Weekend Watch: Dune, Invasion
Attack of the one-word sci-fi titles as a classic comes to the big screen and a new story arrives on the small.
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Denis Villeneuve tackles Dune and Simon Kinberg oversees Invasion.Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
The year of science fiction epics long considered unfilmmable hitting screens continues with perhaps one of the most infamous. A few people have tried to make Dune as a movie – the most notable being David Lynch’s much-derided, yet (in my opinion) still watchable 1984 effort. Alejandro Jodorowsky famously tried before him. And, of course, there were the SyFy Channel miniseries that covered more of Frank Herbert’s book and its sequels.
Yet perhaps it needed someone on the level of Denis Villeneuve, the director behind Incendies, Sicario, Arrival, and, most recently, Blade Runner 2049. He’s unafraid to tackle giant concepts and, alongside a talented creative team, deliver luscious visuals while also considering the human element. Arrival might be the most successful of those attempts because it pulls off the balancing act perfectly.
Dune sometimes doesn’t quite manage it, but it’s not for lack of Villeneuve’s efforts alongside fellow writers Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts. Herbert’s book and its follow-ups are chunky tomes, full of themes and stuffed with all sorts of characters you have to service, from the young man destined to both lead his family and an entire people in a messianic storyline, warring factions of powerful houses, crafty religious mystics who have been guiding bloodlines and manipulating the politics, and a group on a desert planet dealing with the endless invasion of their homes by wealthy oppressors seeking the vital “spice” that the sandy world holds.
As Lynch learned, it’s nigh-on impossible to have that work in one film and Villeneuve takes the risky move here to split his narrative, without a guarantee that the next movie will even get made. There’s a chance you could end up frustrated at where it ends, but the director has at least managed to find a sensible cut-off point so if this is all we have, it still works as a story.
Fans of the book will find plenty of detail and a mostly faithful translation of the story to enjoy. What, though, if you have little foreknowledge? The script does its best to fill in the broad strokes of what you need to know about the various players on screen, and it helps that most of them are brought to life by actors who have the charisma to fill in the gaps, including Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin. The human side, I must admit, did suffer, a swathe of characters ending up feeling like they’re driving the plot forward instead of existing as people. Still, they make an impact.
I was lucky enough to see Dune at IMAX’s headquarters, with the best screen and sound capabilities around (and the place where some of the post-production work on the movie’s IMAX version was carried out), and on a giant screen, the movie absolutely draws you in and surrounds you with its atmosphere. From a water-lashed world to the dusty deserts of the planet Arrakis, you’ll find yourself involved from the first, droning bars of Hans Zimmer’s epic, slightly unnerving score (bagpipes! And yes, they are book-appropriate). To get the most out of the film, seek out the biggest screen you can find. But if you don’t yet feel safe returning to a cinema, the availability on HBO Max at least means US audiences can see it at home. It’s certainly not aimed at TV screens, but it also doesn’t fail to entertain on smaller venues. Did I find it too cold in places (despite the sweltering desert heat on display)? Occasionally, yes. Would I still urge you to see it if you have a hankering for the sort of epic sci-fi that doesn’t get made all that often these days? Most certainly.
Dune is in UK and US cinemas now and available via HBO Max in the States.
Image Credit: Apple TV+
Audiences for Dune may have that split narrative to contend with, but it’s still a lot less frustrating that this week’s other big sci-fi launch. Invasion, which comes from Hunters’ David Weil and X-Men movie scripting/producing veteran Simon Kinberg wants to work as both a melodramatic series of stories about ordinary people and a big-scale alien incursion thriller. It’s rarely satisfying as either.
Having watched the first three episodes (of 10), I can’t honestly say I really care about many of the characters beyond possibly Shioli Kutsuna’s Mitsuki, a communications technician working for the Japanese space agency, who has just watched her astronaut girlfriend (Rinko Kikuchi) soar off on a mission to the International Space Station, only for things to go badly wrong mid-flight. Kutsuna does a lot with a little, and her performance is a standout. Other plotlines, such as a frustrated wife and mother (Golshifteh Farahani’s Aneesha) in New York or Shamier Anderson’s Trevante, a solider on deployment in Afghanistan have so far failed to truly come to life. And when even Sam Neill (as a small town cop with a crisis of faith) can’t make it work, you know you’re in trouble.
There’s certainly a budget here, the show jumping between continents for its different storylines, but if the series is building to some big revelations, the twitchy narrative means it’s hard to get to know any of these people properly. And yes, there are hints and shock moments of apparent alien interaction, but the pace so far is more innervating that slow burn. Given the experience behind the camera here (and some talented people in front of it), I really expected more. Will I watch further episodes? I’m still debating that point, and that’s not a statement I thought I’d be making about this show.
Invasion’s first three episodes are on Apple TV+ now. Further episodes will debut each Friday.