DUNE (2021)

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As a teenager I read a fair amount of science fiction, but somehow never got around to Frank Herbert's 'Dune'.  Having now sat through this interminable adaptation (155-minutes!) of just part of the book I don't feel as though I missed much.

Defenders of the film wave away complaints that it is ponderous and turgid by saying that it necessarily has to do a lot of "world-building".  To which my repost is that the original 'Star Wars' film manages in a mere two hours to do a hell of a lot of world-building whilst also entertaining us with exciting action sequences and creating a host of memorable and iconic characters

And despite the amount of time spent in this film on world-building I still came out of it none the wiser as to what was so great about the all-important spice.    

It doesn't help that this is one of those irritating films whose main purpose is to set up the sequel rather than tell a compelling standalone story.  I guess I will watch the sequel eventually but with no great expectation that it will be any better.

Also (yes, I'm in full rant mode) this film provides proof (not that it was really needed) that Denis Villeneuve is no good at directing action sequences, all of which here are poorly executed and dull as can be. In fact I’m not sure he’s capable of creating any sort of effective dramatic scene.

On the plus side I'm always happy to watch Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac do their stuff, even when their characters are thinly drawn ones.  

And the ornithopters are cool.

That's all, folks!

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm

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