One of the most anticipated films of the year has finally been released, Dune. If you have been keeping up with the Dune discourse, you know that the director was vehemently against the HBO Max same day release of this movie, but nonetheless, he lost out on this fight. Either way it was abundantly clear that this film needed to be seen in IMAX, not even the regular theater, this needed to be taken to the full scale possible. So, I took this advice to heart and decided that it was either IMAX or nothing, and this was definitely the right way to go. This was filmed to be a total engrossing experience, and the best way to go about doing this was through IMAX.
Dune was originally a book that had been made into a movie before the 2000s. The book and series have high praise among the sci-fi community, but the first movie does not have the same amount of praise. So, it makes sense that a book series with this amount of praise has gotten a second cinematic chance. I have not seen the first one, but from what I have heard, it is mediocre. It was hard to make a movie so based in sci-fi and CGI in 1984. This movie covers most of the first Dune book, but as it mentions in the opening sequence, it is just part one.
I read the first book over the summer in preparation for this, and I found the book to be above average, but it did not blow me away by any means, it is a very dense text that can at times be hard to follow, which can be said for the movie as well. For the most part, the main point of the movie is understandable. The book and the movie are an allegory for the damages humans are doing to the environment, and the main attack comes from the mining of salt, which in our world is the equivalent to the extracting of petroleum, which when this book was written, these ideas were way ahead of their time.
The movie and book focus on Paul, the heir to the Atreides, who have just been given rule over a desert planet with a spice that is the equivalent to petroleum. So, Paul, his family, and clan move to the planet to take advantage of the resource, but it is not as great as expected. It is also a very adverse environment, and the natives do not welcome them. Despite the adversity, they try to take advantage of their resources to minimal success, and then they get invaded by the Baron and his army. This leads to the death of Paul's father, and the near escape of Paul. Paul ends up traveling through the desert with his mom and ends up in a colony of natives where he starts to take control of his mantle as heir and messiah to a greater prophecy.
The biggest win for this movie was the visuals. On the big screen, the massive landscapes were stunning. Personally, desert landscapes are my favorite with the red and yellow tones, they are always astounding. That tacked onto the artistic value of this film worked together in harmony. It was not filmed in the typical action sci-fi sense. The action sequences were filmed nicely, but the real beauty came from the focus on the landscapes, and even the CGI was excellent, especially in the case of the sand worms. Even the action sequences were artistic. Especially when the soldiers were descending from the sky, and the action seemed so choreographed. It reminded me of Blade Runner 2049, which was visually stunning, but that story did not interest me at all, whereas Dune was slightly more compelling.
All this was amplified even more by the intense soundtrack. It is hard to describe the soundtrack exactly, but it was very intense, and it had hard beats and loud scream type singing from a woman. It was like that of the new Wonder Woman film, but it was done much better in this film. I also saw that it was compared to Christopher Nolan film soundtracks. It helped seeing it in a theater with a great sound system where at points it felt loud enough to shake the seat. A great soundtrack can always help make the story more compelling, and after a long week of hard work, it can also help keep you awake.
The casting in this movie was on point as well. Oscar Isaac as the Duke was an excellent casting, he does a great job of coming off as pretentious and in charge, which he also just put on display in Scenes from a Marriage. Rebecca Ferguson as the Duke’s lady was also a great casting, she came off as very powerful and demanding of respect. She played the role perfectly. Timothy Chalamet also gives of a regal vibe, but more in the rich white person kind of way, it seemed odd when he was in the action sequences, but it was still believable. Lastly Zendaya as Chani was perfect. She has so much natural charisma that she comes off as regal just in the way she looks.
Probably the biggest accomplishment during this movie was that I did not have to take a bathroom break. It was a little over two and a half hours, and there was a constant flow of people rushing to the bathroom in the second half of the film. I am assuming most of them were there with someone to tell them what they had missed, but I did not have said luxury, so I had to stick it out, thankfully my run that afternoon was long, and I did not take the time to rehydrate after, the rare time this was a good decision.
Overall, this movie did not quite reach the expectations I had for it story wise, but visually, it did. My expectations for the story should not have been as high as they were considering I had read the book and was unimpressed. The acting in this was excellent. It had a copious number of stars putting on a show but, sadly two of my favorites did not make it through the film, which was disappointing. I do wish Zendaya had more time to shine, but in the sequel, she will get her chance. I just want to know how much money she got for her small performance in this one. Part two should be more action filled and hopefully the excellent cinematography will continue. I would not be surprised if this took home an Oscar in one of the minor categories like cinematography or sound mixing. I give this movie 3.5 stars and would say not to watch it at home at least go to the theaters, if not IMAX.
Comments