Dune

Dune (2021)

Gosh I really don’t know what I can say about this film. So I’ll just get autobiographical. I went to see this at the cinema with I think 6 friends. Each with different filmic tastes though, pivotally, a love of film to unite us. By the end of what felt like a bank holiday weekend we emerged from the darkness blinking our dry dead eyes wondering what on earth we just experienced. One of the gang, who is very much into “proper” sci-fi films really loved it. The rest of us just wanted to go home to bed and never discuss it again.

And then it got nominated for Best Picture at the bloody Oscars and here I am reluctantly revisiting it. Don’t be fooled. I haven’t rewatched it. Because after surviving a 2 year pandemic why would I do that to myself?

I don’t even feel equipped to judge it too harshly. It’s just not my cup of tea. Some people said the plot was too confusing but that wasn’t my problem. I understood the story I was just disinterested. I found myself thinking a lot about George Lucas and what an awesome achievement Star Wars was. It was Dune’s unpleasant score that started that tangent. It’s just noise. Meanwhile George Lucas had the vision to play a full orchestra against a backdrop of spaceships and aliens. Genius. I also started to think what a brilliant mind he had to get a share in the profits of the merchandise because that wasn’t a thing in 1977 and so he made an absolute killing off that. There’s a great mini series on Netflix called Toys That Made Us which goes into detail about that endeavour. Give it a watch, it’s fascinating.

But yeah Dune. It looked really nice. And the cast looked cool. But where did their charisma go? Genuine question here; why or how did these magnetic stars dismiss their shine? With a cast including Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Oscar Isaac - all who have charisma and sex oozing from their fingertips - what happened to their spark? It’s like they were tired from a team night out. It’s baffling.

In conclusion. If you love proper adult sci-fi like Blade Runner 2049 or 2001 A Space Odyssey you’ll probably love this. And I hope you do! In fact I’m a little envious. I do love Star Wars though.

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