Dune

Des vaisseaux spatiaux gigantesques, mais leur apporter un peu d'eau de Norvège en guise de reconnaissance pour les épices, alors ça - non ! En tant que non-lecteur de l'original, j'ai préféré le deuxième visionnage, du moins de la première moitié du demi-film. La seconde moitié, « désertique », était au contraire à cause de l’imagination présumée terriblement longue. La question clé : sans aucun livre et avec seulement ce scénario, y aurait-il eu une raison d'en réaliser un film, surtout dans une version aussi coûteuse ? Quelle nouveauté, à part les vers géants, apporterait-il aujourd'hui au monde des films de science-fiction ? De plus, si la splendeur visuelle sans émotions, avec des phrases sans lien avec les questions philosophiques de la vie humaine réelle est aujourd'hui considérée comme de l'art, je veux revenir aux années 2001-2003, lorsque de magnifiques films voyageant dans les mondes fantastiques basés sur des livres étaient capables de me faire pleurer et de me faire tomber amoureux de leurs personnages. Je donne une quatrième étoile purement IMAX pour le casting excellent, que ce projet attendait peut-être autant que l'artiste visionnaire qu'est Villeneuve, pour l'excellent défilé de costumes et de maquillage (Skarsgård!) et pour l'immensité audiovisuelle à couper le souffle, dynamisée par le « plus lourd » de Zimmer. Après une première écoute en voiture, je savais que ce ne serai pas la dernière. En effet, ce ne fut pas la dernière et j'attends avec impatience le morceau « Leaving Caladan » en live lors de la prochaine tournée ! (20/10/2021)

Look, let's say you don't need to see most films today in the cinema. Their visuals aren't interesting or sophisticated enough, they lack something that would give you that pleasant tingle in the back of your neck, they don’t motivate you to see them on the big screen, or it's just a dull colouring book for teenagers (oops, anyone heard of Marvel?), so you can get a big TV at home, or a monitor if you're a really undemanding viewer. But Villeneuve's Dune? My God! That's in a whole different league, that's the kind of film big halls and big screens are built for. There hasn't been a visual epic like this since ...... well, maybe since Nolan's Interstellar, and as for capturing the sheer genius loci of the desert, its magical dunes and scorching sand, there hasn't been anything like it for 60 years, when – as Steven Spielberg declared "the miracle of cinema" – Lean's Lawrence of Arabia premiered. And everything else in Dune is a triumph of cinematic design, a non-tactile architecture of spectacular proportions, an interior design that illustrates the fantastic visual compositions. Add to that the incredibly good cast – I was most excited about Chalamet, which is exactly how I imagined Paul Atreides. Other reasons why this is a film for the cinema: Zimmer's powerful, droning score (a quality audio set is a must) and then the simple fact that Villeneuve likes to shoot in the dark, at night, and much of the film is dark, with Villeneuve playing with light and shadows and ominous gloom. At home on the computer you’ll see fuck all. So I'll conclude with a nice little friendly jab at you – if you are judging a visual epic like this based on the aforementioned fuck all, you are an idiot (no smiley face). (21/10/2021)

I didn't think that I would end up agreeing with the more reserved reviews of Villeneuve's Dune (it was by far the most anticipated film of the year for me too). After all the colourful crappy blockbusters from Disney, Marvel and Netflix, it's really refreshing to see something expensive and adult in the cinema that doesn't try to pander to stupid teenagers. Dune is also definitely well made in terms of craftmanship, visual effects, and production design; there is no question that this is an exceptionally refined work in terms of aesthetics – looking at those paintings is a treat, even if their beauty is quite austere. And yet, I can’t bring myself to be thrilled. The first half still offered hopes of it with the introduction of the space politics, the various secret plans and intrigues, which had me reliably hooked and looking forward to seeing how it all would build up. But in the second half we suddenly end up looking into the desert and the film lost me. And that’s probably due to the fact that it failed to establish any kind of bond with the characters; they are all so cold; I just couldn’t enjoy it, even with Chalamet, whom I otherwise like a lot. The character played by Jason Momoa is apparently supposed to serve as the "heart of the film", but we don't really get to know him at all! His relationship with Chalamet is built purely on the basis of a few friendly hugs, otherwise, we don't get know anything about him because we haven’t gone through anything with them. And that's how it is with everybody, and it's hard to develop an emotional bond with them. The only thing you can potentially grasp in the first Dune are emotions, because the "plot" manages to start but doesn't come to anything ("It begins" is a really fitting slogan for the poster). But action is not one of Villeneuve’s strengths. (21/10/2021)

This was an EXPERIENCE. Once every few years you sit down in a movie theater, and thanks to the subject matter you somehow know what to expect. Yet after a few minutes, all your ideas start to fall apart because everything that happens on the screen inevitably keeps you enthralled for 155 minutes. Not a single part of the film is wasted, the synthesis of image and sound is at its peak, and the gigantic spaceships amaze as much as the intimate story of the young messiah makes you shiver. The people who believed in it at Warner Brothers, and slapped that insane budget on it, are my personal heroes of the capitalist gamble of the movie business. Any objective criticism is beyond me. Along with Interstellar, I place Dune on the pedestal of the best science fiction of the 21st century. (11/01/2022)

It's a nice smelling fart. The second one is probably going to be great, and the promises of a blast are huge, but I don't really see why it couldn't be a blast now. (22/09/2021)

It’s not without flaws, but euphoria prevails nonetheless. It’s a soulful epic and a surprisingly moving story about overcoming fear of oneself and the unknown. The distant future could hardly be more realistic and strangely intimate. The figures came out well, and Villeneuve overcomes the hollow mannerisms of Blade Runner and serves up images with sweat and blood. Duncan Idaho has finally replaced Aragorn in my heart. At several moments the film evoked exactly the same intense feelings as the book. However, it stands on its own sturdy legs as a film. I'd watch the sequel immediately... (18/10/2021)

A visually captivating and a pompous and lavish promise of things to come. By far the best part is the simply brilliant, brilliantly simple logo design. (23/10/2021)

Denis Villeneuve is certainly a director who has a lot to offer to the film industry, but unfortunately I wasn't enchanted by Dune. I don't know the book or the original film, so I didn't know what to expect, but I'm not too happy with the final result. At first glance Dune seemed attractive, it presents an interestingly imagined world, though it's definitely not another Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. more like another Star Wars, only more sophisticated. Visually, Dune was impressive until the action came along; unfortunately, but I've seen nothing worse in that regard. The fights looking like something out of The Power Rangers (those red and blue flashing shields on the characters was a heavily distracting element for me), making the already lackluster PG-13 action even more distracting. The second installment is supposed to promise a spectacular battle. Well, if it's going to flash like it did here, they'd better stick to the politics, because that was far more interesting. The Sand Worm looked nice, but considering that it took two years to make, I expected more than a 30-second shot. I have to praise the cast, even if there wasn't much left for the second part. The music didn't impress me much (did bagpipes play during the battle?), the pace is very slow, it drags awfully especially in the second half, the emotions are missing, the plot is not completely stupid, but it's almost impossible to pick up all the genders, names and titles without knowing the source material, and I won't watch Dune again voluntarily. I'm afraid this new world-building will pass me by, as there wasn't a single WOW scene that made me want to watch Dune again, and I don't even have much to show my friends. I'll stick with a neutral unenthusiastic 3 stars for the visuals and the actors who played their part. Story 4/5, Action 1/5, Humor 1/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10. (21/10/2021)

Unprecedented in scale and richness, but unfortunately at least a step backward in everything else. I want to endlessly explore this brutally beautiful world with all its principles, but it is closer to me as a concept, maybe even as a metaphor. Definitely more than the story that takes place in it, no matter how much its characters experience emotions and twists. I want to get under the skin of characters other than Paul, and the most interesting ones unfortunately leave too quickly. 70% for the weakest of Denis Villeneuve's films, but the sequel might still be the event I was expecting the first time around. (12/11/2021)

This will sound biased, but go see the new Dune at the cinema. Only there will it properly roar and fulfil its essence as an extreme sensory work. The imposing sights of gargantuan proportions, where the human characters’ smallness is manifested in relation to the vast surrounding space that they vainly attempt to conquer, are combined with a practically constant mass of sound, which completes the tangible crushing effect and poetic beauty of the worlds contained in the film. The rigorous aesthetic dramaturgy perfectly holds all of the creative talents of the film’s individual elements on the reins of the paramount vision. This is what comprises the essence and exceptionalism of Villeneuve in comparison with most other directors of big-budget projects in recent decades. Filmmakers such as Luc Besson and even George Lucas are easily intoxicated by their collaborators and populate their films with an overabundance of details that draw attention to themselves at the expense of the whole. Villeneuve, on the other hand, bears comparison to Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher and other filmmakers who are able to set out a unified vision and make full use of others to fulfil it. The central storyline is basically simple and mainly presents the potential for subsequent development and even subversion in accordance with Herbert’s saga. The seemingly simple story about the coming of the messiah is topped off with the motif of faith and religion as a power construct working with prefabricated stories in which the personalities of individuals are diluted and subjected to a defined and indoctrinated destiny. In his previous film, Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve had already brilliantly shattered the myth of the “chosen one”, which to a large extent forms the essential foundation Western (pop) culture. In the case of Dune, however, he conjures up a sprawling epic, in which the first film plants the seeds from which the trees of the next film (or films) will grow. It thus shouldn’t come as a surprise that the director had concerns that in the current situation the film would not make money in the cinemas and that the overarching vision developed through several films would be nipped in the bud. This is indeed just the beginning and it is so exciting to be a witness to it. (20/10/2021)

Dune came to the film industry at the right time to support struggling movie theaters and generate interest in grand epic spectacles primarily designed for the big screen. For this category, the choice of the Canadian visionary as director is ideal, and it must be noted that Denis (not only) fulfilled expectations to a T. The film looks and does not function exactly as I anticipated. My relationship with the source material was shaped by my encounter with Lynch's Dune, which was very problematic even during filming and now, years later, looks painfully tacky and ridiculous. The motif of almost half-kilometer-long worms traversing the sand dunes and devouring giant mining machines is unbearable to me in any refined presentation, and above all, I generally do not have a liking for fantasy combined with caricature of the sci-fi genre. Spaceships and intricate machines combined with mysticism and magic, which infected and devalued a significant part of the sci-fi genre, irritate me, and I see the origin of this degeneration precisely in Dune. Unfortunately, I cannot praise Herbert for that. It is true that Dune is not Star Wars, at least not in the sense that the SW world is intended for a childlike and childish audience, whereas Dune aims to appeal primarily to more mature teenagers. But thanks to Villeneuve's top craftsmanship, it is possible to consider it the ideal family entertainment of the present. As I mentioned before, when a screenwriter presents me with a "voice" or "power," I turn the other way. I do not like the use of religious motifs such as the coming of the Savior. Additionally, Dune is clearly influenced by Islamic apocalypticism. My last complaint is that I do not like the cinematic world where elite super-fighters are attacked only to be subsequently massacred in personal combat by a hero who, mind you, is an ultra-super-cool fighter. So why the weak 4-star rating? Because I appreciate Villeneuve's ability to create monumental images and an equally monumental soundtrack, and I am a big fan of Villeneuve. Because I understand that world cinema needed Dune. Because going to the cinema this time was a social event for me in the form of having my daughter with me, whose enchantment with the film has somewhat transferred onto me. Overall impression: 70%, with the understanding that I will not be present for the sequel to Dune. It has nothing more to offer me, nor does it have anything to surprise me with. (07/11/2021)

The audiovisual experience of the year. A regular movie theater is too small. Any imperfection on the screen and the weak sound are painfully obvious. Putting this book onto the movie screen at this moment in time makes perfect sense and creates the necessary counterbalance to most of today’s movie production. Civilization as a relic that needs to be cleansed of the lives of unbelievers in a holy war made to thrill the fighters of ISIS and their supporters. And the indication that men aren’t so absolutely useless as we first thought is also very audacious. Underneath the traditional western-geared topics, we sense Herbert’s fascination with the Middle East. Villeneuve does his very best at depicting the world and its mechanisms. The movie is bristling with ideas, e.g. technical details, Harkonnen songs or the Scottish bagpipes. Comparison to Star Wars is relevant only in terms of scale, and in this respect ⊃∪∩⪽ is much more realistic. The acting is top-notch from all of them. Emotions bubble under the surface and aren’t needlessly displayed. The only trouble is that it’s terribly short, even though what takes place in the first part covers material that fills more than half of the original book. Zimmer is darkly thundering. (20/10/2021)

Anyone who liked the directorial and aesthetic set-up of Blade Runner 2049 will rejoice with Dune, for it is one step further in its monstrosity and technical opulence. Villeneuve knows how to be epic, pompous, sublime and flamboyant, but as a whole it never slips into excessive pathos or kitsch. Audiovisually this is one of the most compelling films in years, but plot-wise it's hard to judge, maybe it's better to wait for part 2. Zimmer fantastically functional in the film, harder to listen to on its own. (17/10/2021)

I like it when the film takes me to a whole new world and it does it so believably that after a few minutes I have no doubt that I really am there. I think Avatar was the last to do it, and I'm glad that Dune was able to do it now. I don't know how people who didn't read the book are going to like it, but I felt at home on Arrakis and I enjoyed the beautiful design, the architecture, the design of the ships, the costumes and the precisely cast actors as much as the story with which the creators (assuming that there will be a second film) matched as best they could. Where Herbert's book gave them space to delight, they delighted, and where they could take something away, they did so in their own and in the audience's interest. Yes, the book is much richer thanks to the constantly flowing thought processes of all the characters, and many more things are obvious in it than in the film, but I did not feel that the Dune lacked anything significant. A separate chapter is the music of Hans Zimmer, which I must honestly praise again after No Time to Die. I can't imagine that the second film won't be made, so I’m not even going to imagine it and I'm looking forward to it. (22/10/2021)

I didn’t know that polished visuals without heart or lifelike characters was all you needed today to be thrilled. Although things work well at first, and the intro is properly epic and informationally dense, gradually, Villeneuve merely throws basic scenes from the book at the viewer without providing any deeper sensory or intellectual experience. Herbert's novel is packed with various ecological, political or religious motifs that shape the world and the story of the chosen one Paul Atreides, but the film version of Dune is packed with star actors whose characters come and go without any significant trace, and most of all it resembles a drawn-out two-and-a-half-hour exposition where everything happens without any motivational coherence or build-up. There may be a sequel, but I doubt it will be able to salvage this incoherent scripted mess that could have ended an hour later without having any effect on the message of the film. The more I think about it in hindsight and after writing this review, the weaker it seems and I have not the slightest interest in ever revisiting it – what a contrast to epic origin stories like The Fellowship of the Ring or A New Hope, crammed with memorable lines, amazing characters, and a world that serves not just its own greatness, but more importantly, a fluid narrative. Dune has none of that, and it also lacks basic clues that would lead the attention to a dominant theme. It wants to take everything from the book while taking nothing at all – the audience can't even focus on the story of the chosen hero, since we barely get to that line, or the story of the oppressed natives on the mining planet like in Avatar, since the Fremen, what a surprise, don't really show up much on the scene either. I though it would turn out this way, and I'm damn sorry – Villeneuve doesn't even come close to great storytellers like Cameron, Lucas, Jackson, and Spielberg. I’m giving it a weak 3* and I don't want to hear about this movie for a pretty long time. (15/08/2022)

Je me permets de commencer par une petite remarque, mais qui a son importance : Dune doit être vu sur le plus grand écran possible et votre salon ne suffira pas à accueillir l’expérience adéquate. Bâtisseur de mondes extrêmement talentueux, Denis Villeneuve nous immerge dans des univers virtuels qui nous procurent chaque fois une grande expérience cinématographique. Néanmoins, en tant que lecteur du modèle littéraire, j'ai abordé Dune en sachant d’avance que je serais privé de l’effet de surprise de l'intrigue. Ainsi, j’ai pu avoir une appréciation particulière envers le savoir-faire technique, l'inventivité des créateurs et, surtout, l'habileté à raconter une histoire qui m'était déjà familière (ce qui n'était pas le cas, par exemple, du Dune de Lynch). Ici, tout fonctionne véritablement à un niveau ultime. En fait, le principal élément de frustration de ce film réside dans l’incertitude concernant la sortie d’une suite et la résolution du récit dans son ensemble. Ce qui me ramène à ma remarque initiale : plus les gens regarderont Dune ailleurs qu’au cinéma, plus la probabilité de la suite convoitée diminuera. La balle est désormais dans le camp du public, à moins que le studio n’envisage la possibilité de subventionner une saga à faible marge sur la seule base des critiques positives. (18/10/2021)

"This is just a beginning." I never read Herbert's novel, so I went to the cinema as a blank slate and with sober expectations, given the fuss around and the long wait for the premiere. Dune is definitely one of those films that you have to experience (and enjoy) in the cinema, as it is an audiovisually polished orgy that is admittedly not unprecedented for today's technical capabilities, Nevertheless, it managed to thrill and satisfy me – from the soulfully ethnic soundtrack with "a touch of heavy metal", to the beautiful scenery with sometimes appealingly arranged planning, to the precise sound effects work (the short but distinctive vocal delivery of the worms evoked the heptapods from Arrival). Dune offers interesting storylines (the chosen saviour, the interbreeding of clans, the hiearchy and strife between nations, Bene Gesserit, Baron "SS" and others), which will be interesting to see how they develop further in the next installment of the saga – provided the project gets the green light. This fact was a minor stumbling block for me, because it was obvious that this is a kind of appetizer or first course, which is supposed to get me up, hungry and attracted, but cannot fully satisfy me. A solid four stars! PS: Subjective observation: at times, Dune evoked the atmosphere of Miyazaki's films, especially the ecological Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind. (11/11/2021)

Dune, le seul film de David Lynch que je n’ai pas encore vu et ça restera ainsi pour l’instant. Par contre, je viens de regarder la nouvelle version et j’ai directement commandé le livre. Ce monde est fascinant… Et dire que quelqu’un l’a conçu il y a soixante ans ! J'aime ce côté réfléchi et sophistiqué et je suis persuadé qu'il sera plus marqué encore dans le livre. Le film est un régal visuel et je crois que si je le voyais au cinéma, je lui mettrais six étoiles. :-) (09/03/2022)

Denis Villeneuve ends his personal "sci-fi trilogy" in pompous style. Concerns about too much plot or character superficiality are completely unnecessary, as this Villeneuve version has a huge heart alongside its majestic aesthetic. All the weight that Chalamet's character carries is vividly palpable, and Rebecca Ferguson excels as the caring mother (who shares that weight with him). So does Jason Momoa, who has perhaps his best role ever here. In general, the entire casting is ultra-successful, and Hans Zimmer's boisterous tones combined with the orgiastic visuals give you (more than) one pleasant shiver. If Villeneuve makes a sequel at least this good, his adaptation will become a cult classic. [90%] (23/10/2021)