Dune: Film Review

Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Zendaya

Director: Denis Villeneuve

An immersive and propulsive 2021 take on Frank Herbert's sprawling novel, the Denis Villeneuve version of Dune feels like it's best suited to an audience brought up on the political machinations in the like of Game of Thrones - even if it does feel like an at times pompous sci-fi soap.

And there's definitely a feeling that Dune Part One is really mainly about setting things up over its 150 minutes and laying a groundwork for a follow-up that won't come for another few years.

Set 8000 years in the future, Dune is the story of Chalamet's Paul Atreides, a boy whose role in a dynasty is initially unclear but bought sharply into focus when his father Duke Leto (Isaac) is ordered to take control of the desert planet Arrakis.

The desert planet is a vital asset to own, thanks to the mysterious element on the world called Spice which powers travel through the stars - but the ownership of the world is not without its problems and Leto is aware his house is being set up to fail. 

From the House Harkonnen's disgust at having to cede ownership to the native race the Fremen who attack those mining the world, Paul Atreides finds he is suddenly on a path from boyhood to becoming a man - even if he is troubled by visions of what lies ahead, and his part in a prophecy that he doesn't understand...

The 2021 version of Dune is in no rush to go anywhere fast.

While it's incredibly immersive and a masterclass in world-building, the sci-fi scope may not be for everyone. And that's perhaps something Villeneuve and his team have been aware of, stripping away some of the other elements to a bare bones version of what is a very familiar story - one of a power struggle and one of a coming-of-age.

Villeneuve knows about building the sense of anticipation and creating a vast canvas to populate a world - and in truth, Dune feels familiar to Arrival in the way it builds suspense and expectation. Some sequences are riddled with basic sci-fi tropes, and of fantasy heroes and villains - and others are written for the big screen, with impressive CGI to back them up and make them feel real. But none of them lack the human element making it universally accessible to all - if you have a little patience.

There is an overriding sense of pomp that pervades much of Dune, and the dialogue is riddled with it. It falls to Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin's characters to bring a little more levity into proceedings. And Chalamet's burdened-with-destiny Paul Atreides is a little more than a cypher in this first outing, a vessel for a coming-of-age narrative that feels complete at the end of part one, but which tantalises what's to come.

Dune makes a strong argument for the big screen experience, and it is a world to lose yourself in. Villeneuve has made a superior slice of sci-fi that has once again boosted the benchmark for the genre.