Dune

Hollywood has produced many different genres in their history, and sci-fi is certainly one of the oldest and most popular of them. Between "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Alien", "Event Horizon", all the 'comic book films' and the like, we've seen a plethora of them. Now we have "Dune" to gnaw our teeth on.

A mythic and emotionally charged hero's journey, "Dune" tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), 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 including his father Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) and his mother Lady Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson) and his people including Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) and Gurney Kalleck (Josh Brolin). As Malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence--a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential--only those who can conquer their fear will survive. 

Others to round out the cast are Zendaya as Chani, Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Thufir Hamat, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Dr. Liet Kynes, Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh, Dave Bautista as Beast Rabban Harkonnen, David Dastmalchian as Piter de Vries and Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam.

This was incredibly well paced and staged by director Denis Villeneuve ("August 32nd on Earth" '98, "Maelstrom" 2000, "Un cri au bonheur" (documentary) '07, "Polytechnique" '09, "Incendies" '10, "Prisoners" '13, "Enemy" '13, "Sicario" '15, "Arrival" '16, "Blade Runner 2049" '17) plus TV and shorts. Although this filmmaker doesn't have an extensive resume, like other directors have, still the quality in which this director has is amazing. His ability to enable his actors to extract the emotions they exude, whether over-the-top or subtle, is unlike other directors with his experience. If you like his style, his "Dune: Part Two" is in pre production. It was effectively written by Jon Spaihts, Villeneuve and Eric Roth, based on the novel, "Dune" by Frank Herbert. As I've mentioned on other reviews, usually when there is more than two writers on any given film project, the script has a tendency to become bogged down with inconsistencies and choppiness- too many hands in the pot, if you will, however since these writers have a combined impressive resume of accomplished films to their credit, this certainly helped with the script structure. This is the first installment-the second being "Dune: Part Two" completing the story. Whereas this film is written by Spaihts, Villeneuve and Roth, the second installment will be minus Roth. Other than a couple of very small places of sequence issues and the fact that it was just a bit long-in-the-tooth, this story simply soared. The visual effects predominately designed by Double Negative were seamless and enhanced the weight of the film. 

If you are a sci-fi fanatic and enjoy seeing any sci-fi novels come to life on the screen, you'll definitely love this. This is the third remake of this, one in 1984 and 2000, and I did see the 1984 version and was less than impressed. This is a much better crafted film in that it's better written, directed, and obviously, the visual effects are exemplary. If you want to see this up, close and personal, it's also shown in an IMAX format as well.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                               Rated: PG-13                                                155mins.