A serviceable, but uninspiring story

THERE are times I have watched a film and rushed to do a review, only to regret my hasty reaction after one or two more viewings.

Do not get me wrong: I watched more than enough movies to trust my instinct, but there are times I have got it wrong.

I am only bringing this up because I seem to struggle to make head or tail of the big screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s graphic novel “Dune”.

I have not read Herbert’s so-called literary masterpiece and in my book(s) (pun intended) that is a good thing as it allows me to take the movie for all its faults and merits without necessarily being influenced by the source material.

Back to the movie.

The plan is to make the film into a two-parter and in that regard, “Dune” is a serviceable introduction.

It ticks all the boxes in that it introduces us to the plot and characters. It also does a decent job of setting up the numerous stories for the next film. And there are a couple of noteworthy performances.

However, I am not entirely convinced that the hype surround- ing the release of the film is justified. The 155-minute runtime did not help matters. It led to some messy pacing of issues and filmmakers spend way too much time on “unimportant” characters.

Set in a distant future, “Dune” opens up with Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) accepting the stewardship of the dangerous desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune.

It is the only source of the most valuable substance in the universe, “melange” (known as “spice”), which makes it a strategic territory in interstellar politics. The drug is known to have properties that extend human life, provide superhuman levels of thought and make faster-thanlight travel practical.

Pensive at first, Leto accepts the offer and he takes his girlfriend Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), young son and heir Paul (Timothee Chalamet), and most trusted advisors to Arrakis.

Leto takes control of the spice mining operation, which is made perilous by the presence of giant sandworms and the apparent sabotage by his predecessors. A bitter betrayal leads to an invasion in which the Duke dies and his family is forced to escape to the Fremen, natives of Arrakis who live deep in the desert.

Their job is to regroup and then launch a rebellion with the aid of the natives.

The film, which is the first of a twopart story, serves as an introduction to this mystic and dystopian world, which is easy on the eye.

Director Denis Villeneuve did a great job on visuals.

The desert, funny enough, has never looked this awe-inspiring and the buildings and ships make for great apparatus in the all-important battles.

Chalamet, acting as Paul, is quickly established as the main character of both the film and story as he is destined to be the one to lead the natives in a rebellion against the Emperor, who is never seen in the actual film. However, the actor, through no fault of his own, fails to come off as likable. He spends the larger part of the film either brooding or dazed and having visions of future events.

One of his visions is of a girl, Chani (Zendaya), who, from his instincts, is supposed to play a key role in his future and the war to come. I personally did not like how the trailer of the film took us for fools.

Zendaya’s character is very prominent in the film’s trailer but plays no part in the actual film. She only appears in the film’s final minutes, though the expectation is that she has a bigger role in the sequel.

Chalamet and Zendaya also lead a star-studded cast with most of the other high-profile actors doing a very good job in their roles.

These include Isaac (Duke Leto), Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Stellan Starsgaard (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen), Dave Bautista (Glossu Rabban), Jason Momoa (Duncan Idaho) and Javier Bardem (Stilgar).

The characters Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck and Baron Vladimir literally save the film with their performance.

Momoa is a scene-stealer, with the American oozing charisma, while Starsgaard is brilliant behind the make-up and makes for a promising villain.

The tragedy of their situations is that many of these characters die in the movie and this is despite some time and attention being put on their characters and development.

It makes both the pacing and the duration of the film redundant in my opinion.

It is for this and a couple of other reasons that I have decided to defer my judgment until I see the second and final instalment.