A serious fairy tale for adults. Will Dune stand up to the average viewer? – PRAVDA.sk

Desert worms, a terrifying baron and members of a noble family. A new film based on sci-fi classics is in cinemas. What can be expected from him?

The creators of the film Dune promised the audience an epic work.

Who knows what Frank Herbert, the author of the iconic sci-fi saga from the 1960s Dune, would say about the reworking of his story? Would you like the vision of Canadian director Denis Villeneuv? The film evoked a roaring applause from the audience at the Venice Film Festival. From today, Duna is also in Slovak cinemas, so we can look at what fascinated the festival spectator so much.

Viewers in this work are divided into several groups. Those who read the original book, or its sequels. Others are those who have seen a film version of David Lynch from the 1980s. And those who have no idea what it’s all about. Let’s start with the plot, so that they have an idea even “Dune not kissed”. If you know the story, jump straight to the next page.

The story takes place in the distant future and the focus is on a unique spice that is part of the sand of a desert dune on the planet Arrakis. It is extremely rare because it prolongs life, can unlock a person’s full potential and has psychedelic effects (the book was written in the era of hippies…). But above all, this spice is needed for space navigation to work. Without it, space travel would not be possible, so it is a strategic commodity.

He who has spices has power

The planet Arrakis is therefore, of course, under the rule of the empire. For he who has spices has money. And he who has the money has the power… Mining has been in charge of the relentless Harkonnen family for years, but the emperor suddenly decided to entrust the administration of the planet and the mining to the Atreides family. He moves to Arrakis…

They have to meet quotas, but the conditions for proper operation are not sufficient. When they are attacked by former administrators who borrowed three battalions of soldiers from the emperor, it is clear that they were a trap. And it is clear that the emperor, who feared the growing influence of the Atreides, was also involved. Only young Paul, son of Duke Atreides, will survive with his mother. They have to get through the desert dune to the area where the original inhabitants live. They have no choice but to unite and resist the common enemy. In addition, they face devastating sun, lack of fluids, but especially a huge desert worm shearing in the depths of the dune.

The decade-old story still opens up current topics. Politics as an art of the possible, where fair play is taken as a weakness in the struggle for power, there is an environmental agenda, as the main actors of the empire destroy natural resources and ignore the logical consequences of these acts. But it is also a story about humanity, overcoming one’s own limits, about religion, about magic, but also about love. A fairy tale for adults created with maximum seriousness.

Canadian director Denise Villeneuve grasped the famous material in his own way. His inclination to epic scenes, which he stands out at a slower pace, was last seen in Blade Runner in 2049. He brought her to perfection in Dune. A comparison with David Lynch, whose film language from the 1980s is out of date today, cannot be avoided, some characters appear to have been cut out of Ghostbusters (although they were deliberately created as a caricature).