needs to go so far over the top to satirise it that ends up feeling clownish.

Moreover, if I may take the risk of getting political in this review, it is frustrating that the populists are depicted as bumbling idiots who just don’t understand. While I am sure there are plenty of useful idiots in the populists’ camp (including, perhaps, their figurehead), I think it would be a mistake to assume that just because they appear idiotic, they don’t know what they’re doing. I think a lot of the destructive policies we see are not just sheer incompetence, but also calculated means to reach (short term) goals that simply – consciously – don’t take into account the interests of society as a whole.

Getting back to the movie, I think the bottom line is that Don’t Look Up would have been better if it had been a bit more subtle. It certainly had the cast to deliver on a more complex script, with a lot of acting prowess and experience that ends up feeling wasted on this explain-to-me-like-I’m-five disaster comedy. With the current set up, the only thing that feels missing is the explicit line “THIS WAS A MOVIE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE” flashing on screen before the end credits roll.

Let’s get the elephant out of the room: this movie is about climate change. And maybe a bit about the corona pandemic. It is about inevitable destruction not being enough to get people to take action and save the world.

Now that is out of the way, let’s talk about the movie. I found it entertaining. I think it was a bit too long, especially the first half, but not boring. In comparison with McKay’s other social commentaries The Big Short and Vice, the story was more on the forefront and there were no fourth-wall breaking explanations – which I don’t really like – except in the beginning, when text on the screen explains a particular institution is real. Yet I found the message of the movie fell flat a bit more than McKay’s previous movies. It was very on the nose and made me shrug like, yep, that is the way it is, no surprises there.

Some critics might say this was because the real world is more bizar than the satire of Don’t Look Up. I disagree. I think the frustrating and infuriating system of unresponsive governments can still be shown by zooming in and focusing on a specific aspect of reality – satire enlarges this aspect and shows the absurdity.

Did the movie succeed in this? Yes and no. I think the talk show/media-part was quite good, but the political angle did not do it for me. The president (Meryl Streep) and chief of staff/son of the president (Jonah Hill) did a fine job acting-wise, but the movie would have been stronger when the politicians had been colder and more calculating, instead of incompetent and happy. We do have some experience with powerful yet jolly and incompetent leaders of course – ahum – but I think pointing to this as the cause of inaction does not hold (completely) in global perspective. Which is another thing I would have loved to see: a less US-centric approach. Although this Americentrism might also be a point the movie is trying to make.

I wonder if the movie would have been better when it had focused on either politicians or the media. A movie about global organisations and politicians caught in a web of bureaucracy and diplomatic relations, where not one powerful individual is to blame, but a political system that we can’t seem to escape. Or a movie about the media cycle that can’t really express urgency when issues take more than a week to solve and that try to make every information into infotainment.

The movie was good and important. I have seen reactions of people who say the movie opened their eyes. I am glad. But the question remains: will it spur politicians on to action or will it disappear in the news cycle like any other piece of global warning? (pun intended)

I watched this movie because the premise was kind of interesting and I like a disaster movie. It’s not that I hated it, but I was expecting it to be better with the cast that it had. This movie is… fine. It’s very on the nose, and it wasn’t very funny? There’s a lot to be said about this movie that has already been said, so I will keep this short.

I feel like the idea of satire is to point something out in a funny way. Or at least in a way that makes the situation funny. This movie just wasn’t very funny? There were some jokes, I guess. Maybe I laughed twice?

What it comes down to for me is this: We all know global warming sucks and the people in power aren’t doing enough to stop it. This isn’t news. If you’re going to write a satirical movie about it, at least make me laugh.

“Underwhelming” definitely covers how I felt about Don’t Look Up.

The first half of the movie I was amused, then I was just sad. I like my fiction a bit more… fictional.

I jumped blindly on the hype-train and I think I regret it. I do want to give a shoutout to the casting director. If you’re a fan of one of the big names in the cast, it might be worth it to see them do something completely different from their usual works. Otherwise I would not recommend this movie.