Don't Look Up - Surprisingly Quite Enjoyable for a Satirical Sci-fi Movie, Though it Could be Depressing for Some

When this movie was released on Netflix on Friday, I was unable to watch it as I was seeing a movie in the cinema with my wife. So I only managed to watch it last night. It was interesting for me as the lead cast were well known A-list Hollywood stars. OK let us start with it now.

Brief Story Line

When a post-graduate astronomy student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence - Red Sparrow, Mother! etc) found a new comet, she was feeling ecstatic. But when her professor Doctor Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Catch Me If You Can etc) did a calculation, they realized that it was heading straight to earth and would result to a catastrophic event. Both were immediately invited together with fellow colleague Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan - The Unforgivable, Greyhound etc) to the White House to present their findings to President Orlean (Meryl Streep - Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The Post etc) and her Chief of Staff Jason (Jonah Hill - True Story, This is the End etc).

Unfortunately it fail to impress the president and hence the three of them tried to show to the media to find a solution. Their first attempt was to a famous TV show hosted by Jack (Tyler Perry - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Madea's movies etc) and Brie (Cate Blanchett - The House with a Clock in Its Wall, Thor: Ragnarok etc).

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this satire movie.

End of Brief Story Line

To be honest, I did not really find out in detail about this movie before watching it, so I was not sure about the genre. When I watched the early part, I thought it was a standard dark comedy, but once we were shown the president and her chief of staff, I could immediately feel that this is going to be a satire. And after reading it more detail, it turned out my feeling was correct. Throughout the entire movie, we were shown many moments where the satirical feel were very strong against the media and the government, even the technology advancement.

While watching the film, I was able to get few laughs (or at least smiled) on the various mocking of the social issues especially on the shallowness of people in general. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the story as I felt the lead characters were totally engaging. Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic as this young astronomer who got stressed out as the founder of the comet that would destroy earth, while Leonardo DiCaprio was equally brilliant portraying an anxious professor who had to stand up due to the catastrophic event. His character development was very nice to see as well.

Aside from the two lead cast, the film was filled with so many talented cast. In addition to the amazing Meryl Streep and the charming Cate Blanchett, there was also the appearances of Mark Rylance (Ready Player One, The Trial of Chicago 7 etc) as the billionaire Peter Isherwell, Himesh Patel (Yesterday etc) as Phillip, Timothée Chalamet (Dune etc) as Yule, Ron Perlman (Monster Hunter etc), Ariana Grande and lots more. All did their part nicely. Btw, the film was directed by Adam McKay whose prior experience was directing some successful comedy movies such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Other Guys, Step Brothers and more serious films in latter years like The Big Short. He also served as co-producer and co-writer in here.

What amazed me in this movie was its consistence in focusing on the social impact of what the comet's arrival on people. It has an awesome unexpectedly strong ending which managed to surprise me. The movie has a $70 million budget which I thought was quite high, but it looked good though. There were some wonderful special effects that did not look cheap and I think I read somewhere that the two lead stars were highly paid. There was also a nice song sung by Ariana Grande with rapper Scott Mescudi aka Kid Mudi titled Just Look Up. Before I forgot, the movie has one mid end credit scene and a post end credit scene which were both very amusing. 

Overall this is a movie that certainly has appeal to people looking for some dark humor on social political issues. It was pretty entertaining and I had fun watching it too, although there were times when the film also felt sad and depressing. But I think it would require a rather open mind to enjoy this and I believe it also depend on the audience. So if you happen to be in the mood for some satire, then this would be to your liking. However if casual comedy with raunchy humor is more to your taste, then this would not be enjoyable. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars