by Ryan Potts
Last month, the world-renowned visionary director, Denis Villenueve — known for his visually striking, character-focused action pictures such as “Prisoners” (2013), “Sicario” (2015), “Arrival” (2016) and “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) — released his long awaited masterpiece, and the first installment in a two-part epic series, “Dune.” The slow-burn science fiction piece is an adaptation of the classic 1965 novel of the same title by Frank Herbert. The story centers on Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, as he must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.
This wouldn’t be the first time Herbert’s iconic piece would be adapted. In 1984, veteran director David Lynch (“Eraserhead,” “Elephant Man,” “Mulholland Drive”) took a stab at the over 400-page opus. But, it was met with shabby reviews and has since gone down in history as a cult classic that should be left only in our memories. Now, over three decades since the world realized we didn’t need a “Dune” film adaptation, Villenueve has taken it into his own hands to challenge that ideology.
With a star-studded cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Jason Mamoa, Rebecca Ferguson, and Josh Brolin, and a whopping $165 million budget to match, Villenueve’s “Dune” packs everything you could expect from a picture with that kind of price tag. From the exhilarating, breathtaking cinematography helmed by none other than Greg Frasier (“Rogue One,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Mandalorian”), gorgeous visual effects (that will most definitely be sweeping the Academy Awards in a few months), and action-packed scenes, “Dune” still somehow found a way to absolutely bore me during its 2-hour and 35-minute runtime. After driving half an hour and spending over $50 to catch it in true IMAX as Villenueve intended, I walked out of the theater wishing I had just watched it on HBO Max instead— which is disappointing to say because Villenueve is one of my favorite filmmakers working today.
However, my criticism of this film doesn’t come from a technical or directorial standpoint, but instead a writing one. My entire issue is that it does not do a good job with building the right amount of empathy for the characters to stick with it for almost three hours. I realized about half an hour in that I didn’t care for anything happening on the 100-foot screen in front of me. Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem and Rebecca Ferguson had my favorite performances in the entire film. I was glued to the screen whenever they were on. The visuals and effects were also captivating— but that only went so far for me.
Overall, “Dune” was quite a spectacle. I want to give it another chance and let it simmer because I do appreciate the effort and the craft. There was a review from Letterboxd reviewer Henry B. that I read earlier this year after “Dune” premiered at the New York Film Festival that said: “Dune is undeniably a film. Brimming with a score, cinematography, and performances, it’s a motion picture made by a team of filmmakers that can irrefutably be described as existent. Truly one of the films 2021 has to offer,” and I share these sentiments wholeheartedly.