Name: A review of Dune - the most awesome looking film of the year... but
Item: Dune
Rating: 20
Author: @stickupfilm

Introduction - It would be very easy be swept easy by some amazing visuals.

Name of film: Dune

Director: Dennis Villeneuve

Year: 2021

Official Poster

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g18jFHCLXk

Review

What could go wrong. A stellar cast including Oscar Isaac, the young talented upcoming actor, Timothée Chalamet, (visceral in Beautiful Boy, charming in Lady Bird), Rebecca Ferguson as his mother and talented director, Denis Villeneuve at the helm. Villeneuve had already directed Incendies, Arrival and Prisoners, all rich films with multi layered characterisation and cohesive storytelling. But here, in this reviewer's opinion, he looses his way. This feature adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel is about the son of a noble family entrusted with the protection of the most valuable asset and most vital element in the galaxy - Spice. But there is no clear thread to this storytelling - it jumps about and any character development is non-existent. It seems Villeneuve has been caught between making a blockbuster and trying to keep an interesting narrative. Here the characters exist solely to serve the effects. Paul Atreides, played by Chalamet, is the naïve young, ‘Chosen One’ working only on one cylinder and way too muted for his talents.
In fact, we don’t learn anything about the parade of soulless characters which makes it hard for us care. Villeneuve insists on applying an unwaveringly ominous tone throughout the film. The characters are broody, the lighting in nearly every scene, minimal and even the colours of the desert are hazy. Dave Bautista may have revelled in the chance to play a baddie in Dune, but he is as one-note a bad guy as you can imagine. Neither he nor his father are compelling villains. They are just there to look evil and unleash their soldiers on the good guys. Villeneuve gives them a pitch-black base of operations and removes all colour from most of their scenes. Honestly, the whole of Dune is painfully slow and this is apparent once the film completes its first hour after which you might begin to realize - nothing is really happening.
To top it all there is the music score. Hans Zimmer is a true creative professional, He’s orchestrated Dark Knight and Inception, but here the music is overused, bombastic and overblown - always promising action the film doesn't deliver. Many times the score is obtrusive to the dialogue which gets lost in a swamp of sound. There are also some painful female vocals over a tribal soundtrack. It’s like listening to an album that recycles the same four chords. I was divided between trying to process the dialogue and listening to Zimmer's soundscape and I believe I finally tuned out of Dune when in one scene, soldiers come running out a state of the arts arts spaceship with swords and shields. Dune is the type of story that requires the audience to process its' ideas but the ideas are not explained clearly enough. I understand this is a minority view - It is an aesthetically pleasing movie but spends too much time trying to look good in the mirror. A Stick Up Boy said to me.. the film is like looking at a vacuous blonde. Here’s hoping the Dune sequel accomplishes something better.