Dune: Part One | An Astounding Display of Special Effects, and Little More
"People, by and large, love this film. 'I’ve seen Dune three times,' not one, but two friends would shamelessly reveal. How these individuals could bear to sit through two and a half hours of prologue, on more than one occasion, is a feat I’d assumed only the spiritually enlightened could endure."
The 2021 much-anticipated film, Dune, isn’t simply a visual masterpiece, but an amalgamation of every previous sci-fi film’s contributions to the cinematic landscape—a futuristic world both pulsing with life and suffocating viewers in its virtually uninhabitable atmosphere. It was precisely because of the movie’s abundant supply of visceral imagery that I was disappointed to learn eye candy is where its genius fizzles out. Dennis Villeneuve’s previous work includes Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, both receiving positive reviews from critics. While Dune fell slightly short of its predecessors' successes, this has not stopped the galactic Game of Thrones from seeping into everyday conversations—people, by and large, love this film. “I’ve seen Dune three times,” not one, but two friends would shamelessly reveal. How these individuals could bear to sit through two and a half hours of prologue, on more than one occasion, is a feat I’d assumed only the spiritually enlightened could endure.
Where Dune falls short is in its attempt to cram a library shelf’s worth of backstory and lore into a single film. The original novel is a true world-builder—lengthy, complicated, and immaculately detailed; not to mention followed by more than a dozen sequels. To bring this sort of story to the big screen requires some serious negotiation and ingenuity. Villeneuve aimed to tackle this colossal hurdle by separating the plot into two films, and the issue with this is two-fold. It’s still not enough screen time to house an apt amount of the Dune narrative; additionally, the movie wasn’t marketed as one half of a whole, and so viewers sat down in theater seats across the U.S., expecting the familiar expository happenings, followed by rising action, and some semblance of a conclusion. Yet this is not what audiences received. Instead, we sat through an hour piecing together the laws that govern this future world, and even more painful attempts at differentiating one faction from the other. With names like Freman, Imperial Sardaukar, Ixians, and Tleiaxu all dressed in variations of the same grey and brown attire, I watched the film on the brink of surrendering to my ignorance. I found myself asking after the first forty-five minutes, why didn’t the director simply color-code the faction uniforms? Perhaps not the only solution, but certainly one a child somewhere might incorporate into their first-grade drawings.
As Dune neared its end I was enthralled by our first glimpse of the epic journey’s directory. Sandworms nearly killed the protagonist (played by Timothy Chalamet) on more than one occasion, he discovers the woman in his visions, and is nearly killed by a duel that immediately ensues. The cinematic ride finally accelerates and I expect to learn what lays beyond the horizon, but instead, I’m met with the big screen equivalent of “stay tuned for next week’s episode” without the accompaniment of an alluring sneak peek. What might have served as a true cliffhanger for some was a much-understated disappointment for others. I felt as though I paid for a transaction with my time, and what I received was not the advertised product. Who is this film for, you might ask? It certainly isn’t for those unfamiliar with the world of Dune. But for those who have read the novel, perhaps more than once, then expect this film to assault your serotonin receptors with a beautiful painting of the story you know by heart—for this film was crafted exclusively for you.