Dune

I finally watched Denis Villeneuve’s Dune after putting it off for so long, and it really is a big film. Big by its sets, its story, its landscapes… the sheer magnitude of it is tremendously ambitious. The strength of this film is obviously its world building. Rich, natural, and building the context slowly without relying on cheap tricks like voiceovers. It’s what lacks in a lot of sci-fi blockbusters that decide to focus solely on action scenes. I felt captivated from the first second. Everything seems mysterious, and far yet believable. The obviously fantastic performances from the whole cast truly helped in that aspect. I especially loved the vision sequences, in which the color use was absolutely insane. There was a bone deep oniric quality to them that absolutely connected with me. It was, to me, the most compelling part of the film (I had literal chills when Paul had the vision about the holy war.). The film does have its flaws though. Its dense pacing ultimately works against it. You really do feel every bit of those two and a half hours and it can be a bit draining. It’s dense and rich, but so dense that it paradoxically sometimes feels uneventful when a lot is supposed to be happening, like with the Harkonnen attack. Overall, it is truly the monstrous visual spectacle it wants to be, despite a few flaws.