Review: Dune

 

Hello, Everybody. Today, I will be talking about the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert's legendary novel, Dune. After soo much anticipation and release date changes, Dune(2021) has finally hit theaters and on HBO Max. I just saw it in IMAX and I was soo incredibly impressed by the film itself. 

Dune is about the story of Paul Atreidis, a young man born with a great destiny that is beyond his understanding, must travel to Arrakis, the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious supply in existence, the spice. Only those who can conquer fear will survive.

Dune stars Timothy Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Babs Olusanmokun, and Javier Bardem, and directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. 

For starters, the Dune book was considered unfilmable due to its complex world building and convoluted plot, and I guess that's what they all said about Lord of the Rings and look where that got it, right? David Lynch's interpretation is drastically different because all of the plot details were condensed into one movie. Whereas Lynch wanted to drastically change the movie all because he didn't understand the book, Denis Villeneuve understood the source material and knew that this adaptation isn't meant to be told in a 2 and a hour movie. You'd have to make a really epic movie or make a trilogy out of it and that's what he intends to do here.

While I don't really wanna talk about the world of Dune just yet, what I can talk about are the visual effects, sound design, score and performances. 

The score done by Hans Zimmer is described as retro-desert music, the man has scored The Lion King, The Dark Knight, No Time to Die, The Prince of Egypt, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kung Fu Panda, Inception, Dunkirk, and Blade Runner 2049. Zimmer did a great job of matching the tonal music of the big sand worm, because that's what Dune is mainly known for, the sand worm. The score matched the entire tone of Dune and by showing how menacing House Harkonnen can be, especially with Baron Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgård, who is mix between Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now and maskless Darth Vader. 

I really loved the visual effects, I just love how every detail of the clothes, the architecture, the sand, and shields pop off. Well, I'm not really a big fan of the shields, they honestly feel useless. They don't block attacks, they just slow it down. They don't do anything it's like paper. At least it's not like those sonic weapon thingamajigs from David Lynch's movie. What I also like is the close combat, which wasn't in the other movie before, and I kid you not, Lynch said that he didn't want "kung fu in sand" in the movie. 

If I had to pick a stand-out character, I would pick either Paul or his mother, Lady Jessica. Rebecca Ferguson gave a very layered performance as Jessica, who is willing to do anything to protect her son. She's also a part of the Bene Gesserit, which is an exclusive sisterhood who are a religious, social and political force, which we will see more of in the spin-off show on HBO Max and the sequel. Let me also say that Timothee Chalamet IS Paul Atreidis! I can't even pick a better casting than that, and he truly embodies that role. Although Zendaya only appears in Paul's visions and its climax, she'll have a bigger role when Part 2 comes out, and is definitely going to shake up this world!

As always, Jason Momoa was awesome, I mean he's bad-ass in everything really, Oscar Isaac, although his screen time limited, was definitely the right to play the Duke, because of his duty to the universe, Javier Barde's role as the leader of the Fremen tribe, Stilgar will also have a bigger role pretty soon, Josh Brolin's Halleck wasn't given much to do unfortunately, but I think we can see more of him in Part 2, and same with Dave Bautista as the Baron's nephew, Glossu Rabban.

Every shot by Greig Fraser, is amazing! He has done cinematography for Rogue One, and did the upcoming Batman movie! Each shot shows off the scale and scope of the world of Dune, and feels like that you're looking at another world that's entirely not like our own. 

While the film is incomplete and leaves us on a hopeful note, Dune is a sci-fi adaptation done right and one that follows the source material to a T. What really drives the movie forward are the visuals, score and incredible shots that's accompanied with its convoluted plot.

I'll give it a 8.7/10

As Chani said at the ending, "This is only the beginning".

Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment below your thoughts.😉