Posted by Kid from wealthy family inhales powdered drug giving him hallucinations of the future.
Once again, I had the privilege of seeing a slightly advanced screening of a movie thanks to being a Cineworld Unlimited customer. I wasn’t going to pass this opportunity – I’ve been looking forward to watching Dune for quite some time. Didn’t help that I was slightly late for the showing, my own fault, I over-ordered at the chippy and found my kebab, portion of chips, and cod a little too much to finish in the time I had. Either way, I made it in time for the trailers… only to find the seat next to my solo seat taken… and the person had the nerve to put their jacket and belongings on my seat! The nerve!
It all ended well… I realised I no longer confront anyone and quietly took a slightly worse seat that was available. Yep – don’t mess with the OddFather, he will do absolutely nothing!
Dune is the story of Paul, a boy born into the House Atreides – a family given the task of looking after a desert planet, Arrakis, to harvest the most powerful substance known in the universe, known as Spice. Paul has exceptional leading figures in his father Duke Leto Atreides, mother Lady Jessica, brotherly figure Duncan, and mentor Gurney. Along the way Paul has reoccurring dreams of mysterious Chani – a Fremen girl who is native to Arrakis, whilst House Atreides battle House Harkonnen, the previous tenants of Arrakis.
That plot summary took a while to write. Having to look up all those names is not something I fancy having to do again. There’s a lot going on here with all the different houses etc, but the first call out of this movie is the splendid cast. The casting was spot on with Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Zendaya and Jason Momoa to name but a few.
As mentioned, I’ve been looking forward to this movie. I went in not knowing much about Dune apart from seeing the trailers. I’ve been getting hyped that this movie was going to be this era’s Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. Did the movie live up to my high expectations?
No. It did not.
That’s not to say it’s not a good movie. Because I do think it’s good. It’s a complete visual spectacle – a beautiful movie from the actors/actresses on screen, to the effects of the Spice in the sand. But it’s just not a great movie like I was expecting it to be. I compare it to Avatar; a groundbreaking movie for how visually stunning it was – but the story itself was a bit meh, for me anyway.
I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it was the pace. Despite a lot happening, the plot just seemed to move at snail’s pace. Ultimately, I base movie scores on whether I’d want to watch a movie again. I watch the Godfather, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars regularly – as I do the last two Avengers movies. Yes, I’m putting Avengers in the same bracket as the Godfather – hate me all you want, I enjoy what I enjoy!
I just have no desire to watch Dune again though.
It seems to end a bit abruptly too. It’s apparent from the onscreen title that this is just a part one to what Warner Bros are probably hoping will be their next big franchise. I’ve heard it covers roughly the first half of the 1965 novel, so that probably explains why there’s so many loose threads. Even then, Lord of the Rings was split between 3 movies, yet The Fellowship of the Ring didn’t leave me feeling as empty as I did at the end of seeing this movie. Maybe it’s the fact we knew the Lord of the Rings sequels were coming, whilst Dune part 2 hasn’t been confirmed yet.
I am intrigued by the source material. I don’t know much about it, but there were Middle Eastern vibes here. If that was true to the novel, then I wonder what the point was of having this movie set in Space? Wouldn’t it have worked if it was just set on Earth in a different time? I guess you can say that about pretty much any story set in Space. This just felt like Romeo and Juliet being from different planets instead of families – literally star-crossed lovers… Wait, that sounds alright – make that movie!
I don’t know. This review is me wanting Dune to be better than the feeling I had when leaving the cinema. Again, it’s probably just because I had such high expectations. Maybe time will tell, I may find myself revisiting this movie under fairer circumstances one day in the future. Just not any time soon.
Wow – that pretty much summarises my dating life before meeting Mrs OddFather.
Verdict
I really wanted to love this film. I really did. However, despite being a visual spectacle I walked out the cinema feeling rather underwhelmed.
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