DUNE - FILM REVIEW

Forty years ago I read an amazing book that changed my life. I was inspired by this youngster who was a warrior and who embraced a spiritual way.

The book was called Dune and it was a masterpiece, and rightly one of the great classics of Science Fiction. At that time Dune was a trilogy, and I still have the three original paperbacks, much dog eared now, and a treasured hardback of the Trilogy. In fact I always felt the first and third books were the truly awesome books, whilst the middle book just bridged the gap.

Last night I finally got to watch the new movie, and what a fabulous experience it was. There was the 1984 movie which I enjoyed, and an excellent TV series years ago, but finally a film has been made that does for Dune what Peter Jackson did for Lord Of The Rings. A film that lovingly creates a true reflection of the book. This is just my opinion. I haven't read any reviews about the film, although a lot of the Sci Fi artists I follow on Twitter seemed to have been involved with the artwork and the imagery.

I thought the creation of Arrakis, the portrayal of the worms, the Fremen, the details of the body shields in combat, were amazingly true to the book, which is incredibly brave for a film based on a book that was written by Frank Herbert in 1965.

I thought the special effects were really good whilst still maintaining the integrity of the story. The quality of special effects gets better and better. Look at the difference in special effects between the original 1977 Star Wars trilogy and the later Phantom Menace. The difference here, is that although both are masterpieces, Star Wars was made as a movie, whilst Dune is a translation from a book to a movie.

In the science fiction genre, there have been many amazing books, for instance, Isaac Asimov’s, made into great movies, especially I Robot, but very few maintain the integrity of the book as well as director, Denis Villeneuve, has in his magnificent film of Dune.

I thought the cast were excellent, especially Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Oscar Isaac as his father Duke Leto. Both great performances, although they all were. I loved the way the Harkonnens and Bene Gesserit were portrayed.

I very much would have liked to have seen the film project of Dune by Jodorowsky and Moebius that never came to fruition, although it would have been a very different creation to this film, and I loved the graphic novels it spawned.

For me though this new Dune film is the definitive Dune film and I would very highly recommend it.

A true masterpiece.

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