Feeling kinda of burnt by big sci-fi epics collapsing under the weight of previous iterations or source material like Star Wars or Apple TV+ original series Foundation, I was a little worried about how I would receive Dune. I had never read the books that this movie was based off of, so I had no real connection to the universe besides knowing that there were big sand-worms on this desert planet. The prospect of being introduced to a new sci-fi world was an exciting prospect, one where I did not have any pre-conceived notions on what they should do, or how they did this thing wrong, I was just along for the ride and what a ride it was.
Dune is a story about colonization, where everyone is going to the desert planet of Arrakis to mine the most important resource in the universe: Spice. Arrakis is the only planet known to carry Spice, which is what the Spacing Guild uses to do faster than light travel (without Spice, FTL is impossible).
The universe of Dune is set up between 4 parties, the previously mentioned Spacing Guild, The Emperor, the royal houses (the ones we meet are House Harkonnen and House Atreides) and the Bene Gesserit who are like a all-women shadow group who are the ones really pulling the strings. If this seems like a lot, that is because it is. I did not know any of this before going and seeing the movie, and while there were some parts that felt a little overwhelming, you eventually hear the names enough or recognize the groups to know what is going on. There is also the fifth group which are the natives to Arrakis, the Fremen. We don’t get to spend a lot of time with them, but they will definitley be important in Part II.
This movie is absolutely gorgeous. From the grass and water on House Atreides home planet, to the orange and yellow tones of Arrakis there is not one wasted shot in this movie. This movie just oozes style and does a great job of making every planet that we visit, even if just there for a second seem unique. You have a very brutalist art style on Arrakis, the darkness of House Harkonnen’s home world, to the awful war ceremony that happens with the Emperors personal warriors, you can really see how much care was put into making everything feel distinct.
Speaking of style, Denis Villeneuve is the man behind this recent adaption of Dune and it has all his fingerprints on it. When different languages are being spoken (or in some cases signed) I can’t help but think of Arrival. Same thing with the orange tones of Arrakis, makes me think of his movie Enemy. The work he did with light and shadows in Blade Runner 2049 continues here. I was already a fan of his style of art and storytelling, but his adaptation of Dune cemented him as one of my favorite directors of all time.
Dune has a great cast of actors but there are a couple that stand out to me. Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladmir Harkonnen is down right terrifying. You first see him as an old man whose best years look past him, but every time you see him after he gets more powerful. Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides was who I was most worried about going into the movie. I enjoy Chalamet but I did not know if he would fit well into a big budget sci-fi movie like this, well I am happy I was completely wrong about that. The chemistry him and Zendaya have even though they are barely on screen together is fantastic and I can’t wait to see them interact more in Part 2. The last performance I was blown away by is Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, who might be the most interesting character in this whole movie, and the one I want to read more about after watching it.
The only thing that really did not stick out to me was the score by Hans Zimmer. It was not particularly bad or anything but because everything else visually was so interesting that the score being “fine” sticks out more than usually.
There are parts of this movie that come would consider slow, uninteresting, or even boring but those parts are needed. Without the quiet moments, this just becomes another sci-fi action movie and that would change the core of this movie down to its DNA. Some of my favorite parts of this movie are just watching Paul’s dreams or characters interacting with one another. Yeah the action scenes are really great (the fighting style is extremely interesting) but with the quiet moments in between, it makes those loud moments even better.
If Dune does not seem like your cup of tea, I would at least try to watch it while it is still on HBO Max and give it a shot. As much as I like the MCU/Superhero style movies, watching this gave me good shot of hope that not all big budget movies have to follow that formula. I can not wait for Part II.