Posted on 10/25/2021 10:32:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
In US theaters and streaming on HBO Max Thursday, Denis Villeneuve's epic star-studded adaptation is a sumptuous sci-fi experience.
Timothee Chalamet cuts up in Dune.
Warner Bros
The best-selling books in the Dune series are as intriguing and ambiguous as a desert's shifting sands. So it makes sense a star-studded new movie adaptation from director Denis Villeneuve manages to be both hugely satisfying and incredibly frustrating. The 2021 Dune film is a tour de force of cinematic sci-fi, a star-studded yet deeply weird fantasy epic, and a thoughtful and thrilling movie experience.
Then it stops right in the middle.
Villeneuve's version of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel opens with a title reading "Dune: Part One." That's your first warning that the film isn't going to give you a lot of closure. It's certainly packed with ideas and stunning visuals and information by the spaceship-load, but it's also the setup for a story that's just getting going when out of nowhere the credits roll.
Having premiered to (mostly) critical acclaim at the Venice and New York Film Festivals and made over $100 million in box offices across Europe and Asia this weekend, Dune hits theaters in the US on Thursday, Oct. 21. It's also debuting the same day on US streaming service HBO Max (a last-minute change of plan as Warner Bros. and HBO bring it forward a day from the planned release date of Oct. 22). Dune also opens in UK cinemas this weekend and in Australia on Dec. 2.
Josh Brolin and Oscar Isaac eye up a sequel as the new Dune movie arrives.
Warner Bros.
The powerful Atreides and Harkonnen families are space aristos squabbling over the planet Arrakis, a desert world where the only thing more treacherous than the shifting sands is the backstabbing politics. Arrakis is the only source of spice, a substance that acts as the fuel for space travel in the Dune universe. On Arrakis, spice glitters in the very air, riches so intoxicating you can taste them.
Spice has a mysterious allure for Timothée Chalamet's young princeling Paul Atreides. He's got a lot going on: His dad (Oscar Isaac) is an upright duke teaching him to play the game of cosmic realpolitik; his mom (Rebecca Ferguson) is a superpowered space witch; he's plagued by horny teen dreams of a blue-eyed desert warrior (Zendaya); and he just might be an intergalactic messiah.
Paul is at the heart of this thumping space epic, which combines Shakespearian castle intrigue with wide-screen desert vistas, incendiary battle scenes and a cast of billions. In Villeneuve's hands, this version of Dune is a richly detailed and hugely evocative imagining filled with striking imagery. It's supremely and winningly odd.
The film juxtaposes fever-dream science-fantasy with medieval imagery: Sinister space nuns in billowing robes descend from looming spaceships; Interplanetary treaties are endorsed with wax seals beneath fluttering banners; Berserker armies make blood sacrifices before donning silent jetpacks. It's all faceless helmets and deep shadows as the action moves from rain-slicked granite to iridescent sand, set to a hypnotic and throbbing Hans Zimmer score of wailing choirs, electric drones, nerve-jangling percussion and great honking bwaarrrrps. And bagpipes.
Dune
Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac are concerned parents in Dune.
Warner Bros. The rain-lashed home world of the upright House Atreides is perfect for moody pacing on wave-battered cliffs. The vaguely Catholic decor of that world includes a bullfighting motif, which suggests two separate but intertwined themes: a foolhardy fight against an unpredictable opponent, and a link to Spain that recalls Spanish conquistadors of old.
That link to ancient invaders highlights the timelessness of the urge to conquer and enslave, drawing a line from the past to the present. Dune's theme of ransacking desert resources has always resonated with western manipulation and exploitation of the rest of the world, from bygone days of colonialism to the Gulf War and the War on Terror. The conflict is explicitly grounded by Villeneuve and cinematographer Greig Fraser in the visual style of a modern war movie. Dragonfly-like aircraft thrum past the camera like Vietnam-era helicopter gunships as the air fills with distinctly 20th century radio chatter. All that's missing is Ride of the Valkyries on the soundtrack as Dune channels combat flicks from Apocalypse Now to Lawrence of Arabia to Black Hawk Down.
The film opens with an army suddenly withdrawing from Arrakis, and it's a chilling image in light of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks.
"Arrakis has seen men like you come and go," says one indigenous character. "Who will our next oppressor be?" asks the world-weary narrator.
The conflict is explicitly driven by wealth, and it's fascinating to see a sci-fi movie grapple with the economic aspect of politics as well as the familiar interplanetary power struggles of Star Wars and Star Trek. House Atreides may be noble and the Harkonnens venal, but their nature is irrelevant in this galactic economy: No matter how they feel about it, they must fill their quotas. Space capitalism!
It's hardly a polemic, however. There are so many ideas flying about in this film that many are mentioned only once, and you're invited to develop your own thoughts on inequality, scarcity of resources, climate crisis, war, feudalism, space travel, dreams, parenthood, oneness with nature, and so much more. As if that wasn't enough to mull over, it's all wrapped up in a dense lore of multiple languages and strange terminology, which means multiple voice-overs explaining it all.
The weirdness of the sci-fi is also grounded by a limited range of color on screen. Beyond the blackness of space, the only colors in this universe are gray and beige. Don't get me wrong, Dune looks great, but outside of the fantastical design, the muted palette borders on drab.
Rebecca Ferguson gets weird in Dune.
Warner Bros.
The acting is also similarly muted: everybody is impassive and solemn and mutters the often incomprehensible dialogue in hushed tones. Like Villeneuve's previous films, it's dramatic and intense. But it's also rather one-note, allowing Jason Momoa to stand out, for example, just by showing that he's enjoying himself. The most dynamic range comes from Ferguson as the conflicted Atreides matriarch, embodying the emotional turmoil of a character who's both impassioned mother and scheming zealot.
As for the actor in the leading role, Chalamet's cheekbones and soulful eyes do most of the storytelling. Like Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049, he doesn't have a great deal to say, which makes his character either beguilingly ambiguous or vaguely defined. Is he dutiful or distracted? Is he a reluctant leader or ambitious plotter?
The young prince is troubled by visions of the future, and they're troubling for the viewer too. Some of those visions flash forward to a sequel, and frankly look more exciting than some of part one's drawn-out sequences. With such an abrupt ending begging for a sequel, you might wonder if they've shot the two films together. Nope: The sequel may go into production in late 2022 -- and only if this first film is a success, which is far from guaranteed in the face of a pandemic and a streaming release potentially cannibalizing its box office takings.
If you loved Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, then Dune is perhaps Denis Villeneuve at his Villeneuviest. If you love sweeping military sci-fi with a dash of weirdness thrown in, Dune will be your jam. The muted palette and performances won't be to everyone's taste, but I could spend a lot more time in this world -- when the sequel finally arrives, anyway. Even if it doesn't deliver much of an ending, this new Dune is a hell of a beginning.
First published on Sept. 3, 2021 at 9:45 a.m. PT.
You are correct. I meant Asimov when I referenced the Foundation trilogy. I wrote in haste and said Heinlein. It’s been a long time since I read all that stuff.
I saw it. Read and loved the original book. I also like the mostly panned 1980’s version. Not a huge fan of the Sci Fi channel’s miniseries. It was ok.
But this version - My likes were the overall cinematography and visuals. Stunning. The plot was pretty faithful to the book with some unnecessary “woke” changes like making Liet Kynes a black female. Duncan Idaho was good, but they made up some stuff.
They glossed over some key plot points like how the Harkonnen’s turned Dr Yueh. He has barely any screen time. The kid who plays Paul comes off as a skinny pussy, but this is sort of the point as he’ll grow into a leader in the 2nd movie.
The score was good but too loud. It causes you to miss some dialogue. The combat and action sequences were superb. People complain about the runtime of 2:35 but I wish it went longer. I’LL look forward to the inevitable 4-hour director’s cut.
Overall, B+. Worth seeing for sure if you’re a fan of the book. I hope it makes enough money for part 2 otherwise it was pretty pointless.
They (Warner) probably had the right to make the decision unilaterally by contract. The assumption being they would all benefit by maximizing theatrical release so they were all in the same boat on box office revenues; but ultimately it’s the distributor’s decision when to pull from theaters and when to release on Blue Ray and on streaming services and cable. Just a guess.
Yes covid was and is a wildcard. I know theaters are opening up but how are they doing? You’ve said something like this before - what they make for theatrical release is boring and repetitive, thematically. Action, superhero, zombies, sequels and reboots. Are you excited to see the new Ghostbusters version 5.0, now with kids!? Gimme a break already. Maybe covid changed moviegoer attitudes. We’ve seen it all on TV the last 2 years. What’s going to get people back into theaters? Or maybe I’m mistaken and they are doing relatively well.
I haven’t.....With that being said, I hate movies that require sequels and at my age, I might die before the next sequel or an ending arrives........
This annoys the heck out of me. I have no real idea why it became the norm to make the score and the sound effects 300% louder than the dialogue. OK sure, in real life gunshots are loud. Tires screeching are loud. Car crashes are loud. And maybe in ye olden thymes they had an orchestra that would play louder during the opening theme. But we're at home on the couch trying to watch a movie, I don't want to have to constantly fiddle with the remote control.
Ill watch it because Jason Mamoa is in it. 😉
The whole universe hooked on hallucinogenic worm dung...does anyone see the ultimate practical joke the author played on easily deluded hippies and sci fi nuts? Well Herbert made his big bucks laughing all the way to the bank.
I read of a restaurant conversation that Herbert supposedly had with L Ron Hubbard where supposedly, based on Humans’ ability to see the extraordinary in what is mostly BS, Hubbard spoke of conceiving a fake religion called Scientology and predicted he could induce many fools to follow it. He had cited Herbert’s Dune as one example of fools being bamboozled by BS and paying good money for it. In this case it would be “Worm...s—t”!
I imagine that Warner’s lawyers are confident that they’re on solid ground legally. As you note, the universal assumption was that the exclusive theatrical window prior to streaming was the way to maximize returns.
But I don’t think it’s primarily a legal question. Warner made a financially significant decision that took everyone by surprise. Villeneuve and the major stars woke up one morning, checked the trade press, and discovered that their backend deals had been gutted overnight. That’s not the kind of thing anyone should find out about in the newspapers.
It’s just stupid for Warner to treat its talent this way. You talk to people first. If you have to make a hard decision, fine, but as a matter of respect, you let people know ahead of time and at least try to make a deal that makes sense. These people have options. Villeneuve basically said that he’d never work with Warner again. I expect that several of the actors feel the same way, though they’ll probably keep their mouths shut in public. And contracts are going to look very different going forward.
WarnerMedia has been a walking disaster ever since AT&T took it over. The HBO Max rollout was a colossal fiasco; it’s too big to fail, but the rollout made WarnerMedia the laughingstock of the industry. AT&T is now trying to spin it all off. Clearly AT&T acquired a creative company that operated outside its areas of competence, and it made a whole series of bad personnel and strategic decisions.
Good systems and even streaming devices like Fire TV have dynamic range controls that can limit loudness extremes to a tolerable range level if activated. They can be good if one wants dialog clarified while still having some fun “whizz bangs” whirling thru the room without going deaf.
I saw Dune on my own system. Granted the Theater would give a better “screen view” experience but the theater couldn’t match the sound experience I get on my own dolby atmos system. I can tweak it the way I wish. It’s a lot of fun and cheaper in the long run compared with some forms of entertainment one keeps paying for.
Just to qualify my statement, when I saw Janet Jeppson's endorsement to give "I Robot" a try because it was worth watching even though it wasn't actually the original short stories, I watched it and she was right.
I agree about being forthright. They had to make a decision to recoup their investment and that of the financing companies/individuals. These days it seems everyone is chicken****; they don’t want confrontation or hard conversations. But there are only so many distributors who can open 2000 theaters or do a worldwide same-day launch. There are more production companies; but they all need distribution. Yes I’m sure contracts will be updated to reflect what has happened the last year or so.
FWIW, the HBOmax app on my TVs is by the far the worst streaming service I have used. It crashes constantly. I like a lot of their content but it’s impossible to get through anything half the time. It takes forever to load. It doesn’t always automatically go to the next episode. It stalls. It actually freezes my entire TV I have to reboot it - which is faster than loading the HBOmax app. They have $100 billion and couldn’t get competent coders. They should’ve just given it over to Amazon or something.
Yeah, my TVs are fairly new and supposedly have this feature but either I don’t use it correctly or it doesn’t work very well.
Reading a couple of reviews and watching a trailer or some clips is as scientific as I get. As I keep preaching, the problem we face today is finding the good stuff hidden amongst all the junk in the blizzard of generic content being pumped out by the streamers. My hope in establishing the ping list here is just to alert freepers to the movies other freepers are discovering and enjoying. It’s a lead generation service, nothing more.
I didn’t originate this thread — Red Badger did that, and thanks, and a word of congratulations is in order. It is now up to 90 replies ...
... and no one has yet said, &$#!@* Hollywood. That’s a record. So I’ll say it just to get it off everyone’s checklist: ^$)#^+! Hollywood.
But if you see something you like, PASS IT ON! Especially if it is a “conservative” film.
Some of them are a bit wonky. The surround bits can be confusing when one is trying to listen to dialog...but fortunately the side channels can be adjusted.
Yeah, I don’t know about Villeneuve. In my opinion he didn’t come through with Blade Runner 2 too. This like strike two for both Villeneuve and Dune, and maybe we will have to wait another 40 years to see another version — mind you, in 40 years if you turn on the TV you’ll probably be seeing Giant Worms attacking cities and Islamic headdress everywhere on the planet and then Dune would have lost its futuristic SCIFI appeal. There is something attractive and impossible about Dune. I think Dune should be made in black & white and told as a story while smoking in a hookah lounge with some Arab travelers. The fantasy should be out of the Arabian Nights, but the emphasis can’t be on special effects... it’s either a good story or it isn’t. Black & white is superior for mystery and intrigue, for shadows and what is supposed to be seen in them. It is a chance for the viewer to create what is there, if there is anything there at all. Things have to be suggested and implied and that takes great acting skill. Theater of the mind, for a drug induced fantasy adventure... says the caterpillar worm smoking a hookah on the mushroom. Dune should be done like film noir set to Arabian Nights. The minimal will produce the maximum and most memorable effect.
Just my opinion, but guessing it couldn't possibly be worse than the earlier version by Dino De Lamentus...
I have seen it. If you liked the book you’ll like the movie. Great cast and first class production values. But ... ponderous. I thought it could have used some lightness. And It concludes about halfway through the book. I thought Chalomet and Channi were a bit miscast. JMHO.... Saw it in 3D which made it even more impressive.
Asimov wrote the Foundation Trilogy, and he was an atheist.
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