Dune: Première partie

Denis Villeneuve's DUNE has Campbell's monomythical framework storytelling structure. In fact, George Lucas used this model to build the stories. It has been redesigned to have the simplicity of the Story Circle. That's why almost everyone has the impression that they watched "DUNE: A Star Wars Story". For this reason, Greig Fraser as Cinematographer was deliberately chosen. If I had never read the book and I new nothing of Dune I could miss the opening credits and watch this film thinking it was a new Star Wars movie and I would be completely none the wiser.

The story is so adapted and simplified visually that a wide range of people can follow it, and further spreads the impression by words of mouth and camp in the front of the cinema.

This is a global phenomenon. It's incredibly viral. It affects.

The result is not to impress us who know the book by heart. Than to become a very viral film for a wide audience. It was made with the intention in advance of breaking the Box Office. But they didn't count on a pandemic and a be shown on HBO. This is the visual bible of Dune's book. And let's say the first 300 pages literally. Denis explains more with pictures than with words. This is the experimental exercise of cinematography. There are many parallels with George Lucas' way of expression, but Ridley Scott influence on "world-building" is also clear.

The film can literally be watched on MUTE and get to know the plot. Like a silent film literally. A similar feeling as with Odyssey in the Kubrick universe. The film is dead serious in the same way. Too serious for my taste. There are no jokes in it at all. There is no slang and bad language either. It's not a movie to watch with popcorn. You don't have to blink here to be able to absorb all the visual information. The disadvantage is that those who are not concentrated and rested can fall asleep in the cinema because they cannot process all the densely compressed information they receive.

This movie is the most spectacular, gorgeous and coherent aesthetic experience made available to movie-goers in a long time; it deserves to be seen in Imax. The acting is flawless, of course.

The story telling is faithful to the book and it serves the purpose of setting up a universe that is hard to setup, that said it is flawed as some rare moments fall short of what I have come to expect from Villeneuve.

This movie needs a director's cut release if it is to transcend these shortcomings and become a classic, and I do hope to see more of the profound themes of the Dune universe in the next movie.

Before I start, I am not very knowledgeable of Herbert's saga, having read only the first DUNE book when I was a kid.

Denis Villeneuve has really delivered an interesting, character building, and visually spectacular sci fi opus. While he had already proven himself in handling delicate material with Blade Runner 2049, I think Dune strikes an even better balance, partly due to the phenomenal source material, which however poses more challenging tasks to the writers and director due to the inherent political backdrop of the storyline.

Even the stellar cast, which are all very recognizable faces and could take away from the world building of the movie deliver excellent performances, and Timothee Chalamet (of whom I am not always the biggest fan) seems born to play the role of Paul Atreides.

DO NOT listen to predominantly American professional reviewers who accuse the movie to be a slow burner and a slog towards the end: in the last few years the "Marvel pocorn" movies have dominated the big budget landscape and the reviewers are just not used to immersing themselves anymore in an actual story.

A work of art, the cinematography, the music the designs all beautiful. Two and a half hours that passed like nothing and makes you crave for more. The pacing may seem a bit slow at first, but it blends perfectly into the telling of the story. The characters are well writen and played and even some minor inconsistencies within these characters is overshadowed by the pure beauty of the cinematography and the impressive storytelling. Great Movie. Hoping for Part two soon.

I'm a long time fan of the dune universe. Have read all the books multiple times and of course I've seen Lynch's version. This version is a lot better. Excellent world building, visually stunning and full of star power. It moves slow, which on the plus side gives it the chance to go into detail, but on the negative side means by the end it's not even at the halfway point of the first book. So it ends at the moment the mythology is just picking up. Which made me leave the cinema wishing to see part two, which unfortunately they haven't even started filming.

So IMHO the reviews giving this movie a 10 or calling it the movie of the year are overly positive. It's a visually stunning start to a potentially mind blowing universe, but mainly an introduction to that universe. Maybe when the story is finished (wouldn't surprise me if they need three movies for the first book) it will be mind blowing and perfect, but for now this movie is a great introduction to the duneverse. Good, but not great. Yet.