When is a gift not a gift?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 51 Movies of 2021 

#6 : Dune

Denis Villeneuve’s awe-inspiring take on the sci-fi classic starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac and Zendaya has been given room to breathe, creating a colossal spectacle and an epic triumph.

Dune is a fine, if somewhat convoluted, book.  What it is not is the best book ever written, but you wouldn't know that from the way some people bang on about it (and the five million sequels).  David Lynch's film of the book is a not fine, but still convoluted, film - fortunately no-one bangs on about it.  If I had to pick a recent film maker who I think might be able to make a decent fist of a film based on the book though, then Denis Villeneuve would be up there - and rumour has it that he's done a good job.

However, I have completely failed to watch it so far - mostly because my daughters (somewhat surprisingly) want to watch it and trying to arrange the diaries of three people to watch a 2.5 hour film is almost impossible.  So tonight they're both out and I'm just watching it anyway (but please don't tell them or I'll be in big trouble).

And boy does it look very fine.  It has some very fine spaceships, some very fine scenery and some very good visual effects, which are often different from the usual sci-fi fare.  And the sound is very good as well - what more do you want from a sci-fi film?  Maybe some plot?  The plot is obviously still convoluted - but it sticks to the book nicely.  I can't wait for all the questions I'll have to answer from my youngest, but the good news is that I'm one step ahead of her.

The acting is pretty much of uniformly high quality - but given the cast that's not the biggest surprise.  It's hard to pick a name or two (or seven), but if pushed I'd go for Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac,, Timothee Chalamet, Dave Bautista and Jason Mamoa (and I wouldn't have necessarily expected to have included Dave and Jason in that list).  I'd also mention Charlotte Rampling and Zendaya, although I'd struggle to say they're overly used in the film (I suspect we'll see more of Zendaya in part 2 though).

Adam Buxton (who I have a lot of time for) was talking about this film on his podcast - he's a fan of the book and was very excited about all aspects of the film.  And when he started watching it, he loved the cast, the scenery, the spaceships - everything.  But, two hours in, he admitted that he started thinking "it would be nice if something, OK anything, actually happened" and I have some sympathy with that viewpoint - I can also see that any film that goes on for 2.5 hours and ends with the line "This is only the beginning" is going to annoy some people.  So - be warned!

Having said all that, I really liked this film - it is slow (and exactly the sort of thing I'd often moan about) but my familiarity with (and appreciation of) the book means I gave it a bit of a pass.  I can also totally imagine those who were upset with me moaning about West Side Story being long and pointless asking exactly what was so great about this film, especially given there was no singing and dancing in it (although maybe the fact that there was no singing and dancing was a big part of it for me).  If you like a sci-fi film, then I think this is worth watching just for the ideas and ambition on display - you may not like the whole film, but I think you'll appreciate at least parts of it.  However, if you don't like a sci-fi film, then you're probably fine giving the whole thing a miss though (maybe I should have just started with that sentence?).

#7 - I don't really see the point to this
#5 - Poetry and scenery