12 Recent Films That Fell Apart In The Final Act
8. Don't Look Up
Before its release, it was very hard to predict exactly how Adam McKay would conclude Don't Look Up. Would the heroes convince the US government of the dangers of the comet heading towards earth, or would Armageddon indeed occur?
As it turned out, the answer was the latter and that really wasn't the right way to go. Don't Look Up is an enjoyable film for much of its run-time, but it's also impossible to take seriously as a metaphor for public indifference to climate change. The serious but slower-moving threat of climate change is not, in any way, comparable to the imminent threat of a fast-approaching asteroid. If such a thing was spotted, people would definitely take it very seriously.
Furthermore, the film is so heavy-handed and OTT in its delivery that it makes The Purge franchise look subtle - and at least those movies understand the limitations of their satire and focus on entertainment for the most part. As such, Don't Look Up is very easy to enjoy as a light-hearted comedy but it's unlike many will take it particularly seriously and as such, the ultra-dark ending - brought about by the exaggerated and hardly believable stupidity of the US government - feels tonally at odds with the rest of the movie and leaves a very nasty taste behind.