Dune

by Hans A. Carpenter
Release Date: October 22, 2021
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Rebeca Ferguson,
and Oscar Isaac
Mister Marquee Says:
LEGENDARY
Number: 5/5
The House Atreides is ordered by the Emperor to take control of Arrakas, an unforgiving desert planet and the only known source of the substance spice, a necessity for space travel. Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) has his burgeoning clairvoyance awaken as his family is lead into a trap by the brutal House Harkonnen.
The impossible has been done, sort of. Dune, a sci fi classic long thought unfilmable after previous attempted failed, has been done justice. Frank Herbert’s space fantasy dense in world building and political intrigue has long seemed too big of a meal to take in one bite, and Dune 2021 proves this by telling half of the story in over two hours.
Director Denis Villeneuve keeps his white hot streak alive with a movie that somehow takes a complex and exposition heavy web spun 10,000 years into the future and makes it accessible without dumbing it down. David Lynch struggled with this problem in his Dune adaptation, leaning heavily on disembodied whisper monologues. Villeneuve uses a mix of sparring voice over and natural dialog to tease out the world building and that is a very, very tough nut to crack. Likewise, Paul’s visions of futures that will come true but are not set in stone can easily be confusing but somehow Villeneuve manages to makes those visions work toward Paul’s character growth without being overly blunt and ruining the ambiguity.
From the set design, to the score, to the dizzying spice hallucinations, Dune has an ethereal dreamy quality that’s hard not to love. With a stellar cast and a heavy hitter in the director’s chair at the top of his game, Dune is the best movie of the year and one of the best space fantasies you’ll ever see. If given the option between the cinema and at home on HBO Max, you really should see this one on the big screen.