Dune Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. It's Strangely Lacking In Emotion

Though Denis Villeneuve is often compared to Christopher Nolan, his films tend to be a lot more outwardly emotional than Nolan's, such that the accusations that he's a "cold" director don't really stick.

Villeneuve's last two films, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, had strong emotional cores with highly affecting payoffs, though one of Dune's biggest problems is its frustrating lack of resonance.

Despite so much of the film being centered around Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his immediate family, there's very little here that, as presented, truly engages the heart as well as the mind.

The cast is clearly trying their hardest, so this feels more down to the script than anything, which calculatedly attempts to burn through reams of exposition at the expense of more visceral characterisation.

It wouldn't be right to call Dune hollow, but at the end of the day audiences may not feel like they care all that much about Paul or his quest, no matter how gorgeous or well acted it is.