Dune
review by Bobby Blakey
In 1984 David Lynch brought Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel to life with Dune. The film failed to succeed at the box office, but over time has found its fans. There have been talks of a new film outside of the 2000 SyFy Channel mini-series made for years, but looked like it might never happen. That is until visionary director of Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival Dennis Villeneuve stepped in and it’s finally here featuring an all-star cast including Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Zendaya and David Dastmalchian.
Dune follows Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to 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 resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
Before talking about this film I must be honest. I have never read the books or been able to get all the way through the Lynch film. That being said, I was pretty excited from the trailer to give this world a new chance thanks to the excellent cast and Villeneuve at the helm. If you don’t already know this is part one of a purposed two part film which is further cemented with it actually saying “Part One” in the title card of the film. After sitting through what some will no doubt find to be an epic sci-fi feature I walked away with mixed feeling and most of them being kind of bored.
Visually the film looks amazing despite it sticking to mostly grey or brown tones. I have heard that this supposedly sticks closer to the source material,
but obviously I don’t have any idea. I can say I was impressed by the world created and overall look and vibe of it all. The cast were great for what they had to work with but between some being underused I assume with more to do in the next film, lots of mumbling and bland development they just failed to do much morethan offer up an average set up and not much else.
Every time something seemed to start happening it never really went anywhere. I know this is because the entire thing is setting up what’s to come, but it never engaged me enough to really care where it’s going. The pacing is just really slow and drags on more than it probably needed to in hopes to get the viewer invested in this universe, but I sadly found myself not caring all that much.
On the plus side there are some good action pieces and excitement to be had. While not enough the fighting and of course the iconic sand worms are cool to watch and leaves you wanting more. Had there been more adrenaline pumped in it might have moved the story along a bit better because those visuals and action pieces give you a glimpse to what could have been and makes you want more, but instead are left waiting for something that just doesn’t happen. At least not yet.
I am not invested into the source material, but hoped my love of sci-fi, the cast and Villeneuve would be enough to make me rethink my stance on it all. I will no doubt see the next chapter in hopes that it becomes one of those things that is better as a whole than as an individual film because the way it stands it just left me feeling “Meh”. I am looking forward to hear what the hardcore fans think and how it lives up to the source material and I hope it delivers for them because that is clearly who this is for.
In addition to the film this release offers up bonus content including numerous featurettes taking you behind bringing this epic flick to life. Grab your copy of Dune available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on January 11th from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.