The Spice Must Flow, Part II
Yesterday I passed the 80,000 word mark of GHOST IN THE SUN, so as a reward I went to see the DUNE movie.
I’ve mentioned before that I read DUNE twice and didn’t 100% get it either time. Consequently, I liked the book, but I didn’t love it the way I loved, say THE LORD OF THE RINGS or the original Sherlock Holmes stories or THE THRAWN TRILOGY. Nonetheless, I was excited to see the movie because I was intellectually curious how the filmmakers managed to turn this extremely complicated (and people who love DUNE will agree it is extremely complicated) book into a movie.
I’m pleased to say that the filmmakers delivered. DUNE is excellent. The pacing is quite slow in the first half, but it is in the book as well, and the movie has the advantage of absolutely gorgeous scenery. The director apparently spent weeks flying around in a helicopter picking the perfect desert filming locations, and the work payed off. The movie does a good job of explaining the complicated aspects of the DUNE world – shields, spice, FTL travel, the Bene Gesserit, stillsuits, and so forth – without clumsy and heavy exposition. For example, having Paul and Gurney engage in a practice duel at the start of the movie demonstrated how shields worked without a word of dialogue on the topic. It also did a good job of paring away some of the complexity of the plot while retaining the core story, a necessity in any movie adaptation. (This is, for example, why Prince Imrahil or Elrond’s sons do not appear in the movie version of THE RETURN OF THE KING.)
The actors were perfectly cast – after seeing Rebecca Ferguson in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, I thought she would make a good Lady Jessica, and she did, but all the actors disappeared into their roles. Oscar Isaac finally got to be in a space movie worthy of his ability. 🙂 Stellan Skarsgard’s version of Baron Harkonnen was particularly creepy, showing both the Baron’s depravity and his deep intelligence at the same time. I wasn’t sure Timothee Chalamet would work as Paul Atreides, but he does, especially when he gets angry and you start to see glimpses of who Paul becomes in the second half of the book.
The soundtrack was excellent and fit the movie well. Hans Zimmer also did the soundtrack for NO TIME TO DIE, so he’s having a good year. 🙂
So, to sum up, I think DUNE is well worth seeing and I hope Part 2 gets made.
-JM