Do you like your movies big? How about gargantuan? Anyone looking for the biggest experience possible should look no further: Dune is a technical masterpiece and a true work of art.
Full of visual splendour and some of the best talent both in front of and behind the camera, this fantastic action epic does its source material justice. Even though it isn’t perfect, there’s a lot of admirable effort that creates an impressive final product best enjoyed on the biggest screen you can find.
Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel, the film (like the book) is the expansive and overlong story of royal Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he and his family assume control of the desert planet Arrakis. Trouble brews when other political powers across space try to overtake the planet, and Paul is left to lead the resistance.
Primary credit for the success of this adaptation goes to Canadian director and co-writer Denis Villeneuve (whose Arrival was one of the first films I ever reviewed for Oakville News.) He’s publicly said this was a dream project of his since youth; his passion for the story and his experienced attention to detail are a noticeable asset.
What I liked most about his telling of the story is how clear each of the names, characters and settings were. Yes, it’s a very long film, but the good news is the relationships between everyone (including their goals and allegiances) are always clear.
The sets are jaw-dropping. The scenery is big, bright, beige, and beautiful. The production design really does look like a modern, medieval society 8,000 years in the future. The enormous creative team is too long to discuss at the length it deserves, but I’d be shocked if this didn't sweep the technical Oscar awards later this year.
Just as long of a list the dozen principal actors that treat the material seriously and perform it with the necessary conviction to make the world fully real and humanized. Like the original Star Wars trilogy 40 years ago, the technical achievements only worked because the human cast sold the concept to the audience so well.
Chalamet's Paul is a grounded leader, but everyone in the large ensemble is perfectly cast. Many of them have also undertaken radical physical and psychological changes to play these roles. I couldn't believe, for example, how much makeup Stellan Skarsgård had on as the Baron!
This is among the most impressive casts assembled for a science fiction epic, and everyone is really giving it all they’ve got. It’s too bad not everyone is present for too long, but there are several characters who will get more focus in the teased part two.
What's most disappointing is knowing the Dune is unfinished. It's a good story inside a great blockbuster, but there's over an hour of (granted, interesting) exposition. This film is openly part one of a hopeful duology, but in the meantime this story feels incomplete.
It’s certainly a great film, but I wonder if this adaptation might've been better served as a six episode mini-series where this drawn out approach wouldn’t be as cumbersome. On the other hand, there really is magic in seeing this film in the cinema, where it belongs.
I was fortunate enough to see Dune at TIFF last month at the Ontario Place Cinesphere, with director Villeneuve in attendance. When introducing the film to the audience, he pointed to the IMAX screen and explained how when he and cinematographer Greig Fraser were planning the film, "We were only ever thinking of that. This is the future of cinema."
Whether in fact his prophecy is right, Villeneuve's film maximizes the big screen experience like few modern movies do. It is worth seeing in the theatres to marvel at what cinema today is capable of doing at its best. Just be prepared for a long first half.
Dune
8 out of 10
2hrs 35mins. Fantasy Sci-Fi Action Epic.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Dave Bautista and Javier Bardem.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, 5 Drive-In, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
