Dune. (12A.)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya and Stellan Skarsgard. In cinemas. 155 mins.
Ever since its publication in 1965, Frank Herbert's novel has been seen as a must-film unfilmable book: too big to ignore, too big to fit into a movie. Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott tried and failed to get it made; David Lynch succeeded but in a truncated, compromised but intermitently inspired form that was a massive flop. There's also been a faithful but meagre TV version. But now Denis Villeneuve has cracked it. (Or, actually half of it – the opening titles reveal it to be Dune Part One, though you won't see that on the poster.) His version is faithful to the book while being welcoming and engrossing to a general audience. It's so obviously good it's almost underwhelming – is this all there is to a definite Dune movie?
The script by Villeneuve, Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts steers a simplified path through the material but there's enough here to suggest the larger themes. The film plays up the contemporary allegory - inhospitable terrain exploit by Imperial powers for its resources - but doesn't force it. All the casting choices pay off with the possible exception of Skarsgard as our main baddie, the Baron. The only thing it doesn't succeed at is finding a suitable midpoint in the book to finish on.
Dune's reputation as a burial ground for cinematic visionaries is perhaps why Villeneuve has gone for a very functional, no thrills version. Where Jodorosky and Lynch splurged and ran wild with it, his approach is like Nolan's straight-faced, why-so-serious Batman. There are moments of humour in Dune, but no extravagance. The production design is brilliant, breathtaking in places, but it is practical and functional with great expanses of concrete everywhere, like someone had dumped the National Theatre in the Sahara. Many of the visuals seem to be expanded from ideas first tried out in Arrival, a much smaller sci-fi film Villeneuve made when the notion of him making a film of Dune was probably nothing more than an impossible dream. Dune is a visually stunning spectacle composed of fifty shades of grey. Everything is desaturated, often to a degree that makes it seem almost monochrome. It's a marvel, the best blockbuster of the year but a little bit of colour or a dap of Lynchian excess wouldn't have gone amiss.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya and Stellan Skarsgard. In cinemas. 155 mins.
Ever since its publication in 1965, Frank Herbert's novel has been seen as a must-film unfilmable book: too big to ignore, too big to fit into a movie. Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott tried and failed to get it made; David Lynch succeeded but in a truncated, compromised but intermitently inspired form that was a massive flop. There's also been a faithful but meagre TV version. But now Denis Villeneuve has cracked it. (Or, actually half of it – the opening titles reveal it to be Dune Part One, though you won't see that on the poster.) His version is faithful to the book while being welcoming and engrossing to a general audience. It's so obviously good it's almost underwhelming – is this all there is to a definite Dune movie?
The script by Villeneuve, Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts steers a simplified path through the material but there's enough here to suggest the larger themes. The film plays up the contemporary allegory - inhospitable terrain exploit by Imperial powers for its resources - but doesn't force it. All the casting choices pay off with the possible exception of Skarsgard as our main baddie, the Baron. The only thing it doesn't succeed at is finding a suitable midpoint in the book to finish on.
Dune's reputation as a burial ground for cinematic visionaries is perhaps why Villeneuve has gone for a very functional, no thrills version. Where Jodorosky and Lynch splurged and ran wild with it, his approach is like Nolan's straight-faced, why-so-serious Batman. There are moments of humour in Dune, but no extravagance. The production design is brilliant, breathtaking in places, but it is practical and functional with great expanses of concrete everywhere, like someone had dumped the National Theatre in the Sahara. Many of the visuals seem to be expanded from ideas first tried out in Arrival, a much smaller sci-fi film Villeneuve made when the notion of him making a film of Dune was probably nothing more than an impossible dream. Dune is a visually stunning spectacle composed of fifty shades of grey. Everything is desaturated, often to a degree that makes it seem almost monochrome. It's a marvel, the best blockbuster of the year but a little bit of colour or a dap of Lynchian excess wouldn't have gone amiss.
