DUNE (2021) - Review

remake : to make a new or different version of (something, such as a movie, song, etc.) : to make (something) into something else. remake. noun.

DUNE is not a "remake".

Granted there were previous versions adapted from the first novel. The '70s attempt by Jodorowsky, 1984's version by David Lynch, and the Sci-Fi Channel mini series from 2000. But in order to be any kind of a "remake", there would have to be significant nods, acknowledgment, or transplants of the previous versions ingrained in the new adaptation, and that is simply not the case here.

Like with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and subsequent Hobbit films, this adaptation of Dune mines the original source material for a wealth of textures, emotions, and story that the previous versions lacked. It has crafted it's world-building from the ground up, and updated everything necessary for modern audience sensibilities.

I read the first Dune novel in the mid-'80s before seeing the Lynch version on opening day. I recall at the time leaving the theater with a profound sense of disappointment. Even though a lot of the designs have become ingrained in the genre, the delivery was below expectations in such a fresh post-Star Wars era. Even the mini-series suffered from production restrictions.

In the Denis Villeneuve version, is seems as if WB let him off the chain and he ran with it. As with some of his previous films Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016), Blade Runner: 2049 (2017), Villeneuve has a clear visual idea of exactly what he wants to see on screen and knows what to do and who to work with to get it. This puts him in a similar category to other auteur directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Ridley Scott, and Peter Jackson.

The cast was on point. Granted this is the first thing I have seen Timothée Chalamet in. He was serious but without brooding or angst typically associated with actors of this rank. I kind of put him on par with Mark Hamill the first time I saw Luke. He has a fresh face and inhabits the character so well you forget the idea of anyone else playing Paul Atreides. Zendaya would probably have stood out a little more if she had more to do in this part. The rest of the cast held their ground and gave convincing performances as if they were authentically a part of the world they were creating.

Costume Design was stellar. The detail and textures rooted the characters in the setting. There were only a few tiny instances where anachronisms from ten thousand years prior crept in. Otherwise the armor, stillsuits, and flowing fabrics, lent an air of familiar yet futuristic style.

Production Design was off the charts. It's as if the production team went shopping for the absolute best concept artists on ArtStation and then just dumped a pile of cash on them, wound them up and turned them loose. There is a distinct style and culture visible to all the various houses and people represented. The settings and vistas are epic and thick with atmosphere. The various ship and vehicle designs are understated and convincing. Not much screen time is given to them and they are not the focus of the film. However, the Ornithopters are completely convincing and lots of care was clearly given to their function and purpose. If this is the direction Blackhawk Helicopters are going, I'm going to need one.

The Visual Effects are without a doubt seamless. While the settings and creatures are clearly fantastical, it is blended with the live action in such a way that, like any good effects, they melt into the scene and never call attention to themselves. It all flows together to create a completely immersive experience.

Hans Zimmer's score is tribal, forceful, and completely suitable to create the right mood for the setting. While similar scores like McCreery's music for Battlestar Galactica and Horner's work on Avatar utilize a variety of exotic instruments and rhythms, this score is in the same category. It is clear that Zimmer put in just as much attention to the sound, texture, and themes, for Dune as Villeneuve brought to the visuals.

Be prepared for the fact this this adaptation only gives us the first half of the first book. I'm not going to cover the politics of why WB refused to allow the production to shoot the whole thing at once (like similar classic epics). Nor will I go into detail about the decision to release it simultaneously to theaters and streaming. That is well documented all over the internet. But I will say that WB should pony up and greenlight part 2 immediately.

Super Dune fans may be disappointed with the inevitable changes that always happen with book adaptations, but hopefully the beautiful package the story is delivered in will more than make up for that. It seems like the most faithful adaptation yet. I loved all of it and look forward to the next one.

 I give it five Shai-Huluds and am already in line for tickets.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I liked it. I even liked it better than Return of the Jedi and felt that the emotional resolution of Rey and Ben/Kylo’s relationship was more satisfying and without silly shit like Ewoks. 4 out of 5 Lightsabers for this one.

*SPOILERS*

I’m not even going to apologize for posting this when the internet has already ruined much of The Madalorian for me.

Typically what I like to cover in my reviews usually includes the contributions of the major departments but the production level of the film is state of the art in modern cinema. It’s got Mouse Money behind it, so everything looks and sounds top notch as usual.

With all things being equal, this will focus on narrative and resolution because that’s the driving factor of any film.

First off, JJ did pretty well mopping up the shit that Rian Johnson left all over the place in the previous flick. And did it well. It wasn’t ham-fisted and rolled along as if really nothing had occurred in Ep VIII at all. As a matter of fact, you could really just drop that one out now and no one would really care. I won’t miss it at all.

The Trio + Chewie is a bit stronger in this one and is written better, but some of the banter is still a little too “Marvelly” and could have been dialed down a little. There’s still a bit too much treasure hunting going on and introducing the Sith dagger McGuffin was clunky and out of place in a setting of holograms and lightsabers. Also, lining up the silhouette against the debris of the Death Star was absurd. What if the characters were coming at it from another direction? Actually this entire script suffers from convenienceitis in a big way. Way too many coincidences and convenient events passed off as the will of the Force. I found that very lazy.

Kudos to bringing back EpIV 3P0. This is probably the best version of C-3P0 since the original movie. I hated how he devolved into a whining fuss-budget in The Empire Strikes Back. That was never funny and writing that the the other characters were also annoyed by him didn’t give it a pass. When he agrees to the memory wipe and takes “one last look at his friends”, I get choked up. Every. Time.

Clearly the connection between Rey & Kylo is deep. The reveal about her background is not a surprise, fit in well with the story but brings up a whole slew of other questions/problems. Here are a few: If Palpy had a grandkid, when could he ever have been a parent? While in the Senate before the Clone Wars? Clearly not afterwards. Where was his wife? Why were his kids not identified as Force sensitive and sent to Jedi school? It's clearly a RetCon issue.

If you were going to bring back the Emperor this was the EXACT way to do it right. I loved all of that and it really lifted a lot of concepts out of Star Wars: Dark Empire. I wish they had gone a little bit deeper into detail about that like in the comics and show more of the Sith stuff to get a better sense of the threat. It kind of comes off as rushed. I wonder why.

Leia’s training flashback was really forced to me. No pun intended. That should’ve been revealed in VII and would have taken a lot of the weirdness out of floaty-Leia from VIII. I think that was only included here as part of the retcon mopping up.

Digital Leia was pretty seamless although her sacrificial contact of Kylo through the Force was pretty understated and lacked the emotional impact it might have had. I think this was mainly a limitation on what they could do with the character since Fisher’s passing.

Ghost Luke was much better, and had a lots of Ghost Obi-Wan overtones. 

The one shot of Wedge in the turret of the Millennium Falcon was a nice touch. Welcome back, Denis Lawson, for one final hurrah.

Why did the customary celebration montage at the end of the film show Star Destroyers deployed over various planets and then suddenly begin “crashing” when the purpose of the assault on the shipyard clearly indicated they couldn’t navigate away from the planet without the assistance of some broadcast tower?

There’s probably more that I will come across on subsequent viewing but this was my initial impression. I didn’t hate it and was pretty satisfied with how everything wrapped up. Glad that’s over.

ROGUE ONE

A long time ago in a suburb far, far, away. a great adventure took place.

I can't begin to recount my entire experience of seeing Star Wars for the first time, and you probably wouldn't want to read it anyway. The summer of 1977 was a period of transition for me. It marked the point we moved from Turtle Creek in east downtown Dallas to the suburbs of Pleasant Grove, formerly known as Urbandale. I left Catholic school and would be attending public school for the first time starting fourth grade. During the summer I managed to miss all manner of marketing for the film except one.

The Story of Star Wars - I saw a few commercials on TV for this and ran across a copy in one of the big chain department stores, while shopping for new school clothes. I wouldn't have to be wearing a uniform anymore. After getting the album home I had no idea what to expect but it reminded me of the Disney read-along book and record sets that I had from a few years back. There was a color book inside filled with pictures from the movie. After playing the album over and over I begged my mom to take me to see this.

It was probably September that I saw it the first time and was completely transformed. I was already a "movie buff" at age nine and was a rabid fan of Planet of the Apes and King Kong (the original AND the 1976 remake). I knew who John Chambers was and Rick Baker. So for me the experience happened on many, many, levels. When I left the theater at Northpark General Cinema there was a little table outside with memorabilia from the film. For $2 I took home the Official Souvinir Book and devoured it's contents vowing one day I would create miniatures just like the ones in the movie . . .

THE SPOILER FREE REVIEW (does include stuff seen in the trailers)

I haven't missed a Star Wars opening day since I first saw The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 when I was twelve. For the past 40 years it has all been a great source of inspiration and wonder. When the lights dim, and the logos appear, I feel the same thrill as I did so many years ago. Today was no different.

The Opening was as understated as I expected. It was indicative of the Rebels TV series and fit just fine. I knew it would be different from the numbered film installments because it was outside the regular numbering of the series.

The Direction was superb. Gareth Edwards knows how to work on a big budget effects pic but still gave it an intimate feel when it needed to be. Although the set pieces are huge and spectacular, it all fits as if the characters don't notice any of it at all. That sucks the audience in and makes you feel like you're along for the ride.

The Cast couldn't be better. I was familiar with a handful of the leading cast from other things but that  wasn't distracting. They inhabited the characters and were very convincing. There was no overblown ham-fisted dialogue for them to chew on. It felt direct and urgent.

The Costumes and Set Design were massively detailed. Everything on screen has layers of textures and carries that hallmark Star Wars-ness gritty lived-in look as you would expect. Everything that's on screen is a piece of art because it's all crafted to carefully recreate the aesthetics of the 1977 film. Even the details of Darth Vader's iconic suit are faithful down to the last blinking light.

The Music while subtle is exactly what I wanted. Hints and pieces of previous themes but an all new score. Michael Giacchino has become one of my favorite composers and knows what it's like to follow in the footsteps of other big composers with iconic themes. Mission Impossible and Star Trek both were big shoes to fill. Like with those, he takes this score and sprinkles enough familiar in it that it is not distracting. It is just right.

I will resist going into what the story elements are for the sake of avoiding spoilers but it was what it should be. When stacked up against similar movies like Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, and The Guns of Navarone it fits right in. Star Wars has now grown up with the rest of us and has finally delivered what we have deserved as fans all along, something fresh, new, original, but completely familiar.

Thanks Gareth, Kathleen, and crew. You honored the spirit of the setting without kowtowing to a fan-service rehash.

Jupiter Ascending

According to the Tomatometer:

From the streets of Chicago to the far-flung galaxies whirling through space, "Jupiter Ascending" tells the story of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who was born under a night sky, with signs predicting she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning other people's houses and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along-her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

Ordinarily I will go for the jugular on stuff like this and call out tons of stuff about performances, cinematography, editing, and on-and-on. It's totally irrelevant, however, considering the material and the Wachowsis have unlimited resources to deliver the goods, so it's level in that regard. This is not Zero Dark Thirty. Not every thing needs to be. Sometimes things are just fun for the sake of fun. I care for Tatum less than Ron Silver as a actor and I find him completely watchable in this.

This is literally Cinderella meets Dune; with just about every other sci-fi trope thrown into the blender for good measure. The only thing missing (which I really hoped for) was the cliff-hanger ending so common with serials of the ‘30s. Here’s a spoiler for you, Pygar gets his wings back and if you don’t know what that references you will likely not “get” this movie either.

If you are going into this expecting a tromp as cerebral as The Matrix’s reality-within-reality, you’re missing the point. I think that the host of poor reviews for this completely missed the point, as well. The Matrix was a derivative of the Cyberpunk genre fuled by injections of William Gibson. The Wachowskis already did that, this is something else entirely.

This is the galaxy-spanning-empires-of-evil-corporations-threating-to-doom-the-earth with a bit of Flash Gordon thrown in for good measure. This is their take on complete space opera. Jupter Jones is our modern Flash character that is just as two dimensional as our action heroine needs to be at this point. Hell, her name even screams pulp sci-fi! Save her dark brooding reflections of the implication of galaxy-wide genocide for the sequel. A pacing deterrent like character development would only slow down the action and keep us from whizzing from planet to planet to see more interesting things and meet more fascinating characters. Like with all great pulp sci-fi, there is never time to linger too much on any one thing since there is so much at stake. Also be aware, Jupiter get rescued way more than Dejah Thoris ever does.

I would put the tone squarely between The Fifth Element and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The peril is real and the action is what all of the 30’s serials could never even dream to be. But the pacing zips along and never lets you question too much about what’s going on, because who cares really? This is fantastical entertainment at its purest. But it does not descend into the silly like HGG, with a wink towards the audience, because that would spoil the illusion.

So - if you want a dose of Lensman and Leigh Brackett or Poul Ansderson thrown at you at 300 miles per hour on rocket boots, this certainly hits the spot. I recommend screening Barbarella, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers first to get you in the proper frame of mind.

I'm giving it

for effort on the Nostalgia-o-meter.