Posted by The hype around this movie is unreal. I see people posting about it everywhere, and at the time of writing this review it was number one on the Netflix most watched series for the week. So, why not give it a try? My hesitation is that it would be too on the nose to be funny, and man did it dance that line a few times, particularly at the end.
So, two small time researches, (Lawrence and DiCaprio) make a discovery that an asteroid that’s larger than the one that took out the dinosaurs is on a collision course towards Earth. It’s a world ending event – but they can’t seem to get anyone to pay attention to them. The entire movie is essentially a drawn out attempt for them to get humanity to unite, work together, and deflect this asteroid but no matter who they speak with, no one wants to run a story like that. The President thinks it’ll be bad for her ratings and the midterms are coming up. News stations only want to carry feel good stories, entertainment venues keep asking them for the lighter aspects of the story. Meanwhile you watch these two people, the only two sane people on the planet, deal with the fact they are the only ones who care that the world is about to end.
DiCaprio started out as a really relatable character but he actually went down the rabbit hole of the media’s take on everything and he kind of spiraled into a character I hated, kind of showing how a normal person can lose themselves to the ludicrousness of our world if they aren’t hyper vigilant. Meanwhile, Lawrence stayed focused and on topic throughout the whole movie. As a result I actually came to really dislike DiCaprio’s character, and although he was forgiven at the end, that only made me more mad because I don’t think he shouldn’t have been. It was so easy for him to get redemption, he didn’t even really have to do anything.
Many people say that Jennifer Lawrence is a terrible actress, and like she’s not my favorite actress in the world but she’s never been “terrible” to me in that she ruins what I’m watching. I think the choice to put her next to DiCaprio was an interesting one. I don’t usually like the types of movies he does but whatever I do watch him in, he’s always excellent. To put someone who’s just coming into their own next to a master could have made her drown and look terrible by comparison, but I think she managed to not-drown.
My favorite aspect of the whole thing was Meryl Streep as president, she did such a great job portraying what it feels like to watch politicians. She looked at the reality of a world ending event, decided she didn’t like it, and so she sold a lie to the public and arrested Lawrence and DiCaprio when they publicly contradicted her.
This is pretty on the nose, so I wasn’t always laughing. Sometimes it was just too depressingly accurate. However, overall I’m glad I watched it — there are two scenes that play after the credits so I would wait and watch those if you’re giving this a whirl.
My rating: 7.75/10