Dune - Narrative Promises
Thoughts On: Dune (2021)
A prince with a heavy destiny experiences the fall of his kingdom.
Space politics. Dune is, objectively speaking, pretty banal. But, as a promise of more to come, it is certainly fascinating. With spectacular visuals and a powerful soundscape, Dune manages to enthral the senses and capture the imagination. However, nothing really happens that is not a foreseeable political unfolding, and the character building is very minimal. If not for the steady pacing and striking cinematography/direction, I would assert that this should have been cut down to a 30-45 minute first act of a fully realised narrative. It should be said also that it is the documentary, Jodorowsky's Dune, that kept me focused throughout; you can feel Villeneuve's reverence for what could have been in the lauded, but non-existent promise of Jodorowsky's dream project. Villeneuve's Dune is much dryer and plain than anything I could imagine Jodorowsky himself constructing - which is perhaps my main apprehension concerning Villeneuve's works of late; from Arrival to Blade Runner to now Dune, Villeneuve's seriousness in direction has been at odds with the objectiveness of his characters. While Arrival has a fascinating protagonist to carry the film and imbue its subtext with humanity, Enemy still remains my favourite film of his because of the dark hole that is Gyllenhaal's character, and the oneiric horror that Villeneuve's patient direction allows to seep out of him. The brooding, shadowy characters of his developing sci-fi epics are highly dependent on the depths we believe to feel in his characters, which unfortunately reveals his cinema to be more susceptible to a hit/miss predicament than the serious - almost Kubrick-esque - tone of his movies fronts. I, for example, really don't care for his Blade Runner 2049. I don't mind the original; it is smart, but not thought-provoking to me, and I never believed or felt it to be a masterpiece in any regard. Without a reverence for the original Blade Runner, 2049 was just dull and long to me. I suspect Dune would have been more of the same if I hadn't enjoyed Jodorowsky's Dune so much. But, with that said, I will withhold further judgment in anticipation for part 2. I hope it will see our rather stiff archetypes established in this first part develop into something more soulful and expressive than what has so far been put to screen.
