Movie Review: Dune Is A Visual Stunner & The New “Star Wars”
Watching Dune, I was kind of surprised by the vastness Denis Villeneuve was able to capture. Hailed as one of the best Sci-Fi novels EVER, by Frank Herbert, the movie manages to break down the complexity of his story to give a visually stunning prelude in the journey of the House Atreides.
Timothée Chalamet plays Paul: a powerful kid who, like most teens, has no idea his power. Yet, time, and trauma, have a way of awakening your higher being, and the more his inner god stirs, the more distance he feels from his father Oscar Isaac as Leto Atreides: a duke in charge of taking care of the world of Arrakis on behalf of a rather duplicitous, unseen emperor. The latter two acts share tender scenes displaying the choice of Paul between his father and his fate; only to find out your destiny chooses you: not the other away around. At least, that is what his mystical mother, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, hopes for.
As Paul gets closer to his fate, we get some great Zendaya beauty shots and some of the most gorgeous scenes of space I have ever witnessed. Truthfully, Dune felt like what the newest Star Wars trilogy wanted to be. It was deep, paced, and gave enough storyline for you to want to come back and witnessed the legends being born. While I went for my beloveds, Oscar Isaac and Jason Mamoa (HEY!)l the truth is they are not that much in the film. Even Zendaya (Channi) ís moreso a vision. The movie was truly not lying when it says Dune: Part 1 because there is SO MUCH MORE to this storyline, and, unsurprisingly, Timothée Chalamet can carry it.
While the trailers make Dune look like a space odyssey, of which aesthetically it is glorious, honestly, the story is much simpler. It is hyper-focused on Paul, and the burden he must carry at being “the one” to unite varying worlds because of his political legacy as much as his mystical one. He is a walking division between two forces that work together but never trust each other; the irony being that so many humans wish to become myths without realizing that myths are just human. For however special Paul is, he is truly trying to find himself, and Chalamet knows how to turn up waterworks and dialogue pauses to make us hear the unsaid: growing up is scary.
If I found out I am supposed to free a peoples that my family has, inadvertently, helped imprison because their desert spice fuels spaceships, I’d feel pretty emotionally bombarded, as well. Yet, Dune’s royal drama could give The Crown a run for its money and that will help captivate a portion of the audience that might find it, at times, beautiful but boring. I say this because there is a stillness, slowness, and quietness to Dune that makes its plot feel like a stunning crawl to a potential Messianic point. Even so, I that point is pictured so vibrantly that I could not help but feel this was the “new Star Wars” or, at least, what the newest Star Wars trilogy could have been.
DUNE IS WORTH THE IMAX TICKET, even if it is to simply feel like you are William Shatner praising Jeff Bezos for taking you to space while Amazon worsens the earth’s environment. After all, what positive does not come with a negative, and if there is one thing Paul’s journey teach you… it is that. No rise comes without a fall before it, and Dune creates a space that makes that truth so visual, you will walk away dreaming of it for days. Dune premieres October 21 in theaters and on HBO MAX.
