There are two warning captions at the start of Denis Villeneuve’s gigantic epic Dune. The first reads “Dreams are messages from the deep.” This is clearly no frivolous space opera from a galaxy far, far away.
The other reads “Part One”. Speaking as someone who owned - if not read - at least five doorstep-sized Dune novels, this is bad news if you’re hoping for a conclusion to this film.
Dune is the start of an ambitious saga of course - future episodes depend entirely on how successful the first one is.
But it certainly feels confident enough, bristling with cinematic fireworks and star-power, led by Timothée Chalamet as our hero Paul Atreides.
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The noble Atreides family has been selected by the Emperor to take over the planet of Arrakis from their hated rivals, the Haakonens. Arrakis is the most valuable planet in the galaxy because it’s the only source of “spice”, the substance that fuels intergalactic space travel.
Duke Leto Atreides – Oscar Isaac - welcomes the new responsibility.
Leto’s son Paul is beset by dreams of Arrakis, particularly dreams of a blue-eyed woman played by Disney star Zendaya.
Zendaya is all over the trailers, incidentally, handing out exposition like it’s going out of fashion.
To Zendaya fans, Dune is a bit of a swindle since she barely shows up in the actual movie. She’s clearly being saved for Part Two.
Other trailers – there have been a lot of trailers for Dune, it has to be said – feature a star of an earlier vintage, Charlotte Rampling. She plays a sinister, witchy character dishing out even more exposition to Paul - and by extension, us of course.
That’s always the problem with Episode One of a would-be epic franchise. There’s a lot of world-building and scene-setting to be done, which depends on some attractive characters selling it.
Still, as always director Villeneuve has a sure hand when it comes to casting.
Playing Paul’s best friend and bodyguard Duncan Idaho is everyone’s favourite larger-than- life warrior, Jason Momoa.
If Duncan is Dune’s Baloo the Bear, then Bagheera the Panther’s equivalent is the wise, if short-tempered Gurney, played by Josh Brolin.
Paul is clearly being groomed for bigger and better things by his father the Duke, and also his mother Jessica, who comes from witchy folk on her mother’s side.
Jessica is played by Rebecca Ferguson who seems to be in everything at the moment.
And meanwhile lurking in the background – though not for long - is the villainous Haakonen family, led by Stellen Skarsgard. They’ve been making a fortune from spice for years, and bitterly resent the Atreides moving onto their patch.
There’s more – obviously a lot more – to Dune than this. I haven’t even touched on how dry the planet Arrakis is – why do you think the film’s called Dune? – and what lives under the surface of all that sand.
I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say “here be dragons”, or as they’re called here, sand-worms.
With his track-record of the recent Blade Runner sequel and the equally assured Arrival, Villeneuve is clearly the favoured director of big, intelligent sci fi. Even if Dune suffers from the problem spelled out in the opening caption.
It’s only the first half of the first book, so there’s a certain amount of frustration built into this film.
Ironically, the story rests on Paul Atreides’ ability to see into the future. And once three or four more Dunes have been made future audiences will have the ability to binge-watch the whole thing.
Until then we’re left hanging, with a two and a half hour opening chapter. Thanks a lot.