Dune — A Masterclass in World Building and Visual Effects.
It’s been a busy month for me so far, catching up on a few new releases and this weekend I made it a point to see a highly anticipated film in the form of Denis Villeneuve’s feature adaptation of sci-fi novel, “Dune”.
The story surrounds the political tug of war for the most valuable resource in the galaxy, spice — originating on the planet Arrakis. This tug of war takes place between the two houses, Atreidis and Harkonnen, the Empire, and also affecting the natives of Arrakis, the Fremen. The plot follows Paul Atreidis, destined for greatness and his journey towards protecting and prolonging his family and newfound home.
Now, take one look at the cast and you’ll see that this one is stacked — but the clear star of the show is Timothee Chalamet. His journey throughout the film and his development as the events shape him is one of the positives, and while his story is far from complete by the end of this film, you can see a clear arc as he comes to terms with who he is and what he is destined to achieve.
The rest of the cast don’t carry the film on their shoulders in this way, but they end up being my faourite elements of the film. Oscar Isaac is a standout as the Duke of Atreidis, while Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa are also superb throughout the film.
We can’t discuss performances without mentioning Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica who has an extremely important role that carries through the entire film and does a splendid job.
A huge plus for the film, and the element that I enjoyed the most is how it goes about introducing you to it’s lore and world building elements. As someone who had no idea about the book or previous film, I enjoyed the new experiencing of learning about these characters and the world they’re in — it was done in an engaging manner even though there’s a lot of information to be absorbed in the first hour or so of the film.
Another massive praise from me is the visual effects. I didn’t watch this in IMAX, but I can imagine that seeing it that way would be the best way to fully appreciate the grandeur of this film. It’s a masterpiece, and visual effects aren’t used for the sake of using them either — they’re used to actually aid what you’re seeing on screen, it doesn’t do the cinematographer’s job, it’s a tool for them to enhance their work. Sounds obvious, but it’s a rarity these days.
Now I must be slightly cautious here as this may be due to the fact that I had no previous experience with this story or it’s characters, but it did drag a lot in several moments. I can understand why though, because there’s just so much to get through before it can dive into the plot.
But that’s the issue — it spends a good amount of time world building and setting up the premise that by the time it properly dives into the plot, it’s been too long and the drag starts. The second act feels this way before the action kicks in to save it.
Whether this is due to my lack of experience with the franchise or not, I did find myself lagging behind a lot. A scene would end and I’d still be thinking about it, processing the information and linking it to things I’ve learned so far and the next scene will have gone by so I always felt like I was playing catch up, I’d be interested to see if anyone else felt this way. In short — the screenplay transitioning between the first and second act felt a little low on tempo and that affected my engagement.
However — the film IS enjoyable. I love learning about new lore and characters in the way this film provides us with that information, that’s an experience in itself before we even get into the political drama and then the major action set pieces such as the first encounter with a sandworm and the hand to hand combat throughout with the clever use of the force shields.
I was told about this, but it’s very clear how this world and story influenced all the sci-fi content that came after it — strong parallels to “Star Wars” in particular are throughout the film and it’s quite interesting to see, as I actually felt this film portrays some of those concepts in a better way.
In summary, this film does a very good job of portraying a world full of deeply rooted mythology in an engaging manner. While in my own opinion it drags in places (perhaps due to personal taste) its’ strong story and visual masterpiece carry it through to provide a masterclass in world building and visual effects while also completing a setup to a sequel where it can now get a bit braver and up the tempo now that the world has been set up.
Provided the film does well enough to finance the second part of course…
“Dune” is out now in cinemas only.
Rating: 5/10
