Dune
(minor Spoiler review)
An hour ago I stepped out of the Astor
theatre where I watched Dune on the big screen for the first time
since I was a kid. I had recently revisited the film on Netflix but
to be honest I treated it more as a background film rather than
giving it my full attention. I've never read the books though I
have seen the made for TV mini series. I'm not exactly what you
would consider a fan of the Dune universe though I've always heard
people tell me how great it is.
My initial thoughts this time through
was that visually Dune is not only up there with the original Star Wars trilogy but is in some aspects superior to it. The sets are lavish
and feel lived in, the costumes look amazing and there are numerous
weird and trippy sequences which helped keep me engaged. Underneath
that though is a script that is tough going and the reason for this
is that its exposition heavy. Several conversations feel like dry
exposition dumps that aren't particularly engaging. Its a problem
that often plagues good sci-fi. Writers want to get us up to speed
on the universe so that they can get going with the plot but with a limited
time frame, they need to give us a lot of information and half the
time the audience ends up zoning out. I'm willing to wager that if I
had read the novels prior to watching this, then a lot of the
sequences would feel far less disjointed but since I hadn't read
them and didn't have wikipedia on standby, there were several sequences that left me scratching my head.
Why is the emperor of the universe taking orders from a giant space
slug which navigates through space? What exactly is the water of
life and how does its properties differ from the Spice that they're
mining amd why does the Barron keep giving himself boils and
diseases? The answers to these questions and more eluded me.
Now having an exposition heavy film
isn't necessarily the kiss of death, however, when the characters
giving this dialogue feel dry and unengaging then we have a big
problem. Kyle McLauchlan gives a reasonable performance as Muad
Dib, the messianic hero of the film. Though none of the other cast
members get a chance to really shine. Its a pity given the talent
involved in the production, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif and Sting
to name just a few of the strong actors involved in smaller roles.
I've always felt that one of the signatures of David Lynch films is
that his characters have this weird disconnect from the films they
inhabit. This works well within dream sequences and especially in
films like Mulholland Drive. In Dune however, it results in the
characters becoming much harder to engage or identify with.
So to conclude, whilst Dune is a lavish
film to look at with some interesting ideas, it's also difficult for
non-fans to engage with in part because its trying to give us too
much story in one hit and in part because of the style of acting. I
really have no idea how to rate this film. I didn't hate it and it
was certainly a great experience to see it on the big screen. That
said, I feel that the problems which bog the film down, have
prevented it from ever being seen as a true classic.
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