'Dune' Wows Visually But Struggles With Plot
Starring Timothèe Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgård, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem
Rated PG-13
Action, drama
Run time: 2 hrs, 35 min
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
In theaters October 22, 2021
Something to keep in mind during this review is that I have not seen nor read any previous Dune property, but I know how huge this book series is to some people and how let down they felt from the first attempt at adapting it to film. Even though the preview confused me more than it explained to me, I was already on board to check it out. It was clear how gorgeous the film would look, with eye-catching costumes and stunning, sweeping shots of otherworldly-looking scenery. For the most part, that was enough to keep me going. However, this visually incredible movie dragged on a bit too long, and it felt like its sole purpose was to be a prequel, to set the stage for the “real” story that would come in any subsequent movies. We’re given a brief explanation as to how things are how they are, and a handful of introductions to characters, but the real action is far from starting.
We start off with learning about House Atreides, a noble family that consists of the Duke (Isaac), his paramour Jessica (Ferguson) and their son, Paul (Chalamet). They’re given an assignment to take over what is called “spice harvesting” on a desert planet called Arrakis that is home to a group of people known as the Fremen. When the Atreides family settles in, they discover they haven’t exactly gotten set up for success. All the harvesting equipment is old or damaged, they were not properly prepared for things such as sand worms, these giant creatures that are summoned by repetitive noises and have no qualms eating anything that comes across their path with mouths that look like a combination of the demigorgon from Stranger Things and a blue whale. Paul keeps having dreams about the Fremen, especially a young woman (Zendaya), that seem to be trying to tell him or warn him about something. And things just get more intense from there.
I went into this relatively blind. I did no research about the source material because I really wanted to just absorb it all in the theater with a blank slate of an open mind. Unfortunately, that made it a bit more difficult to fully be invested or engrossed in the story and made it seem to drag on without much of anything happening. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit tired by movies that just feel like they’re setting up the next film in the series. I recognize that this property is far too vast and well developed to be told in one epic movie, but I still feel like I needed something more to be on the edge of my seat in hopes of getting news of a sequel. It actually felt like I had been tricked, as the majority of the intriguing scenes from the trailer turned out to be from Paul’s visions rather than actual plot happening in real time.
Technically speaking, there is nothing wrong with this movie. The cast is overall fantastic, it’s truly beautiful to watch and, while I may not be in the Timothèe Chalamet fan club and his occasionally robotic-sounding delivery of lines, I didn’t see many failures in the writing either. I appreciated that there isn’t much plot armor around these characters, and all bets are off (making me wonder if George R. R. Martin got some inspiration from the ruthlessness of this world for Game of Thrones), so it wasn’t a boring watch. My main issue comes from me just ending this movie with not caring about much of it. Of course, if Dune: The Second Chapter or something in that vein is announced, I’ll be there opening weekend and hope that it feels more Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two rather than its predecessor. And I suspect, if that happens, I’ll look back on this film with a fonder eye.