Review: For all its marvel, DuneMovie falls short of its simplest task.
as the monstrous Baron Harkonnen; andas a Fremen who appears to Paul in dreams, luring him toward ruin or glory or both. No one has much time to distinguish themselves, all functioning as mere fleshy cogs in Villeneuve’s churning machine. We don’t really learn much about individual characters in the film, making it hard to grasp or care about the stakes of the story. That’s not for lack of trying on Villeneuve’s part, who aims to fill just about every moment of the film with a towering import.
At times, his aggressive approach works. There are scenes when the film’s relentless rumble reaches heart and mind, and truly connects. The immensity of the film can probably only be experienced properly in a theatrical setting—making Warner Bros.’ decision to drop the movie on streaming that much more dismaying. But even in the dark, sans phone, a gigantic screen and sound system blaring away at you,slips through your fingers like so much sand.
As a general rule, we should embrace grave and complicated blockbuster films like this, as they’re in such short supply in our age of comestible whizbang and synergistic packaging. Butlumbers with such aloof, uninviting self-seriousness that it’s hard to love, hard to even celebrate as an assured piece of tentpole authorship. In all its marvel,forgets to do basic things like give us someone or something to root for, or feel for, or think about for longer than the stretch of the film.
Some vexing, inscrutable mystery and preening opacity can be fun. But there ought to at least be a big, central Why animating a film. Otherwise, it’s all just a bunch of pretty shots of sand and fire and lavish costumery with no guiding spirit. By the end of, I was ready to leave the whole thing to the enormous worms who move through Arrakis devouring all the little things that matter to us petty humans. Watching as Villeneuve’s film eats itself up, those beasts started to seem pretty familiar.
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