Denis Villeneuve’s adaption of Dune brings with it a sense of remarkable scale and style. Riding high on the successes of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, Dune continues Villeneuve’s flair for capturing epic, otherworldly escapes.
Frank Herbert’s original landmark 1965 science fiction novel was, in fact, long regarded as unfilmable. A melting pot of themes, references and sociopolitical commentary, the overriding view was that this was a project best left to the world of literature and not the silver screen. David Lynch’s fraught 1984 adaptation reinforced that view.
At its simplest, Dune is a film set in the vast future and centred around the age-old fight for resources and power. It primarily concerns a noble family, the House of Atreidis, which is tasked with taking control of the desert planet Arrakis, and with it, its abundance of “spice”, the most valuable resource in Dune’s world. The crux of the film’s tension is in the form of the planet’s natives, the Fremen, and the current controllers of the planet, the insidious Harkonnens, neither of whom take particularly kindly to the takeover proposition.
Villeneuve succeeds by crafting Dune‘s worlds with an artist’s eye for aestheticism. Boudoirs are sumptuously decorated in Middle-Eastern-influenced patterns and materials, and planets and locales are given their own distinct characters through stark choices in colour and lighting.
The film is cast and performed excellently. Timothée Chalamet is great as the young and inexperienced Paul Atreides, the heir to the throne. Oscar Isaac plays his father, Leto, with suitable aristocratic flair. Perhaps the best performance in the film is by Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Paul’s mother. Her performance runs the gambit of emotions one would expect from the mother of a young man walking into destiny and war.
The narrative is handled deftly and competently. Exposition is delivered through dialogue, and smartly, through learning modules watched by Paul throughout the course of the film as he learns about Arrakis.
This film is the first of a two-parter and sets the stage for what is already a more than worthy adaptation, and arguably a landmark in its own right.
2021, Denis Villeneuve
8.0
Reverse Lens 