Movie Review: Dune (2021)
A few notes from across the universe.
The plot of Dune (2021) can be summarized in a single sentence: political factions wrestling for control of the galaxy. The devil, however, is in the details.
The growing influence of the House Atreides threatens the emperor. He places Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) in charge of Arrakis knowing its previous rulers, the Harkonnens, will retaliate. Working with imperial super soldiers, House Harkonnen retakes Arrakis. The Atreides family is presumed dead, but in reality Paul and his mother Jessica (Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson, respectively) are living with Arrakis natives called Fremen.
That is where the movie ends. It is part one of a two part series.
The film has a run time of two hours and 35 minutes. It may be thought this is due to the intricacies of the politics involved or to the character development required to understand motivations. And that is correct - for the most part. However, there are drawn out sequences where the director indulges in CGI spectacle. It would have been a better use of time to delineate the previously mentioned politics and character.
This is particularly true in light of the fact that some details must be filled in by the audience or, perhaps, be left dangling until the sequel. It is not obvious, for example, what motivates the Bene Gesserit, or their role in the political machinations of the Landsraad. Why did they plant seeds of a messianic prophecy among the Fremen? Perhaps I just missed it.
Mystery is one thing; befuddlement is another. The viewer is left clinging to the plot as it whirls around like an ornithopter. I understood what was going on, but just barely. This is to be expected from a film adaptation of a book nearing 200,000 words long. You can not hope to achieve that level of complexity in a visual medium. But the creators of Dune (2021), particularly its director, Denis Villeneuve, deserve credit for doing it as well as they did.
The visuals are stunning. A sandworm swallowing a spice harvester stands out. It introduces us to the terrific creature while preserving a sense of mystery and awe. Later appearances of the sandworms are not so effective.
The plot follows the novel well (at least according to the summaries I have read. I read Dune a long time ago, and don’t recall much). There is even a bit of foreshadowing of its conclusion in the dialogue. Denis Villeneuve respects the source material - a rarity among film makers these days.
The dialogue is well handled, a credit to the writers Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth. There is one phrase so bad that it bears mentioning. Leto explains to his son that House Atreides will form an alliance with the Fremen to battle their enemies. He describes this as acquiring “desert power.” At the end of the film Paul observes a Fremen riding a sandworm and repeats his father’s phrase, “desert power.” The phrase did not need repeating; by now we understand the Fremen are formidable. It was a clunky attempt at foreshadowing the sandworm’s role in upcoming confrontations. More accurately, it was a clunky attempt to get audiences interested in the forthcoming sequel.
On the whole, Dune (2021) is a good movie that will please fans and interest newcomers - if they can make it through its nearly three hour run time. Villeneuve and his writers do a descent, albeit imperfect job at condensing the book. It may not achieve the status of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, but that book had a simpler plot: good guys must travel a great distance to destroy the bad guy’s evil weapon. Dune (the book) is much more nuanced. Its characters are more complex.
We will need to wait for the sequel before saying more.
A excellent counterpoint to all the reviews which were mostly gushing about how great the film was. Thanks for writing! I have never read the book or watched the 1984 adaptation, so I was expecting to be bewildered by what I'd heard was a complicated plot. The whole "messiah" theme was lost on me, but for what it was, it was a fun movie experience - like a summer popcorn-and-air conditioning film but released in the fall. You are right about the splendid visuals, and also about the underwhelming appearance of the sandworms at the end (maybe it was a young one that chased Paul and Jessica?), and, wow, that "desert power" line needed some rewrites. But still, a fun time at the theater.
I loved the movie. Dune has many deep human, emotional, psychological and spiritual themes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbTp1vlRqYA
This is a spectacular scene.