OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2021

Earlier this month, Dune hit cinemas after a year’s delay. And Denis Villeuneve’s film is exactly why we go to cinemas. Prepare to be immediately enveloped in a labyrinthian world and dropped into the heart of a dramatic conflict that sees 155 minutes absolutely fly by. Like all the greatest films, Dune is groundbreaking. It doesn’t give into traditional formulas but instead rides on the audience’s potential to dream a little bigger. 

But the release of Dune is merely the start of a bigger story, with Part Two only just green-lit by Legendary & Warner Bros. So now’s the time to get back to the cinema and invest in the future of what could well blossom into an epic franchise spanning years to come.

In Frank Herbert’s original novel, his notoriously hard to adapt and seemingly impenetrable story is also split in two. Part One introduces us to Paul (Thimothee Chalamet), son to Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) of the house Atreides. Their house is inexplicably summoned to move from their home world and take ownership of the planet Arrakis (AKA Dune) to oversee harvest of ‘The Spice’, this universe’s equivalent to oil and the only known way to undertake space travel. Of course, political rivals across the empire promise to make this a hard-fought endeavour. From the off, Dune connotes to the imagery of Star Wars but the political intrigue of Game of Thrones, yet came long before them.

For the film, director Denis Villeneuve took his favourite childhood novel and, against all odds, triumphantly curated a stunning adaptation of seismic proportions. In the way that Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter eventually had their pages flawlessly reflected onscreen, Dune takes time emulating Frank Herbert’s words into cinema near-perfectly. From scene to scene, it’s dream-like and unfamiliar yet never feels hard to follow. It trusts in your ability to give yourself up to a grand journey through this world. 

As with Blade Runner 2049’s world-building, Villeneuve flawlessly combines live action photography and visual effects to craft a rich storyworld unlike any other, this time with aid from cinematographer Greig Fraser. Paired with Hans Zimmer’s mesmerising score, you‘ll find yourself instantly immersed deep within a truly authentic world. One you could almost touch.

You could, though, argue that Dune relies too heavily on this spectacle, leaving behind a sense of vacancy, of little care for the characters inhabiting the screen. But the talent on display begs to differ. It’s a massive cast that massively delivers. Timothee Chalamet as Paul; Rebecca Ferguson opposite him as his mother, Lady Jessica; Jason Momoa as Paul’s brotherly confidant Duncan. These three most of all bring a heart and soul to Dune that lingers long after the end credits and promises a prosperous future.

In Dune’s wake, though, Part Two is left with a great weight on its shoulders. Not only in trying to reach the peaks of part one but, knowing the book, there’s a lot left of this story to unpack. As Zendaya’s character reminds us through a number of hallucinogenic visions; “this is only the beginning”.

At the end of the day, Dune is easily the best film to have released worldwide in cinemas this year. It’s bold, it’s brave, it’s ambitious, but it’s genuinely new (which sounds counter intuitive considering it’s adapted from a novel released in the 60s). 

Before the opportunity is gone, you should go and see Dune in cinemas. It’s a sensory overload, a film designed to completely submerge you within its storyworld. But you won’t just be investing in a spectacle unlike anything you’ve seen, you’ll literally be investing in what’s been teased as an “even more cinematic” sequel.