When David Lynch released his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in 1984, reviewers believed it was almost impossible to follow, leading to a theory of Herbert’s iconic 1965 sci-fi novel being “unadaptable.” 40 years later, Denis Villeneuve’s attempt at “recreating” Dune is earning the exact same reactions.
What makes this Dune very different, however, is how beautiful it is to look at in an un-campy way, making the visuals the opposite of Lynch’s film. The sand is still everywhere, but the beautiful special effects, fit for a contemporary science fantasy, coupled with cinematographer Greig Fraser’s wide-angle shots make it somewhat mystifying, to the film’s absolute advantage. It feels like a modern Star Wars movie with this cinematography and set design, but looks…somewhat like Dune. While the sound design makes some dialogue rather un-hearable (but not Tenet-level un-hearable), and the neo-Orientalist vibes of Herbert’s text are amped all the way up, this new Dune has one thing really going for it: and that’s the fact that it’s wonderful visually.
While it is one of the most recognizable mid-20th century sci-fi IPs, with a large fanbase, it might be easy to ask “who is this new Dune even for, anyway?,” as it does not feel like something for Dune fans. Rather evocative, the film skips over almost all of the prehistory and mythology of Herbert’s world, leading viewers unfamiliar with it confused and various characters to be collapsed into thinly-rendered archetypes. The Fremen become ripoffs of the Tusken Raiders, the Harkonnen look like creepier versions of battle-damaged Darth Vader, and the Bene-Gesserit are just Good Omens extras. And the result of all this streamlining, the original’s complex explorations of MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) culture is all but forgotten. These disparate elements are never linked into a whole – the film looks beautiful, but this beauty is really only skin-deep.
Like Lynch’s adaptation, Dune unfolds in the year 10191, when the galaxy is under imperial rule. A number of ancient, established families rule over planets as fiefdoms, and fight among themselves. The heir of House Atreides is Paul Leto (Timothée Chalamet), a young man whose father is Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and mother is Bene Gesserit prostitute Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). Leto is training Paul to be a strong leader and military strategist, while Jessica is training Paul in the secret Bene Gesserit ways of mind control and persuasion – which is just commanding people to do things with a silly voice filter in this film. Paul, meanwhile, dreams about a young woman with blue eyes (Zendaya), guiding him forward on a desert planet.
Could Paul be seeing the future? Maybe, because House Atreides learns that at the emperor’s behest, they’ve been assigned to take over the planet Arrakis. For decades, House Atreides’s enemies, House Harkonnen, have been in charge of Arrakis, and mined the planet for “Spice,” a natural resource that powers space travel. By assigning Arrakis to House Atreides, the emperor is knowingly increasing tensions – and maybe even trying to start a war. So House Atreides travels to Arrakis: Leto, Paul, Jessica, weapons master Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), swordmaster Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), and the computer-like Mentat Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson). Can they befriend the Fremen, the planet’s original inhabitants, who are led by proud, principled men like Stilgar (Javier Bardem)? Or will House Harkonnen, led by the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård) and his bloodthirsty nephew Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), not let their loss of Arrakis slide? And what role does the young woman from Paul’s dreams have to play?
This is a lot to take in, and because the film frontloads on exposition and over-narration, its first hour drags. The script offers up broad story beats (House Atreides, good; House Harkonnen, bad) that the ensemble then tries to make real through their performances. And like in all adaptations, some actors are much better at it than others. Oscar Isaac is great as a principled and honorable Leto. I saw Jason Momoa as the standout performer, bringing a deserved comic relief and loyalty to House Atreides, but his campy and lighthearted performance feels like a character from a Marvel movie or from Lynch’s Dune, and feels rather out of place. Rebecca Ferguson’s Jessica is incredibly inconsistent – while the script tries to make her feel sympathetic, which is somewhat achieved, Ferguson’s lack of emotional range and flat delivery make her character borderline unwatchable. But the most inconsistency is found with Timothee Chalamet, which is particularly distracting given Paul’s centrality to the Dune franchise.
Remember a paragraph ago, when I said that this take on Dune feels like a Marvel movie? Well, Chalamet’s performance as Paul is just “Depressed Marvel Protagonist #127,” particularly because of the actor’s signature “whisper-acting” stye being almost overused by Villeneuve. While it’s good in small quantities, it doesn’t feel right to watch him do it as Paul, particularly because of how different he feels compared to both source materials. While I appreciate a new take on the character, what made Kyle MacLachlan stand out in Lynch’s Dune (aside from those amazing blue contacts and space-goth outfits) was his balance of strength and fragility, something that Chalamet tries very hard to do similarly, but ultimately fails at. The larger issue is that Paul is theoretically on an inward-looking journey that the film does not fully explain, and his frantic concern about what his fate on Arrakis might be is condensed into one in-tent freakout. Between the muffled line deliveries and the script’s dampening of the religious elements that made this moment so important in the book, this turning point isn’t nearly as defining as it should be.
Villeneuve has spent his career merging philosophical ideas with striking otherworldly images, but that duality is frustratingly imbalanced in his vision for Dune. The film is beautiful, but the world-building and script fall flat. The ensemble is committed, but the storytelling is liminal. Standing on its own, Dune: Part One is just setup with very little payoff.
3.5/5 STARS