by Nathaniel R
-There's something happening to me. There's something awakening in my mind, I can't control it.
-What did you see?
-I saw Oscar season coming!
Let's break down the new Dune trailer by Yes No Maybe So, shall we?
YES
• The visuals. Though the color palette is very sedate -- especially given memories of the surreal David Lynch adaptation of Dune in 1984 -- but despite their dark dustiness, they definitely set a mood, like a haunted sci-fi goth dream half buried in a sandstorm.
• We're fully on board with Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya as the romantic leads (Paul Atreides and Chani). They've both proven to be really special actors of the new generation of stars.
• Charlotte Rampling's pain box scene. She gets one of the freakiest roles to play (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam) and you know she'll ace it.
• Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson as Chalamet's parents looks like fabulous casting and those two actors always deliver.
• The cast. Good lord that cast. Everyone is so charismatic and talented and even better... most of them have super interesting movie faces. Also I had someone forgotten or not heard that Chang Chen was in this. Love Chang Chen and he gets a few shots in the trailer as Dr Wellington Yueh
• Denis Villeneuve is a great director and the imagery and vibe presented suggests he'll totally pull off Dune's epic nature and its cultish religiosity. Arrival suggests he knows how to make great sci-fi pictures, too.
MAYBE SO
• Listen Dune is weird. It is, after all, about religious cults, spice that makes your eyes glow blue, and a young messiah who learns to ride giant ... uh... worms, with mouths that look like assholes. Lynch's film was kind of a disaster but it was definitely committed to the psychosexual insanity. Denis Villeneuve's films are terrific and dreamy but they're kind of asexual.
• They're keeping some things (mostly) away from view right now like the villains Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård, who we see obscured in two shots) and his right-hand man Piter de Vries (TFE favourite David Dastmalchian, who we dont see at all in this trailer). The Baron is an absolutely vile villain in the book. He was super gross in the 1984 version and even that was a softening of how foul he is on the page.
• Is this really going to work as a two-part movie? It might prove to be one of those heavy bizarre sci-fi books that just doesn't work as cinema but we'll see.
• Also how is Villenueve with epic action sequences? Dune has lots of them and it's hard to remember the fight scenes from Blade Runner 2049 though the mood was expertly conveyed.
• Where is Feyd Rautha (Sting in 1984), the Baron's nephew that he incestuously lusted after in the '84 film? And Princess Irulan (Virginia Madsen in 1984)? They're not characters within the cast list on IMDb so perhaps they're saving them for part two.
NO
• It's super annoying that they chose to make the villains bald (Bautista/Skarsgård). Bald is beautiful, Hollywood. You've been making bald a signififer of evil for 100+ years of cinema. Give us baldies a break.
Fully excited for this one. And won't it be nice if another sci-fi film becomes a major Oscar player. There are too few cases in history.
Which part of the trailer made you a bigger "yes" than you were before. And was there ever a "no" moment? And do you know the song that's playing in the trailer?