By Denis
Gillipedia Official Rating: 6.5/10.
But in the year 10191 with inflation it’s more like 8/10.
There are some films you just know no matter what is said about it, you are going to watch. Dune fits that bill for me. A star-studded cast for a film based on the Frank Herbert book that I listened to (very confusing to listen to the audiobook), the main draw for me was in director Denis Villeneuve. Mostly known for critical and public success from Arrival, he’s also the director of some of my favorite films in Prisoners, Sicario, and Blade Runner 2049. And if Tenet was Christopher Nolan’s most Nolanesque film to mostly successful results, the same is true of Dune. I do have a fair share of critiques and its slower pace might turn off some moviegoers looking for huge blockbuster thrills from this visual feast, but it is ultimately a very good film.
The first thing to note is one of the
very first things you’re told about this film. This is in fact Dune Part One.
The lack of marketing advertising this is frustrating, and that frustration is
compounded by the fact that this is clearly a story that doesn’t get finished in
its entirety and aptly needs the Part One in the title. It also features
a 2hr 35min runtime. For part one. Now as someone who only understood very
little of the audiobook and also subsequently watched (and will review) the
David Lynch adaptation and thus knows the story, honestly… part one is pretty
necessary. Like I truly believe you could make a 3-hour competent version that
completes the story. But this isn’t a money-grabbing part one. This isn’t a 300-page
book inexplicably split into a trilogy of 2 ½ hour films (looking at you The
Hobbit). This is a complicated interplanetary story with confusing names
and places and requires time to get through. Sometimes Dune takes too
much time, but I have made peace that a true adaptation of Dune needs multiple
parts. You can make the argument of a mini-series in an era trending toward just
that; however, Denis dutifully utilizes the full visual and audio experience of
a movie theater. I could’ve watched this movie for free on HBO Max, but I
watched it in a theater and have approximately 0 regret over that decision.
For the plebs who don’t know what Dune
is, it’s a sci-fi story that takes place somewhere beyond the year 10,000. Our
protagonist Paul played by Timothee Chalamet belongs to House Atreides from the
planet Caladan (no way in heck did I remember these names, you bet I had to look
all these up again). He dreams about Zendaya, and is sent to the desert planet
Arrakis, better known as Dune. His family is sent on a mission by the emperor to
assist in the production of spice mined from Dune’s deserts and is the only place
in the universe with the dusty goodness. This spice both acts as a hallucinogen
as well as the power behind interplanetary travel—thus making it the most
desirable resource. Paul’s father is the Duke and played by Poe from Star
Wars Oscar Isaac. He has an impressive filmography, but let’s keep things
simple with actor’s most known works. Paul’s mom is Lady Jessica, played by Mission:
Impossible filmrunner Rebecca Ferguson. There’s like a bald Reverend Mother
that schooled Jessica in the Bene Gesserit, and they taught her how to use “The
voice.” Jessica is able to vary her tone to command anyone to do her bidding,
and she is in the process of teaching this power to Paul. There’s also the
albino Harkonnens who play our baddies. They don’t have great motivations
besides being power-hungry, and House Atreides stands in their way of these
goals. To be fair Atreides also wants more power but in a more heroic way.
Knowing that they’re at a disadvantage, they send a skilled pilot Duncan Idaho
played by Aquaman Jason Momoa to learn about the Fremen, the desert people of
Arrakis. Duncan comes back all hopeful that the Fremen are key to Dune and
defeating the Harkonnen, but they aren’t sure on how quite yet. And from there
conflicts happen and you get the idea.
Did all that make sense? Need a recap?
I just wrote it, and I’m still confused on the names. Let’s let your minds rest
a bit and talk about the acting. Overall, on every front, Dune is a
well-executed movie, but it comes across just a tad bit pretentious. And blame
should be spread throughout. Characters take long pauses between lines, shots
linger just a little long either on characters’ expressions or on wide shots,
and shots I could’ve sworn were slowed down for dramatic effect for the
trailers appear as is in the final film. Timothee Chalamet is the epitome of
this. He’s a really great, rising star. But I mean, just take a look at him and
you feel like he’s snubbing you just a bit. Ferguson is really talented, and
she has the second-biggest role. I’m very pleased with how much material she’s
given, and she is a dynamic character. But there’s a little pretention from her
as well. If you watched the trailer, you saw half of Zendaya’s screentime.
Also, the spice has turned the Fremen’s eyes blue. But not like they’re wearing
blue contacts; no, the eyes are full-on blue and I think it was CGI and didn’t
feel quite natural enough for me. But yeah, Zendaya had nothing to do here.
Momoa is good, but much of the film is spent with him clean-shaven, and I am
not a fan of that at all. Stellan Skarsgard (from Thor and Avengers)
is unrecognizable as our main baddie the Baron Harkonnen. He is gross and
repelling and his character is great. He has a similar vibe to that of Snoke
from Star Wars, but where Snoke felt like an empty, CGI vessel, the
Baron feels real and menacing and is not anything you’ve seen before.
-deep
breath- Now we get to the more bit roles.
Josh Brolin plays Gurney and helps
train Paul to fight. They have these shields that provide a forcefield around
the person. I think this is some great CGI use. It’s simple because it’s really
more of an aura around the characters, but the design is so effective. First,
it’s not distracting and allows the choreography of the fights to come through.
Second, the color system is an easy concept for the audience to grasp. If you
flail your weapon and hit the shield of the person without breaking it, you see
the blue aura glow. If you break through the barrier, the shield turns red.
With many complicated sci-fi concepts, the simple execution here really helps what
action we get shine.
Dave Bautista plays one of the
Harkonnens, and it’s his worst performance. He overacts and sounds too close to
his Drax character which takes away from the shock he’s supposed to instill
when his character yells. It’s also personally disappointing since he plays a
subtle, excellent bit role at the beginning of Blade Runner 2049 with
the same director Denis. You probably don’t know the name David Dastmalchian,
but you can’t forget his face if you’ve seen him in anything. I know him from
his tiny villainous role in The Dark Knight, but he has collaborated
with Denis before and now is best known for his recent work as Polka Dot Man in
The Suicide Squad. I don’t have much to say on his small role here, I’m
mostly just trying to show off my Gillipedia knowledge. He doesn’t show up
until late, but Javier Bardem is also here, and I look forward to his character
for the sequel.
My goodness I feel like this review is
ballooning in length and there’s still much to get through… Am I purposefully
drawing parallels to the film? Am I taking up more space intentionally or has
my freeform thinking expressed itself onto the page? Am I simply reaching a
mandatory word count for my producers?
So the film is long, story can be
confusing, and it’s a little pretentious on all fronts. Not convinced to see it
yet? I still maintain that Blade Runner 2049 is the best use of visual
effects and futuristic technology of any film, but Dune follows in its
footsteps. Having seen all Marvel films and becoming desensitized to the
general overuse of green screen and CGI, Dune feels so refreshing. There
are plenty of visuals, but they’re integrated so well. You never at any point
feel like you’re looking at a green screen, and I truly can’t tell sometimes
when something is a practical effect or CGI. I also wonder if any miniatures
were used because some Nolan techniques for the likes of The Dark Knight
and Interstellar feel similar to Dune—and that’s not a complaint
in the slightest. There’s organic camera movement, great lighting which is a
game-changer in making practical and visual effects blend seamlessly, and an
impressive scale. This is a huge story with these massive nations clashing. And
you truly get a feel that there’s an interplanetary war, and it’s this scale
that really adds to the cinematic experience. Also, the sand worms are awesome.
Think about the first episode of season 2 in The Mandalorian. Also also,
even the explosions feel more cinematic and upgraded somehow.
You may have overlooked it, but I made
sure to point out that I saw the film in theaters for both the visual and audio
experience. You may have a large 8K UHD HDMI TV, but you don’t have the sound
system of a theater. And it makes a difference. Sound design is impeccable and will
most likely be up for an Oscar, and the amazing Hans Zimmer scores this film.
The Fremen have a very Middle Eastern, Arabic feel, and I think Zimmer captures
this really well in some of the score.
Sometimes the film drags, and it’s hard
to remain focused. The film doesn’t hand-hold you with exposition, but it’s
also hard to follow along at all points. There isn’t a tremendous amount of
action, but that’s not what the story or film is. Just realize that going in.
It’s always hard to tell the performance of a film with streaming, but with a
$40 million opening knowing that it’s also streaming on HBO Max, it does give
me hope that this film is successful enough to receive funding for future
projects. And it is a great film and worthy of sequels. There’s story arcs and
developments, and despite an obviously incomplete story at large, I thoroughly
enjoyed this film. I think we deserved a post-credit scene, but ah well. If you
have the time to see this more philosophical film, treat yourself to a truly
cinematic experience at the theater.
By David
Gillipedia Official Rating: Big
Brother is not pleased
David Lynch found success in Eraserhead
and The Elephant Man. And if you’ve seen Twin Peaks or his
40-minute nightmare fuel Rabbits (available on YouTube), you understand
that Lynch has a style. He’s experienced, and his refusal to follow trends or
tell a logical story almost seems to fit in well with the lore of Dune. His
1984 version even has cult status among groups. Many will tell you that the
film is a failure both critically and commercially due to the oft-blamed studio
interference that obstructed his vision and demanded a shorter runtime. I’m
here to tell you that this is just a bad film.
Whereas Denis’s Dune feels like
in lesser hands could’ve been a B-sci-fi film, David’s Dune is exactly
that. The sand worms are also actually impressive, and they do what they can
with the limitations of the technology, but there’s also enough wrong to wring
out chuckles from me for the silliness or poor effects. Like the shields that I
previously praised literally looks like a prototype for Roblox or Minecraft.
Literal rectangles surround the characters and these blocky bubbles obscure any
kind of action. Luckily, it’s not used heavily. Strangely, it’s not used
heavily. As in it’s used while training Paul just like Denis’s version, but that’s
the last use of it despite its obvious advantages in combat—the climax in
particular.
This film is over 2 hours, but it’s
still shorter and goes through the complete story. I was expecting less time to
be spent in the first half. But really, with all the exposition to get through,
so much time is spent in the first half that once we reach the point where
Denis’s ends, it feels like we switch over to the highlight reel. There’s
obviously so much content that is cut, but some scene changes make zero sense,
some scenes have little to no impact and are way too long, and this film
somehow feels even longer despite the shorter length. Not to try to spoil the
obvious, but Paul and Zendaya’s character fall in love. In this version they
meet, something else unrelated happens, and then I swear the next scene they
start making out. There was no motivation or development. And rather than being
an outlier, this is more of a common theme with this film.
The film starts out with a space lady
explaining the story and setting and plot. Then we even get a visual of the
places and the confusing names. It’s way more simple, but I actually kinda
appreciated it, and the tone felt more aligned with what little I recall from
the audiobook. Then we reach Caladan and see the troops of the emperor dressed
in garbage bags. I thought I was being harsh when I had that thought while watching,
but it turns out I wasn’t far off and wasn’t harsh enough. Apparently, they
were body bags from an abandoned fire station. To make things way creepier and
gross, these were, let’s say, already lightly used body bags. These costumes of
course stand out, but some are actually pretty good and the production design
also is reminiscent of even some old films like Cleopatra where so much
budget was consumed by costume and set design. Jessica’s hair reminded me of a
serpent. But in a good way, you know?
The Harkonnens look like the incest
version of the Weasleys in Harry Potter. The Baron is super gross, but
it’s more of a just ew why do I have to see this kind of way and not as
menacing. For the second half of the film, he’s really just a fat, ugly man in
a flying onesie. Oh, and Sting is also here and wears a sexy thong at one
point. The Harkonnens are terrible in general. They are the definition of a
maniacal laugh. They are evil because they’re supposed to be, and their cruelty
also elicits cackling from themselves and constant smirking. You can’t convince
me that that was a result of studio interference. David, do better.
There’s limited cuts and camera
movements, and the limitation of green screen also stagnates many scenes. It
also makes the film feel like a play at times. And the actors don’t help with
this; they overact in every scene, and the result is super cheesy. Mix in
laughable green screen, and you sometimes have an enjoyable experience while
watching. But it’s not bad enough to be a so bad it’s good film. The concept of
Dune is too good to allow it to be terrible, but the execution fails in
many areas. The star Kyle MacLachlan is actually pretty good. He later works with
Lynch on Twin Peaks, and some people may know him in his humorous role
as The Captain in How I Met Your Mother. OH. There’s also frikin Patrick
Stewart. Did not see that coming. A young Linda Hunt also has a small role—I know
her from NCIS: Los Angeles. And to top things off, Toto did the score.
Some of the expositional elements help
with understanding everything, but that could also be a result of me watching
this film the day after watching Denis’s. One of the most annoying things is
whispered inner narration that all characters have. I guess that might be part
of the studio interference of needing a more intelligible story, but it happens
the whole movie and inexplicably at times. It’s interesting to see how lines of
dialogue are carried over and a general structure of some scenes, but this is
not a film worth watching. In fact it only made me appreciate Denis’s execution
that much more after seeing how bad this film was. Honestly, this would be a
pretty scathing review if I also didn’t laugh at the cheesy moments. To finish
things off, the film couldn’t end without getting me to chuckle one last time.
The end credits start with the cast, but it shows a slightly transparent
version of each actor over crashing waves, and it feels just like an In Memoriam.
In
Brief:
- You can watch Disney’s Cruella for free on Disney+. I’m glad I didn’t pay for it, but as a fan of The Devil Wears Prada, I enjoyed this film. It felt like the familial twist is really forced, but I give it props for the effort. Emma Stone and Thompson are a joy.
- Venom:
Let There Be Carnage
is entertaining. Director Andy Serkis describes it as a love story, and it
really does feel like it. It’s nice to see the sequel be kinda irreverent, but
it can be a strange transition with the unhinged Carnage played by Woody Harrelson.
Not excellent, but it’s really entertaining and pretty funny on occasion.
- I do take a look at a Rotten Tomatoes score for a film, but you can’t always trust it. Just a friendly reminder.
