Dune Review

Villeneuve's solution to Herbert is scale used as intimidation. Greig Fraser shoots Arrakis in bleached, nearly colorless daylight and the Atreides interiors in something close to darkness, so human figures read as insects set against architecture; the ornithopters, built as dragonfly machines with visible articulation, are the best original vehicle design in years. Hans Zimmer's throat singing and processed bagpipes are deployed as pressure rather than melody.

The sandworm arrivals work because they are established as sound and vibration long before anything is shown. Timothee Chalamet plays Paul as a boy who has not grown into his own destiny, which is correct and also undemonstrative, and Rebecca Ferguson's Jessica supplies most of the emotional current. The dialogue carries an enormous exposition burden about spice and houses and prophecy, much of it delivered flatly on purpose. The real limitation is structural: the film ends where a second act would begin, so as a standalone object it has no climax, only a stopping point.