Dune is based off of the novel by Frank Herbert and is directed and co-written by Denis Villenuve who also made Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, the story here concerns Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) who is the son of Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and heads to the planet Arrakis with his family as it’s the only planet in the Universe that has harvestable quantities of the Spice which helps bring wealth and interstellar travel but the fearsome House Harkonnen led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgard) won’t give up his hold on Arrakis without a fight.
Dune is a movie I have been very much looking forward to as I am ready for a big return to large scale Science Fiction again and especially after the excellent Apple TV adaptation of Issac Asimov’s Foundation, I had been aware of the story thanks to the 1984 film David Lynch directed but I wasn’t a big fan of that film, Lynch is a great filmmaker but he was all wrong for that kind of film whereas Denis having done Blade Runner and Arrival had proven himself to be capable of pulling this off.
And pull it off he does as I really liked this movie a lot and firstly I have to start with the films craftsmanship, the cinematography by Greig Fraser, the visual effects, the production design by Patrice Vermette, the costumes by Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan and the music score by Hans Zimmer are all top notch and they beautifully help to bring this very complicated world to life in a way that makes it very easy for an audience to follow and go along with, there are plenty of lavish sets, hot dry deserts, huge ships and battle scenes and moments of scale here that have to be seen on a big cinema screen.
One part of this film I particularly loved was the world of the Harkonnen, this cold dark place run by its ruthless baron who looks like Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars and the pale skin and dark armour that looks so cool and their brutality in their fight scenes, they play a big role in Part 2 of this story and I can’t wait for it.
Also I must complement Villenuve and his writing team Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth as well, they really take the time to develop this world and bring you into it and all of its various houses and the history of the Spice and Arrakis and the native Fremen in a way that like the visuals it is very easy to follow something that the 1984 film thoroughly failed very miserably to do despite Virginia Madsen giving you a big exposition dump at the beginning of that film but I just ended up getting lost In that film and not really thinking much of it as a result.
But that is not the case here, I never once felt lost or confused following this story or the houses in it and the role they play it was all very easy to follow and get invested in and if Part 2 can really deliver the goods then we may well have the best Sci-Fi saga on film after the original Star Wars trilogy and that is not a comparison I make lightly.
Now that Part 2, if there is one failing I have regarding this film it is that at times there are too many teases for what happens in Part 2, now this movie makes it very clear that this is only Part 1 and Denis and all of his production team and his cast assert themselves incredibly well at that task but you can only sit through so many visions and teases of what is to come and not feel a tiny bit cheated by them all especially when Zendaya is all over the previews but barely in the film, hopefully Denis can give us that great Part 2 to complement Part 1.
And so that is Dune and its really good and very much worth a watch on the big cinema screen despite too much teasing for Part 2, 4 out of 5.
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