Ryan Shoots First: Dune (2021)

Get out your notepad and your companion canon guide cause Dune has finally hit theatres and home streaming in the US and it’s time to share with the rest of the world in having no idea what the heck is going on! 

First I will admit as a science fiction fan I was always aware of Dune but I was also aware of the reputation it carried that it is such a heavy read you almost need a PhD to understand and follow what’s going on. I was also aware of the original David Lynch movie but it also seemed too dated to take in. Then the trailer for the new film came out and as a big fan of Denis Villeneuve I got excited and thought I wanted to try to understand what the heck was going on and at least who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. So I dove in and found the foremost lore master in the YouTube fandom community and started “doing my own research”. I also bucked down and watched the Lynch film to try to give me a base layer. So that gives you my base layer for going into the film not an expert but not completely naive. 

First I was very surprised how close to the Lynch movie Denis stuck. I thought this would be a new adaptation of the books, not a remake of the movie but it very much seemed to be the latter. To anyone that has watched the original you know it is HEAVY in exposition. The first 30 minutes of the film are one exposition dump after another at one time just literally putting a face in front of you to read off info. I was interested in seeing how the new film would tackle this as there is a significant amount of lore to establish but how can you do it creatively. This is one thing I think Denis nailed more than others. There is some narration at the beginning but it’s fairly basic and essentially is the opening crawl of Star Wars length just narrated. Nothing egregious, from here it takes advantage of Paul’s character to be the audience as the young Duke going to a new world. His mentors teach him, his mother teaches him and he even watches some info vids to learn about the new world they will be inhabiting. This makes total sense in the film and serves to inform the audience at the same time. The film also strikes a balance of stripping away some of the exposition and leaving the story on a simple hero story with family houses but still having enough there to dig your teeth into for us lore fans. 

Without giving too much away, another area that I think will overall help the franchise, is choosing to cut the film at about the halfway point of the original. One of its faults was it sought to cram what could have been an entire trilogy into one film so it jerks around at a pace that would give you whiplash moving forward years at a time multiple times. One one hand the new film fan seem anticlimactic in its finale and even slow I think in the long run as long as they are allowed to make the sequels it will be better served for it. Which took guts on Denis to do, it’s why I admire him as a filmmaker his eye for design and tone is so unique and he makes no compromises to try and achieve blockbuster status. It turns off some people like Blade Runner 2049 but I am here for it. 

Dune also has a loaded cast and they must have been sold on multiple movies because as hyped as some of them were they really are not in the movie much. The focus of this film seemed to be the core family of House Atreides. The head of the house, Duke Leto is played by Oscar Isaac who is a great character. He portrays strength but also wisdom, we’re tuned in many cases to assume he is a cold calculated unloving father who just wants his son to be great at the detriment of their relationship but he is not. He truly loves his son and one scene with him and Paul where Paul tells him he is not sure he wants to lead the family is one of my favorites of the film simply for the way Issac delivers his response. Plus is beard is just fantastic and how I want my beard to look when I get a little older. The aforementioned Paul is played by Timothée Chalamet, who covers a wide range in this film. It’s a hard role to make us sympathize with a rich young Duke who has space wizard powers but he does it with his early naivety slowly giving way to grief and resolve as the movie plays out. It’s a challenging role that will demand even more of him as the story and sequels go on but I think he is equipped to do it. Zendaya is the other big star as the local nomad Chani but she is not introduced properly in the film to much layer and is given a ton of time to do much but again will be a large part going forward in the story. The rest of the cast is a who’s who of Hollywood with names like Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Mamoa, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem. A star studded cast that has everyone bought in. Paul’s relationship with his various mentors like Brolin’s Gurney and Momoa’s Idaho really help us get invested in Paul’s story and the entire clan as they embark on this mission. 

Dune strikes a lot of parallels to the last sci-fi outing from Villanueve, Blade Runner 2049, in its style, pace and delivery. I’m sure many who fired up their HBO Max to see some simple sci fi action will say the film was slow and boring but this is the guy who trashed Marvel movies a few months ago so he really isn’t here to give us big American blockbusters for better or worse. What he’s good at is slick, beautiful deep stories with some great performances and Dune delivers that. So if you are looking for a new lore monster to get into this could be it but if you are just looking for the next big budget space battle you may leave a bit disappointed. Also he took out the weird Spice breathing Vagina monster from the original so there’s that too.