Courtesy Warner Bros.
It’s interesting director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) had such inflammatory things to say about superhero movies lately (basically, he said they’re turning moviegoers into zombies) when his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s timelessly beloved Dune features a cast stacked with actors from such franchises. Maybe there’s something in there about eking out strong performances from performers more accustomed to simpler fare? In either event, Villeneuve’s Dune is here, and it sure is pretty.
We follow Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a soon-to-be space duke from the space house of Atreides headed up by his space dad, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and his space mom Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson, whom we still haven’t forgiven for Reminiscence). The family Atreides is on the cusp of taking stewardship over Arrakis, a desert planet that produces spice—a resource which somehow makes space navigation and all sorts of other things possible—and which has been under the control of the space house Harkonnen for, like, 80 years. The unseen space emperor deems it so and hands out orders through the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), who much prefers stabbing and slashing fools to peaceful anything. Of course, this sets the stage for space war, and that’s not even getting into Arrakis’ Fremen, natives of the world who build cool gadgets in the desert alongside Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Chani (Zendaya).
To add a wrinke, Paul’s mom is a devout Bene Gesserit, a space religion which pulls the strings from behind the space scenes in a thousands-of-years-old long space game. She’s teaching Paul her order’s magic space voice technique, which is akin to hypnotism; none are ready for the shai-hulud, or gigantic sandworm, of Arrakis—even fewer are ready for the power struggle over spice and space and, for some reason, sword battles led by House Atreides badasses Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) and Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin).
If you’re keeping up, good for you! You’re part of decades worth of fandom that either feels delighted or slighted by David Lynch’s 1984 version of the film. If you’re not keeping up, well, maybe nerd stuff isn’t for you. But one could hardly blame you, especially when it comes to Villeneuve’s adaptation. It’s complicated, y’know? And really only part one (as we’re told by a subtitle immediately). But maybe this is a good thing. See, Villeneuve’s Dune tends to meander and keep its dialogue quiet. When taken as its own thing, this could be incredibly frustrating, especially in the slower moments which find Chalamet watching nature documentaries and brooding with those bedroom eyes of his. When considered a two-hour piece of exposition, however, Dune sets up some very exciting things, even if its dialogue is delivered so quietly it’s often painful.
Oh, if only audiences would weather a non-Scorcese/Cameron four-hour film, we might not be in this position. But when the second film completes the story (or maybe they’ll just go for three, at which point you’ll be reading lots of Star Wars comparisons, I’m sure), then we might have something special on our hands. For now, though, Villeneuve keeps things ultimately simple with setup after setup. Of course, this one’s really for the fans anyway, right? Newcomers won’t “get it;” casual viewers should probably read the book. Did you know books are often better than the films they spawn? What a world!
7
+Gorgeous; takes its time
-Maybe takes too much of its time; weirdly quiet
Dune
Directed by Villeneuve
With Chalamet, Isaac, Ferguson, Brolin, Zendaya, Momoa and Skarsgard
Violet Crown, Regal (Santa Fe Place), HBO Max, PG-13, 155 min.
