The most challenging movies to make often prove to be book-to-film adaptations. Luckily, director Denis Villeneuve has done with Frank Herbert’s marvellous world Arrakis what Peter Jackson did with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth over a decade ago: made an incredibly good film that explores the philosophical themes and ideas that the author was trying to convey while giving the audience a thrilling time at the movies.
Bringing Herbert’s science-fiction world to the big screen is no easy task. The reason why Dune is considered nearly impossible to make into a semi-coherent movie is because it’s more ideological in nature. It’s not about big galactic battles and expensive special effects that you would see in a Star Wars or Star Trek movie. It’s about deeper concepts like parenthood, coming of age, racism, desperation, and politics.
These are really hard ideas to juggle cinematically and sell to a audience all at once, especially within a two-and-a-half-hour film. But I’m happy to report that Villeneuve pulls it off beautifully with his faithful adaptation of Dune.
What I really like about Villeneuve’s Dune is the flawless technical brilliance on display. Everything looks otherworldly. The art direction, costume design, cinematography, visual effects, and sound design really do a fantastic job of making the viewer believe that they are on a different planet. It is that well done and I predict that this film’s technical aspects are going to get a lot of attention this awards season.
The killer cast is also a key element to this movie’s success. From Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson to Josh Brolin and Oscar Isaac, everyone brings their A-game and at no time did I think that anyone has hamming it up or was miscast. But if I have to choose a favourite actor, it would be Ferguson, because she had the hardest role to play in the film.
Ferguson plays Lady Jessica, the main character Paul’s mother, who, at the beginning of the film, is forced to risk her son’s life for the good of their people. This is not an easy thing to portray, and I think Ferguson does a fantastic job doing just that and more.
The film’s ending might feel a little bit abrupt for some viewers. It truly feels like this is just part one of a trilogy, as it ends right in the middle of Paul’s journey and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. But, to be honest, I found the ending way better than the ending of The Fellowship of the Ring, which could be described as a similar sudden ending.
Overall, this film is an absorbing sci-fi adventure and is as faithful an adaptation as you can hope for from a book like Dune.