Dune
It’s here! It’s officially here! I feel like I’ve been thinking about this cinematic experience forever. “Dune” was supposed to be released last year but obviously couldn’t because the world fell apart. So it has been moved like ten times. I have literally been talking about this movie since January. People would ask me what movies I was looking forward to and the first movie out of my mouth, everytime, was “Dune.” I don’t know what it was that was so exciting to me about it. No, I do. It was a combination of the warm, arid climate in the trailers, and Timothee Chalamet and Oscar Isaac. And Zendaya. I can’t forget about her. I love all four of those things! Oh and any movie that has a score by Hans Zimmer I am all over! Okay, so five things! Ugh, okay... I guess I was destined to be a fan of this movie.
So, It took me about half the movie to get entrenched in the world. I mean, it makes sense why it would be so difficult, though, the movie was trying to spit us into a whole different world that had different lingo and ways of life. It’s only natural that I would require some time to get used to it. Like going to a foreign country you could say I had “culture shock.” That brings me to the first point I
wanted to discuss, world building. The world the film built, Arrakis, was perfect. I can always tell when a world is well built, or well created, because I feel like if I went outside at that moment, it would be the same weather that the setting in the movie has. This movie made me feel like if I went outside, it would be sunny, hot, sandy, and windy. I wanted to be careful as I walked out not to open my mouth too much to talk for fear that I might get some flying sand in my mouth. There were also several times during the movie that I had to muster up the self control to keep from spitting to make sure my mouth was clean of sand. To me, because I felt like I was in the world, that equals good world building. I felt like this movie had just as great world building as Star Wars. I loved it. I feel like Warner Brothers could make an “Arrakis World” or an “Arrakis Land” in one of their theme parks and it would do quite well.
The acting was great all around. I watch Grace Randolph’s videos, I am a big fan of those. In her review of this movie, she talked about how Oscar Isaac does not have the posture of a king and that he was just not believable in his role. I think she might just have a nasty taste in her mouth about Oscar Isaac because he was in that miniseries “Scenes From a Marriage” with Jessica Chastain and we all know how Grace Randolph feels about Jessica Chastain. (BTW “Scenes From a Marriage” was SO good!) I thought he was good, though. Was he as good as, I thought, he was in Star Wars? No! But he was not distracting as I was expecting him to be. One scene that really stuck with me and the more I thought about it, the more beautiful and artistic it became is the scene where he is laying at the table with Stellan Skarsgard’s character. He is naked and laying in such a way where you can see his muscles but his body looks lifeless and contoured. It reminded me a lot of the statues of Jesus, at a lot of churches or cathedrals, hanging on the cross and he just looks so helpless. I do not tend to look for religious similarities but this was so obvious that I had to mention it!
Timothee Chalamet is similar to Adam Driver, for me. I just have faith that whatever movie they
are in is going to be at least kind of good. I just trust their judgement. He is just very believable in playing the role of a King’s son, he plays a similar role in the movie “The King,” on Netflix and does a great job. He is just such a genuine actor and I really appreciate that. Rebecca Fergusen is good! Man, I feel like she is in everything now! She is good here! I think she is not an actress that tends to stand out, except for being insanely beautiful but, you know, she was not distracting or took me out of the story. I did think she was a little too young looking to be his mom, but that’s not too big of a deal. What was Dave Bautista doing in this movie? I still don't quite know the point of his presence or his character arc. I feel like Dave Bautista can really only play the role of Drax. I just see that in everything he does. Jason Momoa was actually really good. I really believed in his character and when Timothee Chalamet would get all excited to see him, I could understand why and could feel comfort in Jason Momoa.
I didn’t even know that Stellan Skarsgard was in this and whenever he was on screen I would think, “Is that Stellan Skarsgard?” and I was right! He was very good. I was just so disgusted by his character which was good because he was playing a vile character. Now, onto Zendaya.
She, in my opinion, is perfect. She can do anything she wants, including play a real grown up when she looks like she’s 17, like she did in “Malcolm and Marie.” Her role in this movie was a lot smaller than I expected but there was a lot of “build-up” around her character which leads me to believe she will be a big character in future movies, assuming there are future movies.
Hans Zimmer’s score is amazing! Those drums...mmmh. I have never been one to sit and listen to a score from a movie, I usually don’t find it too interesting. I can honestly say that I’m listening to the score as I write this review right now. It was that good and other-worldly. It took on the job of transporting audiences to Arrakis and succeeded at that job alongside the set and production design. My theater was loud but not too loud. Just loud enough where the score pierced through my body and caused me to feel. Overall, I loved Dune! You should see it and then tell me what you think! It was worth the wait, in my humble opinion.
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