Dune
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Let’s get down to business. Dune is easily the biggest film of the year, and its technical elements alone warrant a ticket. I don’t care if you don’t like the source material, science fiction, epics, whatever. Dune has to be seen, even if it has some areas to critique (not many, but they are major enough to worth mentioning). If you want to know what the cinematic event of the year is (even though it technically was meant to be the event of 2020), it’s Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. The titanic sets. Hans Zimmer’s overwhelming score. The mind boggling effects. Everything in Dune is as big as it gets, and you are guaranteed to be riveted in these ways. Okay, so the story itself really won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, with its complicated world building, elaborate politics, and cold demeanour. For me, this wasn’t an issue. I’m not a Dune fan when it comes to Frank Herbert’s series, so I wouldn’t be instantly won over through bias. However, I feel like everything is mapped out quite well (albeit wide and expansive enough to bore some viewers, but I was fine).
If anything, it’s mapped out almost too well. It’s no secret that this is meant to be the first film of at least some sort of a series (even if it ends at just two films in total), and I understand what comes from that: an open ending. I would have no concern here. The Fellowship of the Ring promised more films in the Lord of the Rings series, and I consider that a nearly perfect epic. The main difference is Fellowship feels like it can exist on its own. Dune feels like the most elaborate, breathtaking prologue I’ve ever seen. This is a two-and-a-half hour film that could keep my attention for every second, and the film really doesn’t go anywhere. Could you imagine if Dune was released as the five hour completed work that it could have been? Of course, any studio nowadays wouldn’t let that happen; hell, I’m kind of shocked that Dune can exist the way it is in the first place (outside of the money signs that come from a nearly-guaranteed sequel, of course). Had this film been more complete narratively, it could have even been the film of the year.
Dune is far from finished.
That isn’t the case, and I can only await the next film (whenever it comes). I hope I don’t get burned like I did with David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (even though even that feels like a more completed story), where the set up is set in stone and the follow up never arrives. On the topic of comparisons, I’ll make one more. Dune feels like Denis Villeneuve’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy: an obviously mainstream blockbuster, but one that plays more with the rules of the auteur than of Hollywood. I won’t say Dune is exactly like Batman Begins; the former is a much more stunning achievement, but the latter is most certainly more wrapped up. All I can hope is that the followup, should Villeneuve work on it as well, will be what The Dark Knight did for superhero films within the science fiction epic genre: a game changer. We just have to wait and see. Judging by how exhilarating, moving, and spellbinding Dune is, its promised sequel can only (hopefully) mean more. I can’t grade a film based on what-ifs and prophecies, though. All we have here is a filmmaking marvel that kind of just exists. I don’t mind, because Dune is extraordinary even just in this state of limbo, but it’s still frozen in time as this array of sensational filmmaking. Alas, thus is the curse taking on a project this ambitious. Let’s wait for the sequel.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.