By Jack Deegan
Correspondent
“Dune” is the newest film from Academy Award-winning director Denis Villeneuve and promises to bring a faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name to the silver screen. Set in the year 10,191, “Dune” takes place on the desert planet of Arrakis and follows the gifted Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) who is troubled by dreams of the future and must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to stop a war and save his people. Chalamet is joined in this star-studded cast by Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Furguson and Stellan Skarsgård among others.
I have been looking forward to “Dune” ever since I got wind of the incredible cast. Villeneuve is one of the best and most unique directors working today and brings with him a visual style and method of storytelling that you don’t see very often in big-budget blockbusters. I know nothing about the “Dune” novel, but from all of the trailers and promotional material, the movie seemed to be a one-of-a-kind movie experience. While I did enjoy the movie, I am unfortunately a little disappointed as I expected a lot more out of this passion project.
“Dune” is an incomplete story. From the very beginning title card of the movie, it’s stylized as “Dune: Part One,” which immediately lets us know that we aren’t going to see the full story here. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it left me wanting a lot more from this movie in both a good and bad way. I wanted to see more because I was so interested in everything going on and I was buying what they were selling, but I needed more out of this story for it to be complete. I just expected more.
Villeneuve does a good job of making a complicated story accessible for people unfamiliar with it, but there is a lot coming your way that can be overwhelming at times. They don’t hold your hand at all; new characters, names, places and things are being brought up all of the time and it’s hard to keep track of everything. There’s a lot of worldbuilding in this and I feel like if I wanted to truly understand all that was going on, I need to rewatch it to get a better hold on all that happened. It was still compelling and entertaining to digest, but sometimes I found myself lost trying to remember names, places, and motivations.
By the end of the film, it feels like none of the characters have undergone any real growth. The entirety of this movie’s story is setting up the groundwork and setting the stage for a franchise to come. There’s a lot of emotion that’s lost there because of how the story unfolds, and it’s hard to really feel for the characters when they have incomplete arcs. “Dune” prioritizes the spectacle over the story and characters suffer because of that.
This movie should be viewed on the largest screen that you can see it on. From a technical standpoint, this movie is a masterpiece. The cinematography is breathtaking. Villeneuve masterfully directs — you can see the love and care that was put into each and every shot so that they all have a purpose while looking beautiful. The set design and overall look of the world have familiar elements from things we’ve seen before, but it’s all done in such a unique way. The buildings, planets and weapons all have interesting designs that seem futuristic and advanced. As for the Hans Zimmer score, it elevates the movie as a good score should. The sounds are all carefully chosen for the scene and set the mood really well. The score also has a very unique sound to it that instantly gives you a connection as to what it’s like in this future, with bleak and otherworldly sounds. “Dune” is always great to look at and hear, and while the story might be lacking a little bit, the visuals make up for that and are worth the price of admission alone.
The acting all around is very good. Everyone clearly gives it their all and does the best they can with what they are given, but almost all of the performances feel very muted and toned down. Nobody is showing a lot of emotion and everyone is very serious here. Momoa stands out since he’s allowed to show how much fun he’s having; Isaac does the best being serious enough while showing his heart and emotion, and Chalamet gives a good performance as Paul and I’d love to see his character get more to express down the line. While being heavily advertised in the movie, Zendaya was only in it for a handful of scenes and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her character Chani and learning what she’s all about.
Despite all of the criticisms I had with everything, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while watching the movie. They focused far too much on creating the world for a franchise and not enough on taking it one movie at a time so that this movie could stand alone and be satisfying as is. It does all the heavy lifting for a sequel which I will be there opening night for, but I just wish this movie was able to stand on its own.
"Dune" is a technical masterpiece and a feast for the senses, but it focuses too heavily on making a sci-fi epic and forgets about the essential emotion needed to tell a complete story.
