Chris Stuckmann reviews Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem. Directed by Denis Villeneuve.
I thought the world and its dynamics were really intriguing and the spectacle and the action were fantastic. I could happily watch a sequel or two. Where I felt it fell down a bit was in giving you a reason to care about what happens to the characters and the world itself. It felt a bit GOT-ish in that it presents you with various factions and lets you form your own allegiances but, thing is, I get the impression they wanted you to root for Paul, House Atreides and the Fremen - however, I personally never felt like they gave you a real reason to do so. One side wants the resources for money, the other wants them to basically get high and the last one seems to want to form an army - none of these purposes feel morally superior to the other or, indeed, at all.
As for Paul, I agree it was a well-acted performance but a fairly weak heroes journey as they go, borderline Rey-like in fact. In Villeneuve movies the protagonists usually come from a place of tragedy or oppression which makes them easy to root for. Paul, on the other hand, is privileged, a bit spoilt and, it turns out, already great at everything.
Again, I really liked the movie for what it was but the stakes felt very low and, once you get past the spectacle, there's not a lot to invest in emotionally, at least in my opinion.
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