Been There, Dune That Dept.

This is the edition I had - yours may differ.

As a fifteen-year old, I devoured Frank Herbert's Dune, a satisfyingly weighty paperback with a cool cover. I enjoyed a recent digital re-read, too, although another attempt to get into the sequels was again aborted, because boredom.

The novel is self-serious, wit-free, lacks a clear narrative that impels the reader, yet the epic scope and visionary ideas have a real power. A big part of the story is character based; although a little two-dimensional and cold, they are discernible individuals who develop through dialogue and interaction rather than description. The movie is nearly all visual description, punctuated by bursts of tedious stunt ninja combat. Villeneuve ended his Blade Runner with a fist fight, so he obviously thinks a slugfest is more dramatically satisfying than I do. 

It's almost as if the characters have been stripped of the power of speech, or key scenes were edited out. People appear, intone a few lines, stride about, get killed off. In the book, Doctor Yeuh is fleshed out so his treachery means something. The ecologist Liet Kynes has a pivotal role in explaining how the planet works, both politically and naturally. The movie doesn't bother with any of that, choosing instead to dazzle us with wardrobe and set dressing (awesomeness) and close-ups of Chalamet's hair, which is more expressive than his face. Kynes and Yeuh - along with just about all the others - each get maybe a minute's total talk time, Speech is declamatory, pronouncement, a series of statements. There is no verbal dramatic development, no casual conversation. Screenwriting really is a lost art.

It's a long movie, yet not long enough. A half-movie that doesn't have me anticipating Part Deux with anything more than mild interest. Maybe a T.V. series would have been the way to go. Anyway, here's the soundtrack to Jodorowsky's aborted attempt.