As a guy that read Dune from 6th to 7th grade in the late 70s, I have been lucky enough to have witnessed three takes on the tale. When I say lucky I actually mean it. From David Lynch's take in the 80s, then the Sy-Fy Channel's (then called Sci-Fi) production, with some Jodorowsky's audio/visual scribblings, and finally this latest take by Dennis Villeneuve; it's been great fun. I have been able to not only watch how different productions interpret the book, to watching how the takes are influenced, or not, by each other. In a world of mega-corporation scooping up all brand names, Frank Herbert's quirky little franchise still provides a little fresh air on artistic expression in speculative fiction.
At the same time, I wish I could watch the movie without ever having seen the other films or read the books just to see what I really think of the movie.
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| Get over the gender-swap outrage already |
Still I have only my old eyes. Maybe it's being simple, but I have found the latest take to be the most interesting watch. Its focus on characters that are not Paul gave a lived in feel better than any of the dust or heavy-looking equipment lying around on the sets. Characters such as Baron Harkonennen, Duncan Idaho, and Liet-Kynes are given not only a bit of depth but also things to do during the movie. While their portrayals have never been shirked upon by earlier productions, in this movie they have things do and say which are not just setting up the next plot point.
A strong point for me was the pacing of the movie. While true Dune-Fans will bemoan the parts that were left out, I like that when film seemed to be dragging a little, the script moved on to the next bit of development rather than introducing voice overs of the characters' inner dialogs. The deep thoughts might've been decent world-building in the novel but has always come off as sheer exposition in the medium of screenplay. A lot of the Herbet take on his universe is not there, but I already know what is going on. I have to admit, again, that I need to find somebody that isn't familiar with the setting from the books or previous movies to get their opinions.
Most of the Dune universe looks decent in Villeneuve's work. A lot of it reminds of the used paperbacks I read in the 70s and 80s, I believe they were printed in the 60s. Though I don't like the weird-beards of the Sadukar, I found the sequence on Secondus captivating and terrifying. This flick's take on the Harkonnen was the best to date-- Raban and his savagery is given just enough space while the Baron can be viewed as a one time warrior as well as a glutton. The spaceships and whatnot were passable, they were ovals and rectangles, big meh. Thopters were okay. While the battle scenes were thought out, I found them silly, ie. impaled people fighting on after a Constitution Saving Throw because of script-armor bonuses I suppose.
The long time reader and viewer of Dune in me wonders if the forthcoming second part of this production's two-part film cycle wonders if it is going to fill in the missing parts. At the same time, I wonder what the overall work will look like if the missing parts are just left out. Is Villeneuve making an action and adventure story set in a sphere romance and not concerned about the "deeper" meanings its fandom worries about all the time. Well, only time will tell. Who even knows if the Hollywood system and the Canadian film board will even bother helping get the next movie off the ground at this point?
Comparing the takes, I have commend all the directors by not being overly bound to first the book or then the director(s) before them, still the tale comes out in the tellings. Now this current take may grow on me, I've only watched it once. It's a Loch Ness Monster in the Smurf to Godzilla rating system.
