As I said in my review for the David Lynch cinematic version of Dune, I am not much of a fan of Frank Herbert’s novel. My general description of that book was always this: it is mostly people thinking about what other people are thinking while knowing the other people know they are thinking that, and then in the last fifty pages something happens. Truthfully, there isn’t a whole lot of plot to that book. It’s mostly setting and people making, and only sometimes executing, plans as they try to get ahead of each other. I know the book series has its fans, and my first exposure to them may have been online arguments about how Paul Atreides could easily massacre Luke Skywalker. That said, it does appear as if Dune may have been something of an influence on George Lucas for the creation of Star Wars‘s Jedi Order.
Despite all that, I am a big fan of director Denis Villeneuve. He made a Blade Runner sequel that I really liked, and I was never really much of a fan of the original movie there, so if anyone could make me appreciate Dune, it would be him. Besides, there was no way I was going to skip something this epic-looking at the local IMAX screening room.
As I said above, there isn’t a whole lot of plot to Dune. It’s a story that’s more about intrigue and politicking that, well, doing anything. It’s very basic: House Atreides has just been given the Imperial license to mine the spice from the desert planet of Arrakis. Spice is needed for space travel, but the native Fremen use it for religious purposes. The license had been held by House Harkonnen, House Atreides’s longtime enemies. There’s a bit more there involving various factions such as the sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit and whatever it is the Emperor of the Known Universe wants. However, the main focus is on Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamat), an uncertain young man who isn’t sure what he really wants out of life. He has dreams that may be prophetic, but that may be a side effect of his birth. His mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is a Bene Gesserit, and Paul’s father Duke Leto (Oscar Issac) is a man from a long line of great nobles. Paul gets psychic powers from his mother and political powers from his father, so he may be a young man with a great destiny. Too bad he isn’t sure what he wants for himself, especially as others may have somehow paved the way for, if not him, then someone like him who may have a similar set of abilities.
Too bad the Atreides were never meant to succeed, and the whole thing was a trap set up by the Emperor to let the Harkonnens destroy their longtime foes. Led by Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard, channeling Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now) and his nephew the Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista), they are everything the Atreides are not. And with a traitor in the Atredies’s midst, it may be up to Paul to find that destiny sooner rather than later.
For starters, Villeneuve only told about half of the first novel’s story, even subtitling this movie as Chapter One, and he does it in ways that suit his style and are every bit as different from Lynch’s style as it can get. Lynch’s movie features a lot of overacting, to a point that has a lot of camp value, while Villeneuve’s characters, for the most part, are so deadly serious and quiet, act in the most subdued manner possible. Heck, Javier Bardem as a Fremen leader seems so world-weary in his delivery, he might come across as phenomenally bored. It’s not a bad performance, and it fits the movie very well, but that is what I thought when I saw it.
Indeed, much of what makes the movie what it is is Villeneuve’s attention to detail and characters that, while not the most emotional of people, are distinctive in their own way. Leto is a caring father who mostly wants a better universe for everyone, especially his son. His weapons master Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) is gruff, no nonsense, and will absolutely do everything he must to keep his Duke safe. Jessica, never Leto’s wife, is torn between protecting her son and protecting the sisterhood’s plans. The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) is imperious and expects people to do what she wants because the sisterhood has longstanding plans to fulfill. Even Bardem’s Stilgar may seem bored, but it’s more like he’s a man who doesn’t want to deal with outsiders because, really, they have nothing to offer him that he wants or even needs. These may not be the most emotional human characters I’ve ever seen–even the villains are very restrained–so much so that it makes the movie’s one true exception to that style of performance, namely Jason Mamoa’s Duncan Idaho, a real scene stealer. I like Mamoa, so I am fine with that, but it does make him stand out even more.
Ultimately, while Villeneuve is still telling us the basic story of Dune, or at least the first half, he is telling it in a very cinematic way, one that gives perspectives neither Lynch nor Frank Herbert thought to give, such as opening the movie with narration from Zendaya’s Chani, explaining how the spice has a significance to the Fremen in a manner that reminded me how certain Native American tribes use peyote but outsiders just use it to get high. That gives the whole story a different angle than letting some princess we barely see afterwards set up the story. However, this is still Dune, a story more about plots and ideas than action. To be sure, Villeneuve gives many of the characters who do not make it to the closing credits heroic deaths, often way over the top in a manner that the movie doesn’t really do all that often. But those moments were more the exceptions than the rule. I liked this movie, I will gladly go see the next one should it be made, and I even hope it does. But it’s still a bit of a slow movie that won’t be for everyone, so bear that in mind should you opt to go.
Grade: B+
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