Any concerns about Dune being half a film are self-addressed by its opening title claiming this as “Part 1”. With that fact firmly established, the setup gets underway and this is the film’s strongest, most resonant half. These establishing portions (and forgive the abundance of the following overused superlatives but they are truly applicable here) are grand, operatic and full of the opulence of Shakespearean drama. Of course, this is not the work for Shakespeare but Frank Herbert, whose book has inspired other adaptations in the past, but certainly none like this.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes a science fiction film set so far in the future it needs 5 digits to date it (the year 10191 to be precise), brimming with images you’ve never seen – from the dresses to the vehicles to the worlds – and sounds you’ve never heard (composer Hans Zimmer uses his percussion instruments in ways that create completely uncommon aural effects). Whether this is your virginal experience to this much loved, seemingly unfilmable story (as mine was) or you know exactly what to expect (because of the books or their adaptations), you can’t be uninterested in what you see or experience. The vastness of the desert has never looked so insurmountable or so uninviting nor has palatial intrigue sounded so mysterious with talk of ancient prophecies and the bewitching meaning of visions (a recurring director motif aimed at…well narrative misdirection as seen in both Arrival and Blade Runner 2049), the decision to conclude the film when and where it does may seem a bit inconclusive and not keeping with the general build-up expected from a climactic third act.
The gamble here, unlike other tentpole films, is that Dune Part 2 may never happen (because none of it has been shot yet and would depend on box office returns), and we may never see the conclusion to this maddeningly ambitious interplanetary spice opera. But Denis Villeneuve, a sly, ever-astute filmmaker, ensures that if that is the case, those who enjoyed the world-building here will never get over the potential of what such a conclusion would offer (nor forgive the film studios for their commercially driven short-sightedness).
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