Don't Look Up had a polarizing reception from critics, as it sits at a rotten 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, general audiences had much warmer feelings about the movie, and for the most part, they love it. It features an incredible ensemble cast, reunites Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio, and is full of that classic Adam McKay humor.
But Redditors have some hot takes on the movie, and they have even more to say about the film than critics. Between being tone-deaf, relying too much on its star power, and even being a Chicken Little remake, these Reddit users are hilariously insightful.
It's A Two-Hour Meme
Chlamydial_lips argues that the whole movie is one giant meme, making the claim that the movie is "as deep as a Facebook argument" and that its satirical jokes are clumsy at best.
Funnily enough, memes are used as a running gag in the movie, as Randall and Kate are turned into memes after their shared appearance on the fictional news program The Daily Rip. However, there are gags in the film that run so much deeper than surface-level internet jokes, and though it may not seem like it, there's even depth as to why the general charges for free snacks.
There Is No Character Development
SupstantialShoe1693 believes that the movie doesn't work because there's no character development, arguing that "the only character that changed at all was Leo's character." But while Don't Look Up's hilarious one-liners might have been the focal point at times, those lines of dialogue still said a lot about the characters who spoke them.
On top of that, the lack of character development is where all of the humor stems from, and part of the point of Don't Look Up is that nobody learns anything even when the message is literally being screamed in their face. Ironically, the film fundamentally wouldn't work if there was character development.
It Relied To Heavily On The Stars To Carry The Film
Don't Look Up sports an incredible ensemble cast, including five Academy Award winners and two others who have been nominated. But JahRoddenberry blames the movie for relying too heavily on the cast, claiming that Adam McKay gave up on writing because "they expected the ham-fisted satire to be carried by big celebrities."
In fairness, it's one of the star-studded movies that critics hated, but most general audiences loved it. And if anything, it's a testament to how free-flowing McKay's writing and directing is, as there was room for improvisation but still told a fascinating story.
It Treats Its Audiences Like Idiots
So many Hollywood movies take their audiences for granted, but those are generally ones that are full of sloppy action sequences and lazy exposition. And Ecofriendly_dude clumps Don't Look Up in with that very crowd, arguing that the 2021 movie treats its audiences like idiots.
The Redditor takes issue mostly with the movie's politics, positing that the film implies that "being on the right is burying your head in the sand." However, Don't Look Up takes the basic elements of real-life politics and makes fun of them by taking them to extremes. The movie makes fun of all political leanings too, and that's exactly what a satire is supposed to do.
It's A Negative Extension To Daily News Reports
Dogtron64 has no time for Don't Look Up or any other kind of preachy movie for that matter, as they are "just negative extensions to what you already hear about on a daily basis through news headlines."
Though that is true, Don't Look Up is at least entertaining and hilarious as well as getting across an important message. It's also better than simply ignoring important subject matters and pretending they don't exist, and it's opinions like this why Adam McKay might have been encouraged to write the movie in the first place.
It Was A Tone-Deaf Attempt At Activism
Though Don't Look Up is a movie about an earth-destroying comet, it's a very clear metaphor for climate change and how humans are destroying the Earth. RetroHelm thinks that the film was so transparent in its fake activism. They reckon that "Hollywood and the rich are so disconnected from reality."
But there's a reason why movie stars are named some of the most influential people in the world. So much of the general public look up to them, and though they don't have a moral obligation to inform the public on matters like climate change, they have a massive influence over people's opinions and beliefs. Don't Look Up did a great job of doing just that.
It's An Unfunny Version Of Idiocracy
Idiocracy is one of the most underrated comedies of the 2000s. It follows a man with an average IQ who wakes up in the future, but because everyone in the future has such a low IQ, he is looked at as a genius. Both Idiocracy and Don't Look Up have similar themes, such as the population's growing obsession with fame, to be entertained, and to have an "ignorance is bliss" attitude.
But Nousagidelta thinks that Don't look Up is "Idiocracy without the funny." While Idiocracy is more laugh-out-loud funny, Don't Look Up manages to pull off being funny while still being grounded in some form of reality. And in that sense, they are completely different.
It Has The Subtlety Of A Baboon
Though this is a more common criticism amongst professional critics, Baloney_popsicle argues against the consensus, essentially saying that the film hammers audiences over the head with its messages. In a hilariously self-deprecating and very self-aware comment, the user believes that the film "was written like how a Redditor would write it."
However, art imitates life, and with people watching modern politics almost as a form of entertainment, just like how they'd watch wrestling, there's no subtle way to represent that. As a result, the satire in Don't Look Up is so brilliantly in-your-face.
Ariana Grande And Kid Cudi Were Pointless
There are loads of funny performances in Don't Look Up, but two that go overlooked are Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi's roles as Riley Bina and DJ Chello. Though not everybody thinks so, as Stercules25 thinks they "could have done without Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi’s characters, but her song was pretty good."
However, as Don't Look Up holds up a mirror to modern-day society, pop stardom is no exception. The two characters mock pop stars in today's society and how they constantly fabricate tabloid stories to build more fame.
It's A Chicken Little Remake
DizzyMajor5 makes a fascinating observation that Don't Look Up is no more than a remake of the Disney film Chicken Little. It's almost like how Avatar basically has the same premise as Fern Gully, but they are both aimed at very different audiences.
However, the Redditor is very critical about it, explaining that the 2021 film is "a J.J. Abrams-esqe soft reboot of an underrated Disney movie." The user does have a point, as the kids' film is about a chicken who thinks the world is coming to an end.