Dune (2021)

Rating: 6.3/10

The son of a noble family is entrusted with the protection of the most valuable asset and most vital element in the galaxy.

Dune was a letdown. With one of the greatest directors of our time at the helm of this classic adaptation, I expected big things. Not only this, but I have seen rave reviews from cine-files and the average movie-goer alike. I'm giving this a lowish score because this isn't the Dune I wanted; that doesn't necessarily mean it's not good. It left me with a lingering feeling of confusion and frustration. How could this be considered a "masterpiece" by so many? What am I missing? If this is a masterpiece, what is the state of the future of the film industry? It saddens me so profoundly that the sort of films I want to see on the silver screen are getting more and more scarce as the years go on. Anyway, enough of my existential dread! Let's get into Dune.

We open with an epic Hans Zimmer score, and at this point, I was really pumped and excited for what was to come. I even got a little goosebumpy. However, that soon made way for boredom with mild flickers of genuine excitement. I have seen all of Denis Villeneuve's films, and nearly all of them have blown me away. This director has come such a long way, and I'm so happy to have seen him gain more and more critical success over the past 10 years. Prisoners is one of the best films ever, and Villeneuve deserves all the success in the world based on what I've seen from him. When the opening credits rolled, and it read "DUNE: Part I" and I felt a little like I had been hoodwinked. I'm really not the sort of person looking to invest in 3-8 films to get a complete story (unless it's exceptional), and keeping this quiet during the promotion of Dune just came across as a cheap trick to lure people like me to the cinema who are really looking for a one and done film rather than a Saga.

My main issue with this movie is that it has no soul. Ultimately it comes down to a script issue and the story being adapted without an immersive quality. Dune is about Spice, a commodity native to Arrakis. It's incredibly difficult to source, highly addictive, and the most valued commodity in the entire galaxy. Addiction, political treachery, and capitalistic oppression are the core themes, but these haven't been translated effectively. With this at the very heart of the story, why is this film made to be family-friendly? I know why, but it's a shame that the studios would instead strip away some of the story's conflict to have more mass appeal. It's no longer the LSD trip that Jodorowsky envisioned in the early 70's. Yeah, of course, it would always remain Villeneuve's own creation, but I can't help feeling cheated. Without these dark themes, we are left with just another action-adventure blockbuster about "the chosen one" that offers very little to make it unique or stand out against the pack.

I simply couldn't immerse myself into Dune. There wasn't enough setup for the different planets and noble houses for me to feel a part of a new world. The film starts in Caladan, Paul's home planet, and quite frankly, there was nothing there, nothing to show us any type of character or culture about their civilisation. All I could think while watching it was, I bet they filmed this in Ireland. Arrakis was quite clearly just a middle eastern desert and didn't seem like a planet in its own right. Felt more like Pitch Black meets Tremors. The sandstorm sequences were really cool, but after the third or fourth one, it became monotonous. With each of these scenes, it simply took away from the spectacle of the last. It's as if the writers were trying to fill the pages and get to the end of Part I with enough action to satisfy people's thirst for the visual aspects of the film, which is without a doubt the most impressive element of Dune.

Paul is an uninteresting protagonist. He is the son of a noble house and is portrayed as dark and brooding, yet he has no major flaw or trauma that defines his character making him so forgettable. Secondly, in all the major plot developments, I genuinely did not care what happened to any of the characters. Quite simply, the writing is bad. It's a complex story with many moving parts, I get it, but surely if you are only telling half the story, that would give you enough time to develop characters effectively? And surely they could have shaved a little bit off the 2hr 30min runtime without all of the scenes of Paul looking longingly into the distance. We get the point, he's a troubled noble prince with the weight of the world on his shoulders. There are better, more exciting ways to show us this without these many, many, many pointless scenes of him doing nothing. The story has a major plot development halfway through and from there; honestly, nothing really happens. If you are making a two-part film, both films need to have a fully fleshed-out story that feeds into the larger picture, but this film just finished very abruptly with no natural feeling of catharsis or completion of a narrative.

If you've made it this far, it may sound like I hated the film, I really didn't. In fact, I enjoyed it, so here are some things that I loved. Stellan Skarsgård was immense as Vladimir Harkonnen, genuinely incredible. The character design is so beautifully grotesque in a way that makes him truly terrifying. I appreciate the thought that went into every aspect of the design here. How he moves, how he eats, how he talks. Utterly genius. 

While we are on the topic of Vladimir Harkonnen, I loved all the scenes on Giedi Prime (Harkonnen's home planet). This was, unquestionably, my favorite part of the film. Beautifully gothic and bleak, desolate and depraved. Villeneuve references H.R. Giger's original concept art. I couldn't be happier with the direction they went, using his work as a reference but creating their own design to seamlessly blend with the film's aesthetic. For anyone unaware, Giger is responsible for designing the Xenomorph (the alien from Alien), so if there are any Alien fanatics out there (like me), you will definitely want to check out Dune for this aspect alone.

Rebecca Ferguson never fails to blow me away. Even in films I don't enjoy that much, like Doctor Sleep, she always offers a glimmer of hope. Actually, I might have to start bingeing through more of her filmography! Having said that, I'm a little confused with the direction for Lady Jessica (Paul's mum). She is a powerful Bene Gesserit. But for some reason, she is portrayed as this weeping, unstable mother. The night before I watched Dune, I saw an interview with Sigourney Weaver about women's role in film pre Alien. She stated, "Hollywood were obsessed with having women be sympathetic. Yeah, women could do a few brave things, but then she would have to have a little bit of a cry." I couldn't stop thinking about this while watching Lady Jessica on screen. There is absolutely no reason to portray her like this. The Bene Gesserit sisterhood endures mental and physical conditioning to obtain their abilities of higher power. These are not women that I see breaking down crying scene after scene, and it's such a shame that in 2021 Hollywood is still on that stereotypical bullshit. I wish they would have gone in more of a Catelyn Stark direction for Lady Jessica, a strong woman who is stern and unyielding for the good of her noble house. However, I still think Rebecca Ferguson did a fantastic job with what she was given.

This brings me to my last point. The greatest movie never made, remains unmade. In the early 70's Alejandro Jodorowsky, an art-house director who had critical and commercial success with A Holy Mountain, discovered Dune. He became obsessed. An eccentric filmmaker and a true artist, he began to assemble a dream team of disruptors for his vision of Dune. This would be a Dune adaptation that would span 12 hours, take elements of his surrealism and mix them with Sc-Fi to create a twisted LSD trip.

Jodorowsky sourced some of the greatest artists worldwide to fulfill this vision; this included: Moebius (Jean Giraud) for storyboarding, Chris Foss for Concept Art, Salvador Dalí as The Emperor, Orson Wells as Vladimir Harkonnen, Pink Floyd for the soundtrack, and H.R. Giger for Harkonnen concept art. Jodorowsky pitched to Hollywood, ensuring them this would be like nothing the world had ever seen. Unfortunately, the film could not get financed, but his magnificent storyboard would continue to make the rounds throughout Hollywood for years to come. Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune was sadly never made, but we did get Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Alien (1979), and many other cinema-defining films, thanks to the steps he took with his ambitious vision to change film. What would the state of film look like without this man? We'll never know.

I desperately hoped Dune (2021) would've allowed some key elements of Jodorowsky's vision to finally meet the silver screen, but no, we got a family-friendly blockbuster with no real characters yet transcendent visuals. And hence the greatest movie never-made will remain unmade, probably forever. Villeneuve didn't make a bad film, he made a good film, but It could have been exceptional and maybe even pushed the future of blockbusters in a slightly more interesting direction.

Conclusion

The story is non-existent, and nothing really happens for most of the film. Characters are two dimensional and lack any kind of nuance. Stellan Skarsgård is amazing as the terrifying Vladamir Harkonnen and the H.R. Gigar influenced production design makes Dune worth watching for me.