Dune (2021): Written by Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth, directed by Denis Villeneuve. Starring: Timotheé Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem. Running Time: 155 minutes. Based on the novels by Frank Herbert.
Rating: 3/4
I have to admire the boldness of Dune, another attempt to "adapt the unadaptable," though by this point I wonder if that particular phrase has lost most of its luster. It goes whole-hog on old-school, operatic sci-fi grandeur, enhanced by the sheen of modern design and effects technology, to deliver a good old, sensory-overload experience that is in no hurry to get where it's going, even if it means waiting for a sequel that may or may not happen. In a world so thoroughly shaped by the legacy of LOTR, it has become almost rote to expect anything and everything out of major studios to come as part of a pre-planned, pre-packaged, and mostly pre-produced series of films. A trilogy at bare minimum, more if the studio thinks they can milk the IP enough.
At first glance, Dune appears to be banking on this trend to continue. The movie almost comically ends with someone uttering that fateful line, "This is just the beginning," even though (as of this writing) no further films have been announced and the commercial success of this first effort is still very much up in the air. People my age are unlikely to remember, but this actually used to be much more par for the course before the age of endless IP franchises. Many different original films would try to have some sort of cliffhanger or hanging plot thread included, just in case the filmmakers were able to get the go for another one. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't (Buckaroo Bonzai remains a legendary example of the latter). Obviously, given the very tortured history of Dune adaptations, nothing could come of this, and Villeneuve's version will merely be remembered as a particularly gaudy and expensive case study in "What If."
For now, though, we simply have the film at hand, and despite its flaws, this is the sort of grand spectacle movie theaters will built for and the kind of experience I've waited years (literally!) to get. Sorry Tenet, but this is the pandemic-era film meant to remind us all why theaters remain such special and essential places. It's also, for me personally, another one of those grand, sprawling, high-concept fictional worlds of kings and wars and magic and destinies that I remain such an ardent sucker for. This is very much a movie designed to appeal to me, personally, and for the most part, it very much succeeds.
The central figure in this space opera is Paul (Timotheé Chamelet), scion of one of the more powerful noble families that apparently rule over individual planets as feifdoms within a much larger galactic empire of some sorts. There are many hints, terms, and names dropped of the power players and factions at play, but to be frank, the film is at its weakest when it's trying to tuck in greater worldbuilding, especially since the importance of it all is clearly being held in reserve in case sequels do, in fact, get greenlit. Paul seems to generally have a happy life with his family and friends, including his parents (Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson) and his two mentors/trainers, Gurney (Josh Brolin) and Duncan (Jason Momoa). One thing that is important is that Paul seems to have inherited some sort of unusual, voice-based power from his mother, who has been training him in its usage ever since he was a child. What this is meant to signify is, again, hinted at but never really made clear, other than that this marks Paul as a child of destiny, whatever that will turn out to mean.
Their relatively comfortable life of power and luxury is brutally thrown into disarray when the family is forced by the Emperor into the power politics of the dynastic families. We know from the film's narrator (Zendaya, playing a young girl from a local drive on the titular desert planet Arrakis) that the most valuable substance in the universe is a type of spice only found in the deserts of her homeworld, which has led to its brutal subjugation under the Harkonnen, the wealthiest and most powerful of the families beneath the throne. Now, though, for reasons unclear to everyone involved, the Harkonnens have been ordered off the planet, with Paul's family, House Atreides, commanded to take its place.
We aren't in the Star Wars universe here, but even if we were, we wouldn't need the services of a certain Mon Calamari admiral to see the trap being so clearly set and prepared for House Atreides. And this is where the meat of the story gets going, as various figures both seen and unseeen begin to make their moves. The most consequential, at least for now, is the revenge planned by the leader of the Harkonnens, Stellan Skarsgard in a remarkable fat suit who is, in fact, so massive, he can only move via special anti-gravity generators installed into his spine. If nothing else, it allows for some truly striking visual moments. His nephew, the leader of Harkonnen forces, is our beloved Dave Bautista, but he was here for a surprisingly short amount of time. My assumption is that he will play a much more prominent role in a sequel, should that in fact happen.
The wild card in how the conflicts play out will clearly be the natives of Arrakis, the Fremen ("free men," you get it?), and it's here where the film starts to tread into very political and racial waters that I can only hope a sequel would address more firmly. There is, to put it mildly, a very racial/colonial tone to a story about a native population brutally repressed by foreigners seeking to engage in wanton, destructive resource extraction. My knowledge of the books is, at this moment, supremely sparce, but at least within this adaption, nobles like those from House Atreides are clearly coded as typical European nobles (i.e., White), while the Fremen are a mixture of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous, with heavy Muslim tones to their dress, architecture, and religious practices thrown in.
Now, that's no problem in and of itself- we've had too many movies to count that uses this sort of shorthand and will undoubtedly get many before the sun goes out- but once we start to get into the notion of Paul being some sort of "Chosen One" prophesied and half-worshipped by the Fremen, destined to lead the galaxy to a brighter future, the "White Savior" bells started to chime in my brain. Maybe there's more to this in the books, or maybe there isn't but Villeneuve is aware of our current age and has a few twists in store for us. I will reserve judgment in this regard for now, but let this stand as my statement of tentative concern.
For now, though, I really do dig this movie and its massive scale. We've had so many spaceships in so many franchises by now, but this was the first time in awhile where one was able to give a sense of awe-inspiring scale to the machines and vehicles used to transport people from one place to the next. There is a lot of the heavy, color-coded atmosphere that made Villeneuve's Blade Runner sequel so memorable in spite of the fact that it didn't need to exist, so much so that I can easily imagine him deciding to just stick with adapting these sorts of fabled old IP properties forever. We also have the first genuinely great Hans Zimmer score we've gotten in some time, since at least Dunkirk, also something I didn't realize I'd been missing until I got it again.
The production design and background worldmaking is augmenting by a massive, spot-on cast that is very much game for the material on hand, whether their roles be tiny or obscenely large, including, to my astonishment, a tiny but memorable role for Benjamin Clementine. Chamelet is still on an all-upwards trajectory in my books and I am very much interesting in seeing what he can do with Paul if he's given the chance. Oscar Isaac remains king of my heart forever and always, and I very much hope that this movie will also serve as a reminder to mainstream audiences just how lucky we are to be sharing this Earth with Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem.
By a strange quirk of fate, I got to see this a good month before it will hit in the States. The International Movie Release Fascists finally decided to do me a solid, I guess. At any rate, I will be very interested to see how other audiences (including minority audiences) react once this is in general theaters. It'll be an interesting Fall.
-Noah Franc
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