"Dune" is an Experience

I understand now why Denis Villeneuve was so adamant about "Dune" having a theatrical release, because the only way this film works is on the biggest screen possible.  It's designed to be a spectacle, an immersive feat of filmmaking that puts the bulk of its efforts into creating these vast, alien worlds.  Even though I've read Frank Hebert's "Dune" novel, and I've seen the earlier David Lynch adaptation, I found the story difficult to follow - very exposition heavy, and full of outlandish concepts that are absurd on their face.  However, the sensory pleasures of the worldbuilding and the absolute commitment to the material ultimately won me over.

The Atreides family is appointed to the stewardship of the planet Arrakis, known as Dune, and its spice mining operations.  Spice is one of the most important commodities in this universe, because it makes interstellar travel possible.  Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), his concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and their son Paul (Timothee Chalamet) face an array of dangers on the dangerous desert planet, including the hostile local population of Fremen and the giant sandworms, the Shai Hulud.  Then there are Arrakis's former stewards, led by Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgaard), who are conspiring with larger forces to retake the planet.  Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stephen McKinley, Chang Chen, Dave Bautista, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, and Zendaya appear in smaller roles.

"Dune" is a long, slow-paced movie with not as much action as you'd expect, and very little humor.  The mood is very grave and somber throughout, and our young hero has to grapple with prophetic dreams, constant threats on his life, and being at the center of a lot of complicated political intrigue.  People are constantly reminding Paul of his hereditary duties, often emphasizing that some of the conflicts he's being thrust into have been going on for hundreds or thousands of years.  His father is readying him for leadership of his house and political power games.  His mother, part of religious sisterhood called the Bene Gesserit, is training him to use his inherited powers from her bloodline, and suspects he may be a messiah foretold to lead a holy war.  The first half of the film is a steady buildup to violence that just keeps setting up all the pieces of this conflict, and it's very frustrating that the film ends where it does - and the second half of the story is so far off in the future.

There was a very real danger of that second half never being made, because this version of "Dune" isn't very audience friendly.  Long stretches of the film might as well be in a foreign language because it's so dense with science-fiction terminology.  Characters constantly mumble and whisper their dialogue, including the famous "litany against fear."  The actors are very good, and I wish some of them, like Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa, could have had more screen time, but the film is structured in such a way that nearly all of the fascinating minor characters only make brief appearances.  Zendaya has been all over the film's marketing and only shows up in Paul's visions and the last fifteen minutes of the movie.

It's clear Denis Villeneuve and his crew were less interested in a perfectly coherent narrative than they were with creating a more visceral kind of cinematic experience that would make the viewer feel like they were on Arrakis, bearing witness to the events that were unfolding.  So, the MVPs of "Dune" are cinematographer Greig Fraser, who shoots deserts that recall "Lawrence of Arabia" and the original "Star Wars" more successfully than any of the recent "Star Wars'' films, production designer Patrice Vermette for conjuring a palpable grandeur to all the different alien environments, and Hans Zimmer for the elaborate score.   The film achieves feats of filmmaking that are absolutely worth the price of admission.

However, I don't know if I can call "Dune" a successful film because it's currently only half of one.  And in spite of how wonderfully executed it all is, the "chosen one" story hasn't aged particularly well over the years, and left me wondering whether audiences would be able to connect with it.  I think the existing fans of "Dune" should be satisfied with it - more than they were with the David Lynch attempt anyway, but I think it's far less likely that the movie will be able to create many new "Dune" fans.   

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