Dune – Film Review

Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe – Arrakis – to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their own fear will survive.

Movies such as Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune can be extremely difficult to talk about for a handful of reasons. First of all, this film has been delayed a large number of times due to the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally scheduled to be in theatres last November if you can believe it. Then, it was pushed to December of that same year, which led to yet another delay. The second reason why it’s so hard to talk about Dune is that it’s one of the most anticipated movies ever… no joke.

As you all know by this point, I go to the movie theatre several times a week in order to catch all the new releases and my theatre isn’t small – it’s a large chain. When I saw Dune last night, the lineup to simply enter the theatre was the longest lineup I’ve ever seen. Even longer than it was for Avengers: Endgame. It was such a long line that it literally went into the theatre’s parking lot, which is just astounding. As soon as I saw that, it was clear to me that people were excited to see Dune, which struck me as genuinely fascinating because I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be a traditional sci-fi movie.

Don’t go into Dune expecting Star Wars in a desert the entire time. Don’t go in there expecting some action-every-minute type of movie because if you do, you’re probably going to walk out of the theatre with your head hung really low because Dune is not that type of movie. After leaving the theatre last night, I took a quick look at everybody around me and tried to listen in on the conversations that people were having with one another to see if they enjoyed it.

After all, this is a Denis Villeneuve film, and every single one of his movies are unconventional – it still pains me to this day that Blade Runner 2049 was as commercially disastrous as it was because it is, in my opinion, one of the best movies of all time. But, gratefully, when I listened into conversations last night, almost everybody said that they loved Dune, and let me add one more voice to that choir.

Dune is, without question, one of the best films I’ve ever seen in my life. Yes, really. I hate reading reviews online of people overhyping movies just because it’s the popular thing to do and because it’s the “big thing” at the moment. I wouldn’t ever say a movie is one of the best of all time if I didn’t really mean it. Dune honestly is one of the best movies ever made. Not only is the scale and size of this movie genuinely staggering, but it also tells a powerful and deeply riveting story and one that will entrance you for the entire two-and-a-half-hour running time.

In terms of scale, this is the biggest movie since the first-ever Star Wars movie. Watching Dune in an IMAX theatre filled with about one-hundred other audience members joining me, it felt like I was actually on the planet of Arrakis. The incredibly big and awe-inspiring world of the movie is so well-realized that you’ll feel like a resident of the planet yourself by the time the end credits roll on the screen.

From the moment Dune begins with an extremely haunting voiceover that lets you in on what’s going on in the world, it hooks your attention and ensures that you never have a moment to breathe. But I must reiterate what I said earlier. Dune is absolutely not an action movie. Are there sequences of knife fights and big explosions every once in a while? Yes, there are. But it is by no means a Star Wars movie, and what I mean by that is that Dune is one-hundred percent a movie that is driven by dialogue and character.

To expect something different out of it would be a colossal mistake because you will be hugely disappointed by the time the second act rolls around and you realize exactly the type of movie it is. The good thing is that the characters here are all fascinating and I adored getting to learn more about them. There is not a single character in Dune that feels pointless or uninteresting. Chalamet’s Paul Atreides is a wonderful protagonist and one that goes through quite a lot of hardship throughout the course of the story.

He is set to be the next leader of House Atreides succeeding his father but is worried that he isn’t going to do a good job, as any young boy would fear. How can they expect to lead something so important at such a young age? But when Paul’s father Leto (Oscar Isaac) tells him “A great man doesn’t seek to lead, he is called to it. But if your answer is no, you’d still be the only thing I ever needed you to be: my son.”

The screenplay for this film is absolutely brilliant and is filled with rich dialogue that gets you thinking in every single scene. There isn’t a moment in Dune where you feel a disconnect. Even sequences where people are just talking about the planet of Arrakis are deeply entertaining to watch because you feel as though you, too, are learning something very valuable about this planet. This also includes the Harkonnen who are some of the most heavily interesting characters in the film as they are kind of a gigantic mystery throughout this story.

Of course, I won’t get into any spoilers whatsoever in this review, but the Harkonnen people are super important to this story and the more we learn about them, the better characters they all become. All of the acting here is also phenomenal. I don’t blame all of the actors for wanting to be involved with this project. Surely they wanted to work with Villeneuve (honestly who wouldn’t at this point?) and they were also probably highly interested in this story.

Chalamet delivers what is easily the best performance of his entire career here as Paul Atreides. You wouldn’t think that a young, curious boy would make for a gripping lead when the world is populated with badass, scarred men but, nevertheless, Paul is a terrific lead. Rebecca Ferguson really shocked me here as Paul’s mother Jessica. The trailers for the film barely showed her at all, leading me to believe that she was going to have a substantially smaller role to play than her fellow cast members, but that’s not the case at all.

In many ways, she is sort of the second protagonist of this story. Ferguson has impressed me greatly throughout the years with all of her performances. She can be a deeply charming actress in certain projects and also terrifying in others such as Doctor Sleep, where she played Rose the Hat. As Jessica, she delivers yet another flawless performance, further cementing her as one of the best actresses working today.

Of course, Oscar Isaac continues his streak of greatness in the role of Leto who gets some of the most shocking and heavily emotional moments in the film. Josh Brolin is hugely intimidating here just like always, and so is Jason Momoa as Duncan, one of Paul’s best friends who just so happens to be a highly trained warrior in combat. But I will issue a warning right now to all of the die-hard Zendaya fans – she is not in this movie the way you probably think she is.

The trailers make it seem as though she has this massive role to play physically, but she actually doesn’t. She is absolutely incredibly important to this story, but don’t expect her to get a lot of screen time. She is still very crucial to the plot, but she only really ever appears in visions that Paul has while either daydreaming or sleeping. Nevertheless, though, Zendaya is delightful in the number of scenes that she gets. Creepy, mysterious, and powerful, you get the sense that her character Chani is a force to be reckoned with.

Hans Zimmer composed the score for this film, and as you can probably expect, it’s absolutely mesmerizing to listen to. Zimmer is definitely one of the best composers to ever exist, and if you weren’t convinced of how good he truly is, you certainly will be by the time you leave the theatre after watching Dune.

And speaking of that, I seriously do implore you to watch Dune in the biggest theatre you can possibly find. Drive an hour out of your way if you have to. Seriously, it’s worth it. Villeneuve has been quite vocal online, stating that his movie absolutely commands to be seen in an IMAX theatre, and he is absolutely right. Don’t get me wrong, Dune is still going to be a great movie even if you were to watch it on a laptop screen, but it’s a whole different experience when you watch it on a humongous screen with ear-splitting audio, surrounded by a crowd of people who are just as excited to watch this film unfold before their eyes.

We don’t get movies like Dune too often. This is without a doubt one of the most ambitious movies I have ever seen and also, yes, one of the best I have ever seen. Please go and support this movie so we can get that sequel. After watching this movie, I am almost certain that you, too, will be clamoring for it as well.