As I watched "Dune Part One", I found myself wondering if there were any other people out there like me who were completely unaware of the whole Duniverse. I'd never read the Frank Herbert novel nor had I seen the David Lynch movie adaptation in 1982. So, if that was you too, you have my sympathy, especially the way we were thrown into it without any kind of background story or explanation as to how we got here. Even "Star Wars" had its "Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." prologue. I felt like I was playing catch-up from about ten laps back.
I can't honestly say I did catch up with it but I will say I hung on in there as best I could. This isn't one of your flashy, all-out action-based sci-fi blockbusters, it's much more "Lord of the Rings" than "Harry Potter" in that respect, although it too is centred around a young protagonist.
Timotheè Chalomet it is who plays Paul, the son of the ruling Duke, devoted to, but still independent of his father and with a slightly testy relationship with his mother. He seems to have hidden powers including that of precognition through his dreams and is suspected of being a long-awaited Messiah-type figure. Their race of the Atreides has been allocated by the almighty Emperor Shaddam the planet of Arrakis to colonise and hopefully prosper from the manufacture of its highly valuable Spice artefact. However, this won't be easy, for one thing, the naturally unhappy dispossessed former occupants the Fremen have left the place in a parlous, run-down state and secondly, there's danger in the desert, not least from the enormous worms which rise up from beneath the sands to wreak havoc on the interlopers. Worse than that, the planet is coveted by the hulking race of the Harkonnens, setting the scene for treachery, murder and war, with David and his mother the Lady Jessica at the centre of the action. And just who is the young woman who appears in his dreams and wants to lead them on a further journey.
I must admit when the dream-girl Zendaya manifests into reality right at the end and says "This is only the beginning...", my heart sank. Not that I wasn't impressed by the set design with its evocation of the desert, the monumental buidings, the thrilling flying machines which it seems can land on a sixpence and especially the terrifyingly massive worms but as I struggled at times even to decipher what was being said never mind what was actually going on, I think this is one big-budget franchise I'll leave to the avids.
I can't honestly say I did catch up with it but I will say I hung on in there as best I could. This isn't one of your flashy, all-out action-based sci-fi blockbusters, it's much more "Lord of the Rings" than "Harry Potter" in that respect, although it too is centred around a young protagonist.
Timotheè Chalomet it is who plays Paul, the son of the ruling Duke, devoted to, but still independent of his father and with a slightly testy relationship with his mother. He seems to have hidden powers including that of precognition through his dreams and is suspected of being a long-awaited Messiah-type figure. Their race of the Atreides has been allocated by the almighty Emperor Shaddam the planet of Arrakis to colonise and hopefully prosper from the manufacture of its highly valuable Spice artefact. However, this won't be easy, for one thing, the naturally unhappy dispossessed former occupants the Fremen have left the place in a parlous, run-down state and secondly, there's danger in the desert, not least from the enormous worms which rise up from beneath the sands to wreak havoc on the interlopers. Worse than that, the planet is coveted by the hulking race of the Harkonnens, setting the scene for treachery, murder and war, with David and his mother the Lady Jessica at the centre of the action. And just who is the young woman who appears in his dreams and wants to lead them on a further journey.
I must admit when the dream-girl Zendaya manifests into reality right at the end and says "This is only the beginning...", my heart sank. Not that I wasn't impressed by the set design with its evocation of the desert, the monumental buidings, the thrilling flying machines which it seems can land on a sixpence and especially the terrifyingly massive worms but as I struggled at times even to decipher what was being said never mind what was actually going on, I think this is one big-budget franchise I'll leave to the avids.