Dune

Dune came to the film industry at the right time to support struggling movie theaters and generate interest in grand epic spectacles primarily designed for the big screen. For this category, the choice of the Canadian visionary as director is ideal, and it must be noted that Denis (not only) fulfilled expectations to a T. The film looks and does not function exactly as I anticipated. My relationship with the source material was shaped by my encounter with Lynch's Dune, which was very problematic even during filming and now, years later, looks painfully tacky and ridiculous. The motif of almost half-kilometer-long worms traversing the sand dunes and devouring giant mining machines is unbearable to me in any refined presentation, and above all, I generally do not have a liking for fantasy combined with caricature of the sci-fi genre. Spaceships and intricate machines combined with mysticism and magic, which infected and devalued a significant part of the sci-fi genre, irritate me, and I see the origin of this degeneration precisely in Dune. Unfortunately, I cannot praise Herbert for that. It is true that Dune is not Star Wars, at least not in the sense that the SW world is intended for a childlike and childish audience, whereas Dune aims to appeal primarily to more mature teenagers. But thanks to Villeneuve's top craftsmanship, it is possible to consider it the ideal family entertainment of the present. As I mentioned before, when a screenwriter presents me with a "voice" or "power," I turn the other way. I do not like the use of religious motifs such as the coming of the Savior. Additionally, Dune is clearly influenced by Islamic apocalypticism. My last complaint is that I do not like the cinematic world where elite super-fighters are attacked only to be subsequently massacred in personal combat by a hero who, mind you, is an ultra-super-cool fighter. So why the weak 4-star rating? Because I appreciate Villeneuve's ability to create monumental images and an equally monumental soundtrack, and I am a big fan of Villeneuve. Because I understand that world cinema needed Dune. Because going to the cinema this time was a social event for me in the form of having my daughter with me, whose enchantment with the film has somewhat transferred onto me. Overall impression: 70%, with the understanding that I will not be present for the sequel to Dune. It has nothing more to offer me, nor does it have anything to surprise me with. (07/11/2021)

Unprecedented in scale and richness, but unfortunately at least a step backward in everything else. I want to endlessly explore this brutally beautiful world with all its principles, but it is closer to me as a concept, maybe even as a metaphor. Definitely more than the story that takes place in it, no matter how much its characters experience emotions and twists. I want to get under the skin of characters other than Paul, and the most interesting ones unfortunately leave too quickly. 70% for the weakest of Denis Villeneuve's films, but the sequel might still be the event I was expecting the first time around. (12/11/2021)

It’s not without flaws, but euphoria prevails nonetheless. It’s a soulful epic and a surprisingly moving story about overcoming fear of oneself and the unknown. The distant future could hardly be more realistic and strangely intimate. The figures came out well, and Villeneuve overcomes the hollow mannerisms of Blade Runner and serves up images with sweat and blood. Duncan Idaho has finally replaced Aragorn in my heart. At several moments the film evoked exactly the same intense feelings as the book. However, it stands on its own sturdy legs as a film. I'd watch the sequel immediately... (18/10/2021)

The audiovisual experience of the year. A regular movie theater is too small. Any imperfection on the screen and the weak sound are painfully obvious. Putting this book onto the movie screen at this moment in time makes perfect sense and creates the necessary counterbalance to most of today’s movie production. Civilization as a relic that needs to be cleansed of the lives of unbelievers in a holy war made to thrill the fighters of ISIS and their supporters. And the indication that men aren’t so absolutely useless as we first thought is also very audacious. Underneath the traditional western-geared topics, we sense Herbert’s fascination with the Middle East. Villeneuve does his very best at depicting the world and its mechanisms. The movie is bristling with ideas, e.g. technical details, Harkonnen songs or the Scottish bagpipes. Comparison to Star Wars is relevant only in terms of scale, and in this respect ⊃∪∩⪽ is much more realistic. The acting is top-notch from all of them. Emotions bubble under the surface and aren’t needlessly displayed. The only trouble is that it’s terribly short, even though what takes place in the first part covers material that fills more than half of the original book. Zimmer is darkly thundering. (20/10/2021)

This will sound biased, but go see the new Dune at the cinema. Only there will it properly roar and fulfil its essence as an extreme sensory work. The imposing sights of gargantuan proportions, where the human characters’ smallness is manifested in relation to the vast surrounding space that they vainly attempt to conquer, are combined with a practically constant mass of sound, which completes the tangible crushing effect and poetic beauty of the worlds contained in the film. The rigorous aesthetic dramaturgy perfectly holds all of the creative talents of the film’s individual elements on the reins of the paramount vision. This is what comprises the essence and exceptionalism of Villeneuve in comparison with most other directors of big-budget projects in recent decades. Filmmakers such as Luc Besson and even George Lucas are easily intoxicated by their collaborators and populate their films with an overabundance of details that draw attention to themselves at the expense of the whole. Villeneuve, on the other hand, bears comparison to Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher and other filmmakers who are able to set out a unified vision and make full use of others to fulfil it. The central storyline is basically simple and mainly presents the potential for subsequent development and even subversion in accordance with Herbert’s saga. The seemingly simple story about the coming of the messiah is topped off with the motif of faith and religion as a power construct working with prefabricated stories in which the personalities of individuals are diluted and subjected to a defined and indoctrinated destiny. In his previous film, Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve had already brilliantly shattered the myth of the “chosen one”, which to a large extent forms the essential foundation Western (pop) culture. In the case of Dune, however, he conjures up a sprawling epic, in which the first film plants the seeds from which the trees of the next film (or films) will grow. It thus shouldn’t come as a surprise that the director had concerns that in the current situation the film would not make money in the cinemas and that the overarching vision developed through several films would be nipped in the bud. This is indeed just the beginning and it is so exciting to be a witness to it. (20/10/2021)