Welcome to Arrakis!

For those of you who haven’t read the novel by Frank Herbert or seen the previous Dune movies, here’s what you’ve missed. Dune is taking place in 10191 on Arrakis. This desert planet is the only place where spice can be found. To ensure that this precious product is being preserved, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) from the House Atreides has been asked to take over Arrakis from Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and to keep the spice production ongoing. While he’s fulfilling his new function, his son Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) is getting all the attention. Ever since Paul was young, he dreamed of Arrakis and its Fremen. While those dreams seemed fictional, there might be a lot of truth to them after all.

Because of his real-life looking dreams and mind-controlling capabilities, Paul might be Kwisatz Haderach, who will lead the universe in the years to come. His mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a member of the Bene Gesserit and who has special powers, is being tested by the leader of the Bene Gesserit, Gaius Helen Mohaim (Charlotte Rampling). As if the House Atreides hasn’t had enough to deal with already, their arch-enemies, the Harkonnen, want Paul dead because of his powers. The Atreides family is fighting multiple battles on different fronts, but how long will they be able to keep going?

Villeneuve takes his filmmaking to a higher level

We’ve tried to keep it simple, but we do get that Dune might seem a bit confusing, especially if you’re not familiar with it and its inhabitants. Once you get the chance to absorb the story, the characters and the different worlds, the film will never let you down. This is thanks to the incredible work by the Dune cast and crew!

First of all, there’s the striking cinematography by Greig Fraser. Suppose you have seen his work, such as Zero Dark Thirty and Villeneuve’s Arrival. In that case, you know that both men are experts in creating out-of-this-world cinematographic experiences. So you can already imagine what happens when they work together. Yes, we might be a bit biased as we saw this movie in IMAX (we recommend you do the same). Still, we’re pretty sure that even during a ‘standard’ screening, the cinematography will mesmerize you in an instant!

The special effects go hand in hand with the cinematography of a grandiose sci-fi movie like this one. The spaceships are gigantic and remarkable, and the palaces are splendid and extremely detailed. So yes, the special effects team of Dune certainly deserves all the praise it can get. Especially because of the scenes during which Josh Brolin (who portrays Gurney Halleck) pulls Chalamet into the spaceships during a rescue mission mid-movie. 

Speaking of Brolin and Chalamet, both men are part of a massive and perfect cast. Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) puts on an excellent performance as Paul. You can see Chalamet’s confidence and Paul’s determination coming through life perfectly. Isaac (Ex Machina) is extremely impressive and emotional as Leto Atreides and Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) remarkably conjugates the Atreides family with a fierce and emotional performance Momoa (who portrays Duncan Idaho; Zack Snyder’s Justice League) and Brolin (Sicario) certainly bring the (dry) humour and strength to this movie in a beautiful way. Both Skarsgård (Good Will Hunting) and Bautista (Hotel Artemis) deliver villainous and electrifying performances as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Beast Rabban Harkonnen.

We’ve saved the best for last! For this movie, Villeneuve worked together with Hans Zimmer. With around 140 composing credits (including Inception), do we still have to tell you what a fantastic composer Zimmer is? Probably not, but we’re going to do it anyway! His Dune score is epic and incredibly bombastic. The drums and violins create undoubtedly pulsating and extraordinary scenes. After the handful of almost entirely silent scenes, Zimmer intense work feels even louder than ever.

Ready for Dune: Part Two!

When watching the movie, you certainly feel that this movie is part one of a superb and epic Dune-saga. It would be an absolute shame if we don’t get to see part two. Not only because there’s much more to discover on Arrakis but also because if the highly talented cast and the ultra-creative crew work together again, you will get another astonishing sci-fi rollercoaster.

Dune is out now in U.K. cinemas.

Rating: (4.5 / 5)

Also Read: The Best Sci-Fi Films of the Decade (2010 – 2019)

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After a military convoy transporting a dangerous payload is involved in an accident, the zombie inside escapes beginning a series of infections that consumes all of Las Vegas. Years after quarantining the city, the government decides to nuke Las Vegas destroying what remains of the zombies. Scott Ward, a former soldier who specialised in dealing with zombies, is approached by a sinister businessman about travelling to Las Vegas and recovering the $200,000,000 in a casino vault before the nuke destroys the city. Ward puts together a team including his former comrades and other experts needed to get in, get the money and get out.

Behind The Scenes

Army of the Dead is directed by Zack Snyder, one of the most successful directors working today, being the driving force behind the biggest DC films, as well as 300, Watchmen and the remake of Dawn of the Dead – a film I love and so was excited to learn of a new Snyder zombie film.

In Front Of The Camera

The film has a large ensemble cast but Dave Bautista in the lead as Scott Ward. Bautista has had an exceptionally interesting acting career as part of a long list of professional wrestlers who moved into acting but unlike most, Dave Bautista is very good.

Does It Work?

The film is certainly a lot of fun as a mashup genre of zombie and heist film set in Las Vegas should be. The action scenes are very well done with an impressive level of carnage and destruction visited on Las Vegas. Dave Bautista is very good as the leader of the team and settles into a role he has played a few times now – the powerful tough guy but who is actually quite nice. Aside from the money, Ward is motivated by reconnecting with his daughter, Kate, who is a volunteer in the quarantine camps outside Las Vegas. These camps being a convenient place to put any difficult people who under the guise of containing the zombie infection. The rest of the cast does a good job: there is Garrett Dillahunt as the immediately suspect Martin, the very cool Nora Arnezeder as Lilly aka The Coyote and the mismatched pair of Omari Hardwick as Vanderohe, a tough army veteran and Matthias Schweighofer as Dieter, eccentric and comparatively harmless Dieter, the safe cracker.

Army of the Dead also plays with the usual zombie rules. I know there a lot of zombie traditionalists who will only tolerate the slow zombies of the Romero films but personally, I see no harm in changing things. After all, there are a thousand variations in vampire mythology, from Dracula to Let The Right One In to Buffy the Vampire Slayer – and that diversity is a good thing. If zombie films were limited to a very specific set of rules you’re quickly going to run out of ideas. In Army of the Dead, there are Alphas – these are faster, stronger and more intelligent zombies, the zombie who escaped the convoy was an Alpha and everyone he infected became an Alpha (those they infected became the slower, shambling zombies).

The assembled team as well as Ward and his former soldier colleagues has a safe cracker, helicopter pilot, a zombie assassin, a representative of the sinister businessman and a “coyote”, Lilly, who helps people sneak into Las Vegas to steal the valuables left inside. Almost immediately fractures in the group appear, leading the helicopter pilot Peters (Tig Notaro) having a conversation about “triage” – i.e. ranking the importance of each member and keeping them alive, with her as the pilot who will get them out of Las Vegas as one of the more important.

The film does make some mistakes. First, it’s two and a half hours long, in fact, two minutes longer than mob epic Goodfellas. This does seem to be a problem with modern films as some directors seeming to think it’s not worth making a film less than two hours. Second, the film tries to bring in more serious topics, such as the relationship between Ward and his daughter and some clumsily handled political issues around the quarantine camps. That’s not to say that a zombie film cannot deal with these subjects, but the film is split between huge zombie-slaying spectacle and these heavier issues, with the more serious stuff not getting enough attention to be properly addressed and developed in the film. I would rather have had a simpler storyline that leaned more into the zombie-heist idea.

Army of the Dead is an enjoyable film, especially for those who like the zombie genre. It’s not a great film and takes itself too seriously at times but a good cast, some new zombie ideas and an interesting combination of heist and zombie genre help make it a lot more than just another zombie movie.

Rating: (3.5 / 5)

Also Read: #Alive (Review)

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