Dune

I saw the movie a couple of hours ago. It’s still resonating in my brain and heart. Like melange – the planet’s addictive spice itself. The movie is just breath taking. Each visual. The cinematography. The landscapes. The vision. Absolutely spectacular.

The mythology in the books has been so well woven in the script that the explanation of it is effortless. It seems part of the fabric of a rich tapestry of sand gold. The movie soars into the air from the very first frame and it just feels like a ballet that shouldn’t ever stop. I was spell bound by everything in it.

Timothée is astounding – as he always is. He is intense yet sensitive. The scene where he is about to be assassinated stands out with its laser lights and his eyes. His face with its clear cut angles seem made for the movie with its sandstone framework. Ever since I saw him in Call Me By Your Name I have been spellbound by his prowess as an actor and there’s not a single movie in which he has been that has disappointed. This movie was hand crafted for him. He is Paul.

The other magnificent creature that sets the screen ablaze is Rebecca Fergusson. Her duty as a Bebe Gesserit and her love for her son are wounds that threaten to tear her apart. She keeps gnawing at them through the movie and speaks of the control of her fear – much like each of us does at some point in our lives.

Zendaya is a dream that hardly has time to manifest. Though I do not mind for the wait for the manifestation. Each scene is nuanced in its calibre. The sand worms find their own larger than life status and they form the antithesis to melange in the deserts of Dune. Paul Lambert and his team have done a phenomenal job at the special effects and Hans Zimmer matches the spectacle of the movie with his musical score.

There’s not a thing wrong with this movie and almost all of the credit must go to the director, Denis Villeneuve for envisioning this opus. What Peter Jackson was to The Lord of the Rings, Denis Villeneuve is to Dune. The script is tightly woven and nothing is set loose like the sands it talks of. “Dreams make good stories,” says Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, “but everything important happens when we’re awake.” Villeneuve makes sure that time, dreams and sand make their way, winding like the worms, surely and rightly, through Herbert’s narrative.

I regret not seeing this movie in IMAX – but I will not be seeing it for the last time for sure. It is worthy to be placed on repeat mode.