This film has caused a lot of controversy since its inception and I have some thoughts…

Don’t Look Up follows a group of scientists who discover a comet that is heading to Earth in the next six months and they try to warn people about it, to do something about it, however no one believes them or they don’t believe that the comet is as bad as they are being told and in fact could be a good thing.

We see many sides of the coin of this comet and how different people react to it. Some people accept the end and just try and make the most of the next six months of their lives, some people worry and look for higher powers to stop the comet, whereas the news and media and very right wing presidencies only care about facts, figures and money and so try to downplay the comet as something that isn’t as bad as it seems.

But my favourite inclusion in this film was the billionaire-trope. All of the big billionaires we know such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos are combined into one character who believes that he can create drones that will break the comet up into little pieces that will still allow it to come to Earth but in less of a tragic way and then they can mine the comet for its resources as it’s full of billions of dollars worth of ore.

And the thing with this film is, yes in it it’s about a comet coming to Earth and the Earth being destroyed, however it’s actually a metaphor for climate change. In this world that we are living in currently climate change is a thing that is constantly getting worse for humanity, and while scientists are trying to tell people of the severity of climate change media outlets, politicians and billionaires that many of us regular folk follow do not care about it and see it more as a money making opportunity rather than something that could cause the end to everyone. However I do believe that it would not be the end to the billionaires and politicians and that’s why they don’t care, because they have space ships hidden away just in case they need to leave the Earth. Why do you think they’ve been doing so many space missions recently?

And I understand why this movie got so much flack, it’s very on the nose and very hard-hitting and a lot of people like to be in their ignorant little bubble and not have to worry about these things. And I also feel with the marketing of this it showed off all the actors that were involved and that really drew in different types of audiences that wouldn’t normally watch this sort of film and has thus created a bigger conversation around it, because it was not what people were expecting. Even myself, I expected this to be much more comedic and jokey than it was, and I was surprised at how dark and real it all became in the end.

I do believe that climate change is a thing that we need to talk about and I believe this is the right way of going about it however you do have to wonder how much money was spent on this film and all the people involved in it and whether that money could’ve been better spent elsewhere helping combat climate change rather than creating propaganda around it. I understand you need these sorts of things to open up peoples’ eyes to the disaster but most people already know how big of a problem climate change is and most people just prefer to bury their heads in the sand because it’s easier to do that then worry constantly about their own mortality and how quickly it could catch up to them.

My main critique of this film was that it was too long. I understand the point and premise of it, I understand how important it is to get this message out there, but for me it just dragged on a bit and while there were many poignant moments in the film it could’ve easily been condensed and still have the same amount of impact. Overall I did enjoy the film, I wouldn’t rush back to watch it, but it was one of those disaster type films that I liked more than others. I find sometimes the overplaying of disaster can be terrifying in certain types of films, whereas in this one, because we got to know the characters on a more personal level and when the world ended we got to see them simply having their last meal together having a lovely time, it felt a lot more comforting and as if you accepted the death easier than seeing a lot of things blow up with a lot of destruction and fear.

I would recommend this film, however be prepared that it is quite heavy. It’s very on the nose and it is quite long however I feel it’s a message that everyone should be privy to and understand, and if we can help climate change become less of an issue in this day and age than I believe we all should.

What do you think of Don’t Look Up?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding