STARRING: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Souheila Yacoub, Charlotte Rampling, Lea Seydoux, Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken. Written by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve. Music by Hans Zimmer. Budget $190 million. Running time 165 minutes.
Hmm, not too sure this HUGE budget hollywood remake quite captures the spirit of the original, much-loved 1970s sitcom starring Terry Scott and June Whitfield, particularly in the casting of the considerably younger Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in the titular roles.
Hmm, not too sure this HUGE budget hollywood remake quite captures the spirit of the original, much-loved 1970s sitcom starring Terry Scott and June Whitfield, particularly in the casting of the considerably younger Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in the titular roles.
The plot sees Terry coming home after work to tell his wife that his boss is coming over for dinner that night! and a promotion is in the offing. However all she has in the house is a tin of prunes and a cucumber, and tonight is the night of her tap dancing final assessment. Much hilarity ensues as she struggles to create a five course dinner while, due to an unlikely series of accidents, their house is reduced to a pile of rubble after a sandworm plows right through the house after poor Dune decides to practice her tap-dance routine, 'just one more time'.
Dune is a vast undertaking, and in the safe hands of Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert's much loved science fiction classic is brought to vivid orange life in two films whose combined running time is 320 minutes or five hours and 20 minutes, so quite remarkably it would be quicker to read the book than sit through both of these in the cinema.
Everything about this film is adult in attitude and tone, nothing about it is just for spectacle or effect. This is serious science fiction, with a strong, deeply serious cast, dealing with complex political issues with many story strands and characters all vying for your attention as intrigue and political machinations are played out with precision and with deep respect. There is no humour or any light-hearted japes to be had in this epic tome of a movie. The story follows on exactly where the last one ended. Little Paul Attridues is stuck in the desert with his mum and they're saved from some big sand snakes by a cranky desert warrior and his beautiful daughter and set off to get revenge for the death of not only Paul's dad, but his entire family and all their servants, and private army at the hands of the mad Baron, a humungous bald floating fat man in a massive moo-moo dress with some serious anger management issues. Meanwhile, said grumpy pants Baron has got two sons, or nephews who are also quite, quite insane and they want Paul dead, indeed everyone from the Emperor of the galaxy right down to the big-eared desert rats want Paul not only dead, but dead-dead, and do their absolute damndest to make this happen. Meanwhile, Paul is rather determined not to die, thank you very much, and begins to make life difficult for everyone forcing the entire galaxy to gather on the desert planet of Dune for an intervention.
And that's about it.
Dune is a vast undertaking, and in the safe hands of Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert's much loved science fiction classic is brought to vivid orange life in two films whose combined running time is 320 minutes or five hours and 20 minutes, so quite remarkably it would be quicker to read the book than sit through both of these in the cinema.
Everything about this film is adult in attitude and tone, nothing about it is just for spectacle or effect. This is serious science fiction, with a strong, deeply serious cast, dealing with complex political issues with many story strands and characters all vying for your attention as intrigue and political machinations are played out with precision and with deep respect. There is no humour or any light-hearted japes to be had in this epic tome of a movie. The story follows on exactly where the last one ended. Little Paul Attridues is stuck in the desert with his mum and they're saved from some big sand snakes by a cranky desert warrior and his beautiful daughter and set off to get revenge for the death of not only Paul's dad, but his entire family and all their servants, and private army at the hands of the mad Baron, a humungous bald floating fat man in a massive moo-moo dress with some serious anger management issues. Meanwhile, said grumpy pants Baron has got two sons, or nephews who are also quite, quite insane and they want Paul dead, indeed everyone from the Emperor of the galaxy right down to the big-eared desert rats want Paul not only dead, but dead-dead, and do their absolute damndest to make this happen. Meanwhile, Paul is rather determined not to die, thank you very much, and begins to make life difficult for everyone forcing the entire galaxy to gather on the desert planet of Dune for an intervention.
And that's about it.
Stunning to look at, vast in scope and ambition, without a shred of 'stuff for the kids', and absolutely no sodding transforming robots, stupid superheroes or wise cracking sassy teenage girls with amazing powers. CGI is used incredibly well, the technology in this world of 10,000 is strangely old fashioned, no holograms, or AI (which is banned in this world), but ancient technology and a reliance on swords rather than guns. The design of this world is fantastically realistic and also bizarrely alien, the use of actual physical sets gives the film yet another layer of believability. No need for vast green screens when you've actually built your massive mountain sets.
It's such a delight to see a science fiction film treated with such respect, and so adult in intent. The film is so vast in scope and scale that it's sadly undune by it's on reverence, it's too long and so packed with incident that it drowns under the sheer mass of plot it has to handle. It's also a film that is simultaneously too long and oddly rushed, particularly in the ending, which you want to revel in but can't. Also, spare a thought for poor Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken who are reduced to nothing more than blink and you missed them cameos, I was always fascinated by the character of the Emperor and he feels noticeable by his absence. I wanted more of him, and more of the Baron and perhaps less of the white saviour Paul teaching the desert people how to fight.
It's funny watching this remake, you're reminded of the flawed David Lynch version, which fumbled the ball by trying to condense the massive book into one film, Denis succeeds with his adaptation, but you're left wishing he'd made his adaptation into three films and given the much needed conclusion room to properly breathe.
My son, brilliantly created a three word review of Oppenheimer that perfectly captured the film he said: "Long and Loud." For Dune he summed it up in equally brilliant manner with the following, "Long and orange."
It's such a delight to see a science fiction film treated with such respect, and so adult in intent. The film is so vast in scope and scale that it's sadly undune by it's on reverence, it's too long and so packed with incident that it drowns under the sheer mass of plot it has to handle. It's also a film that is simultaneously too long and oddly rushed, particularly in the ending, which you want to revel in but can't. Also, spare a thought for poor Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken who are reduced to nothing more than blink and you missed them cameos, I was always fascinated by the character of the Emperor and he feels noticeable by his absence. I wanted more of him, and more of the Baron and perhaps less of the white saviour Paul teaching the desert people how to fight.
It's funny watching this remake, you're reminded of the flawed David Lynch version, which fumbled the ball by trying to condense the massive book into one film, Denis succeeds with his adaptation, but you're left wishing he'd made his adaptation into three films and given the much needed conclusion room to properly breathe.
My son, brilliantly created a three word review of Oppenheimer that perfectly captured the film he said: "Long and Loud." For Dune he summed it up in equally brilliant manner with the following, "Long and orange."
Visually spectacular, adult and powerful, but too long and oddly rushed at the same time.
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments, unless they're how to make money working from home, are gratefully received.