Sandworm turns
Cert 12A ★★★★★ In cinemas now
This is only the beginning,” says Zendaya’s desert warrior at the end of this sprawling two-and-a-half hour epic. We will have to wait to see if she’s telling the truth.
A caption reminds us this is just Part
One. After Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve’s last big budget sci-fi, flopped, his paymasters are keeping a keen eye on this weekend’s box office before committing to Part Two.
This may be a film without an ending, but Villeneuve still offers plenty of bang for your buck with a spectacular adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 novel. There are vast battles, political intrigue, impressive sets, giant monsters and a speaker-rattling score from the great Hans Zimmer.
Unlike David Lynch’s barely comprehensible 1984 version, Villeneuve allows his characters and Herbert’s dense mythology plenty of room to breathe.
Again, most of the action takes place on the commodity-rich planet of Arrakis where giant sandworms patrol the desert plains and the indigenous Fremen wage guerrilla war on their colonial masters from House Harkonnen.
Now the Emperor has ordered their fascistic leader Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) to let the nicer folk from House
Atreides take over duties of mining a valuable element called Spice.
Their leader Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) wants a treaty with the Fremen. But before his benevolent form of colonialism can take root, the bloated Baron launches a surprise attack.
Caught in the middle are Atreides’ young heir Paul (a perfectly cast Timothee Chalamet) and his mystical mum Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).
Both possess Jedi-like, psychic powers (the novel was mined mercilessly by George Lucas) and Paul seems to fit the Fremens’ prophecies of a messiah.
But is Paul really The One? Hopefully, we’ll find out in Part Two.
Unlike David Lynch’s version, the mythology has room to breathe