Science fiction as a literary genre is the home of the multi-volume, doorstop-sized saga; the ambitious trilogy that turns into a turgid quintet, each volume denser and more complicated than the ones that went before. Dune, written by Frank Herbert, was probably the first of them; published in 1965 it went on to spawn five sequels from Herbert, as well as twenty-odd other prequels and sequels co-written by his son.
Dune isn’t a book, it’s an industry. And an incredibly influential one. Without trying too hard you can see Frank Herbert’s fingerprints all over Star Wars, The Matrix, Avatar, The Handmaid’s Tale, Game of Thrones, and a host of other genre favourites.
Over the years there has been one failed film project from Alejadro Jodorowsky, one critically reviled and commercially unsuccessful version from David Lynch, a TV miniseries that hardly anyone saw, and finally this latest version from director Denis Villeneuve.
This film is a long-cherished project from the French-Canadian writer director and even if it is not entirely successful, it is to his credit that it is at least coherent. Villeneuve has created a visual feast in this story of the desert planet Arrakis, home of the mysterious compound Spice which, among other things, pretty much guarantees near-eternal life. Spice is the most important thing on Arrakis and Arrakis is the most important thing in the Old Empire. It is the key to the Empire’s economic well-being and its political dominance.
Although Arrakis is populated by the nomadic Fremen, it is ruled by House Harkonnen who are in charge of spice harvesting on behalf of the Empire. Abruptly the Harkonnen are ordered off the planet which is then handed over to their rivals, House Atreides. The Harkonnen leave without protest leaving patriarch Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) to wonder what’s actually going on. In fact, the emperor has seen Atreides as a threat and orchestrated a conflict with the Harkonnen designed to wipe out the Duke, his wife Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and their son Paul (Timothee Chalomet).
There is more to Paul than meets the eye. He has strange dreams, he appears to have powers, and he may or may not be a promised Messianic figure. Nonetheless, his mother is a high-ranking member of a secret and powerful sisterhood who are determined to protect this young man at all costs.
I should stop the plot about here because frankly, it’s exhausting. There is so much story in Herbert’s 800-some dialogue-heavy pages to cram into two-and-half hours that it defies belief. That’s why credit must go to Villeneuve for even getting this much done. This is only part one; the sequel will depend on box office.
Villeneuve wisely tells his story in visuals and the impact is staggering. This is a film where he is right in asking that you see it on the biggest screen possible. Some of Villeneuve’s frames would do justice to David Lean and the film that comes most frequently to mind is Lawrence of Arabia. But, oh for a young Peter O’Toole.
There’s no getting away from the fact this film is all exposition. Villeneuve can disguise it for so long with breath-taking images but this remains one big information dump. Once you’ve run out of spaceships to marvel at you are left with some pretty ponderous storytelling.
For me this is made worse by the casting. I’ve always found Timothee Chalomet to be an uninteresting actor, bland and characterless. There is little about him, for me, that demands attention, and he doesn’t hold the picture as, for example, O’Toole did for Lean. Zendaya, his putative co-star is given literally nothing to do – her entire performance can be seen, just about, in the trailer.
Except for Isaac, Ferguson and Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Harkonnen, I thought the casting was a big issue. Having Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and others in a starry cast doesn’t really work if all they are doing is showing off the scale of the CGI. Almost every role is miscast.
Despite all this, Dune is worth watching simply because it is like nothing you have seen for some time. Villeneuve’s world-building is phenomenal even if the narrative lets him down. I hope the film does well enough to merit a second instalment because I want to see how well Villeneuve sticks the landing.
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