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‘Dune’ Review: Sand, Sand, Sand & Spice

Well, isn’t this exciting! My first post here. The beginning. Normally I’d have something fun to say here but I think I’m just hoping to get this started already. I’m feeling impatient, so here goes: Dune.

Ah Dune. Based on the classic science fiction novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, Dune is the new Denis Villeneuve film that takes place across the sandy world of Arrakis where we follow House Atreides trying to establish their hold on the planet and the coveted Spice that’s essential in this world.

This movie is special because it’s the first movie I watched in a theater after the start of the pandemic. It had me hyped, to say the least. I was prepared for something slow but gorgeous and full of sand. And in that sense, Dune didn’t disappoint. 

There’s a lot of sand, the film moves at a snail’s pace. It’s all picturesque shots that make you feel small but not insignificant. Dune fulfills its purpose for the most part, it feels like an epic sci-fi story that’s just getting started but there’s still something a little bit off. There’s a spark of magic that’s missing, something to convince me that the movie was, infact, a fantastic adventure that leaves room for more. 

Dune

Is Dune a good movie? 

It’s competent in most respects. It looks epic, it sounds epic, it feels epic and it has all the ingredients to a great movie but where it fails is in being consistently entertaining. Dune has moments of greatness that are stuffed between pacing issues and mediocrity. Scenes that leave you stunned, truly speechless that are spread far enough apart that they begin to lose their charm.

I had no prior experience with the series so I didn’t have any specific expectations. I think I’d have been less disappointed if I had some frame of reference to contain my anticipation. Dune has a lot going on, there’s political drama, funky sci-fi stuff and a lot of discussion around a sword (an ugly sword, so there are negative points for that), but ultimately it misses out on capturing magic. 

For example, when the movie starts, there’s a beautiful sweeping shot of the desert with narration describing the current state of affairs, spice trade, the way the locals of the planet are treated. It’s reminiscent of the British Empire and just for a brief moment I expected the story to explore that aspect of trading spice. The movie is more concerned with its traditional ‘chosen one’ narrative that rests firmly on the shoulders of Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.

It is carried, primarily, by Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson, as Paul’s parents Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica respectively. They do a lot of the emotional and political heavy lifting. Each has their own storyline and they have an admirable relationship, they support each other but know when to respect the other’s boundaries. Paul is a little harder to fit into the equation. He’s a little bland but shows intent and promise, so I have hope. 

A Lot of Nothing

If you were to ask me what Paul does throughout the movie, I’ll stare at you blankly and try to put together a better description than, he walks around through sand and tries to get to some place with more sand, also he can see the future, sort of, in a way. That’s not all he does, he fights a little, talks about stuff, learns a few cool tricks, but the sparseness of the plot makes it almost feel like nothing at all happens. 

The really disappointing bit is that the world of Dune doesn’t make sense all the time. There’s an incompleteness to the world. House Atreides is a prime example of this, they’re key players here but nothing in the way they live or manage their household would indicate that. Apart from the way they talk. 

The Good Parts

The best part of this movie is a character named Duncan Idaho. All the names, actually, sound weird and somewhat cool. Not Paul though, which is a shame since he’s the main character. Also the absolutely tedious pacing that makes the action even more exciting. Every action scene in this film has a massive scale. Each one is larger than life, with the stakes being raised between these action scenes without fail. The tedious pacing is instrumental to the world building, the slowly rising tension, to making the film feel like an epic. It feels like old sci-fi and I loved that. 

I don’t think I’ve walked out of a film recently with the full intention of going to watch it again. I need to watch Dune again. Simply to experience the grand scale of everything in this film that makes it feel like you’ve been transported to a different world. Everything in this movie comes together to form a whole that feels complete, the score, the cinematography, the overwhelming amounts of sand and the tone of the film. It makes every moment feel heavy and filled with tension. 

Conclusion

I cannot stress enough how big everything feels here. The world is complex, the politics is twisted and every character is acutely aware of their own purpose in the grand scheme of things. But still, there’s a layer of world-building that’s missing. Spice trade, here, has been around for centuries but that gets harder and harder to believe as the movie progresses. Even our understanding of the world changes as we come to see how unsustainable it is. Which only makes it harder to believe.

Ultimately, Dune suffers from a lot of problems that only exist because it’s a story of such massive scale. Denis Villenuve approaches this story masterfully, but is unable to contain the flaws that plague Dune. It makes for an intersting watch, but one that leaves you frustrated.

Overall, Dune has a lot of potential from a storytelling standpoint. However, I’m convinced that some of those potential storylines will never come to fruition. It’s an epic that lets itself down by simply not having a lot to say in this installment. But leaves room for more. It isn’t perfect but it’s mesmerising in more ways than one and just for that it deserves to be watched over and over.

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4 Comments

  1. Absolute scorcher of a review. Paul must be hiding in a dune somewhere. Enjoyed the review. Will skip the movie

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