Turns out the movie, Dune, is more than just shifting sands and intense gazes. Our reviewer, Olivia M., aka Lotta Budduh, gives us her take after having screened the film in IMAX.
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Dune movie review
Having not read the Dune Series and, as such, are unfamiliar with the origins of its name; one might hypothesize that the seemingly endless story of Dune reflects the rise and fall of the unique sand dunes smothering the planet Arrakis. Because of this, one can easily surmise that Dune is no ordinary movie.
It is an experience.
The story crescendos so many times I found myself wondering how they had possibly fit an entire multi-part saga within a 155-minute time span. With a generous amount of narration solidifying the exposition, I thought to myself during the first thirty minutes of the film that it was taking an awfully long time to dive into some real action. Once it started, however, oh boy did it start. And then it kept going, one twist leading to another turn, creating a new development that birthed a fresh conflict or character that was as detailed and important as the rest.
For instance, I believe the film showed just enough of the disgusting villain: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgård) for audiences to want to take a nice hot bath after his scenes to wash away his vile presence. On the other hand, the scenes you may have seen in the trailers showing the lovely, ethereal face of Chani – aka Zendaya – are a bit excessive after a while. Further, some sets, in my opinion, were highly underused. The film had a massive budget, and certainly used it to its fullest, yet the phenomenal production design work that went into creating some sets are only displayed for a few short seconds before there is an abrupt change into another location. That, and perhaps some of the dialogue was discomforting, but with such an epic tale to tell in such time constraints, some faults may be permissible.
The film’s pièce de résistance, though, may just be the special effects, because, holy cow, the special effects team for this film made it an art form. Audiences have of course come to expect amazing spectacles of spaceships and planets and monsters and so much more in the cinema thanks to modern technology. Dune, however, takes it to a level out of this world. At some point, when combined with perfectly chosen camera angles, it was almost ridiculous how intricate and beautiful some shots were- it became a veritable show-and-tell from the team and Director Denis Villeneuve (2017 Blade Runner 2049). With the all-star cast breathing life into their immaculate outfits, the film really pulls you in and drags you along for the ride.
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I was fortunate enough to view this film in an IMAX theater, and while that is the ideal experience for enjoying such an eye-gasm of a film, I almost wonder if I would have understood the story better had I been watching it with subtitles on HBO Max at home. Perhaps it was because I went into the film blind and deaf of the universe Frank Herbert wrote, but I had an extremely difficult time understanding some of what the characters were saying, which detracted from my experience of the story. Or maybe it is due to the made-up words or the ear-splitting power of the IMAX theater speakers. In either case, I will most assuredly be re-watching this film with subtitles, probably after reading the novels as well.
Summarily, the snippets of reviews I’ve seen on the internet so far have stated it perfectly: the first installment of the Dune movie series is an epic cinematic experience unlike any other, comparable only to Lord of the Rings and Avatar in its majesty and world building.
8.7/10 audiences will think they’ve inhaled Spice while watching this movie.
Dune (2021) stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Chen Chang, Javier Bardem, David Dastmalchian, and Charlotte Rampling as the core cast.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve; screenplay by Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve based on Dune by Frank Herbert.
In U.S. theatres October 22nd.
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