Plot Summary – Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, only those who can conquer their own fear will survive.

★★★½

Watched on 22 Oct 2021

It’s when I watch films like this when I feel that maybe I just don’t understand film because everyone loved it so much and I didn’t. A close friend of mine described it as an “audio-visual orgasm” and I agree with that but it was not much more than that. I completely get it if that’s what you go to a film for and especially in the case of this one, I think that’s all a lot of people wanted. I have to concede there because it is a gorgeous film. I have not seen something this visually interesting ever I think. The use of colour, scaling and shot composition is genius. The sound design manages to transport you into this world and you’re just mesmerized. Hans Zimmer comes out with this score that is nothing like I’ve ever heard before and matches this world perfectly. None of those things are the issue. It’s a perfectly helmed film. But personally, I expect more from films, cause it’s possible to be extremely visually interesting while having heart and three-dimensional characters. I could not bring myself to care about any of these people, whether it’s Timothee Chalamet’s Paul who wanders through the film like a stoner or any of the other supporting characters (except for Jason Momoa, who is just brilliant in this film). I don’t know if the problem is with Chalamet’s performance or that his character is given so little depth that he struggles to make it interesting but either way, I found him to be very one-note. There can be extremely large scale films with a lot of heart but this seems soulless. Yes, my eyes and ears were pleasantly rewarded, but what about my mind? This film did not make me feel a single emotion other than “Wow this is a very well-made scene”. It just doesn’t resonate with the audience in any meaningful way and maybe that’s not a problem for most film-goers but I couldn’t get over that. It doesn’t question your morals or analyse any characters or have great metaphors to reality, it’s just cool space stuff I guess. I’m still really excited for Part Two cause I think they’ve set up something spectacular. All this being said, I still recommend that you go and watch this in theatres because it will leave you mighty impressed with the way it is presented.