Dune (2021) Review

Fear is the Mind Killer

If I only had one word to describe Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s landmark science fiction novel, Dune, it would have to be ‘menacing’. From the first few minutes, especially when viewing on a massive IMAX screen, the scale and brutalist style had me hooked into this futuristic vision of the future. Dune has been infamous for being difficult to adapt to the screen, but this first part is a resounding success and even though it is only the first part, I am confident that once part two is here, we will have the best Dune adaptation to date and thus one of the best science fiction films.

The generally brutalist aesthetic of the film’s architecture is an intimidating momunent and a perfect fit for this medieval future. So too is the dark, disgusting look of Giedi Prime, the main Harkonnen planet, which looks like if H.R Giger were invited to design Mordor or Midgar. The major city of Arakkeen on Arakkis is an awe inspiring brutalist rendition of an ancient Mesopotamian city. The sheer intimidation of this aesthetic, coupled with the big Hans Zimmer score makes this film into a monument. Other aspects, like the banshee,slightly surreal almost black metal vocal tone of the Voice was also quite startling and is the total opposite of the calm suggestion of a Jedi mind trick.

And despite not being a horror film, this aesthetic makes it one of the most terrifying films I have seen in a long time. The camera work is also confident and restrained, making the film feel more grounded, and while everything is impressive, it never feels showy or like it is insisting upon itself. Shot composition is also perfect and there are some moments composed almost like Rennaisance or Romantic paintings.

The costumes, props, visual effects and production design as a whole is incredible. While CGI is hardly impressive these days owing to its ubiquity, this is one of the best uses of it I have ever seen because of the details, like the way sand moves when a shai hulud approaches, or the lighting on an ornithopter or whatever the hell that black almost ant like creature was in the Harkonnen palace. It is a radically different look than that of Lynch’s Dune, which is more colourful and almost psychedelic looking, and brilliant in its own right. As Lynch’s Dune has garnered something of a cult following and greater appreciation over the years, and comparisons to it are unavoidable. While people with have their preference one way or another, I find myself appreciating both visual interpretations.

Dune has as reputation of being extremely difficult to adapt, with projects like Jorodowsky’s version never getting past pre production, but that version would not have been a faithful adaptation and probably would have turned out an interesting, overambitious disaster and Lynch’s being a commercial flop and critically lukewarm upon release. I have seen some criticism towards this new adaptation that it doesn’t feel like a standalone film, in the way that Fellowship of the Ring is, even with the knowledge that its a two-parter. This is why Dune is so difficult to adapt. Not because its some super intellectual galaxy brained modernist work, since at its most basic level its a hero’s journey structure and its core themes are not difficult to grasp, but because there is a lot that happens, its weird and it has dense world building. Its basically impossible to do justice in a single standard length film for theatrical releases, so splitting it was a good choice.

Villeneuve’s first part ends essentially right in the middle of Part 2: Muad’dib from the novel, which gives the structure of the film an odd feel, which is a fair critique. It was worse in Lynch’s Dune due to Lynch not having final cut and the studio demanding a truncated length, which is responsible for that version’s major problems, that being the way exposition is handled, the rushed pacing in the second half and structural implosion. The only way to make split part Dune to each feel standalone, and incorporate everything from the book, is to structure it basically the same way, but that would make one 500 page novel turn into three films.

When one starts reading the original novel, lots of terms like Kwisatz Haderach or gom jabbar or Bene Gesserit are thrown around and it is overwhelming at first, but this all becomes second nature and easily understood as the novel goes on. What this new film does really well, and without having to do interior monologue narration, is make all the concepts and core narrative easily comprehensible and not overwhelming for current general audiences that are unfamiliar with the source material. It balances all this while still being an exciting, operatic action film and its own additions, like the Sardaukar rally with the throat singing, and their gutteral ceremony is a highlight. There is also much of this that is done audiovisually as well, or in a coded manner like the fascist looking ceremonial Atreides attire and event that makes up for some lines I like from the novel being missing, such as those relating to propaganda. While I would have appreciated more of the novel’s early worldbuilding and subplots to be present in this first part, it is already a two hour long film, and the filmmakers smartly avoided overloading a general audience or frontloading so that part two has nothing left to do. But this is also the nature of adaptations.

I have seen some complaints about the casting of the film. However, the casting is quite good, with Timothy Chalemet being a good fit for the role of Paul Atreides, Stellan Skarsgard is perfect as the gluttonous, evil and intimidating Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The film did however, omit the character of Feyd Rautha for now and the Baron being a creepy and cruel pedophile. Oscar Isaac, likewise is as good as ever as Duke Leto, and the cast of secondary characters fulfill their roles well. I found Rebecca Ferguson to be absolutely brilliant as the Lady Jessica, with her perfect recitations of the Bene Gesserit litany, to her concerned expressions relating to Paul going down the road of the ‘prophecy’ and of jihad. Her face says everything in these moments.

The diversity of the cast is also inoffensive, but hilariously, I was told when discussing the film with friends that one critic found that the Fremen casting to be not correct because they weren’t all Middle Eastern looking. While certainly the Fremen and a decent part of the worldbuilding are inspired by Middle Eastern cultures, they are not literally Middle Eastern people by necessity. They’re not literal space muslims. Such opinions are stupid, far more racist than intended and show a disturbing lack of elementary understanding of the film or its source material. I know these people have deadlines, but they could do the minimum due diligence of reading a fan wiki.

With this new version of Dune, Villeneuve achieves the impossible yet again like he did in 2017 with Blade Runner 2049 being not only being a brilliant sequel to a beloved classic, but also an incredible film in its own right. He has made a film that is staggeringly successful as an adaptation (or at least, the first part of one), an amazing film in its own right and as far as I know, one that is proving to be a well deserved commercial success. The late IMAX showing I saw it in on the weekend was packed and I think fans of the novel, as well as total newcomers, will be pleased with this. Villeneuve continues to prove himself as one of the best filmmakers of our day, especially in the science fiction genre, who perfectly balances depth, strangeness, and spectacle, which is refreshing in today’s mainstream film landscape. I eagerly await more Dune from Villeneuve.