Dune

RATING: B+

A minor disclaimer: I have never read the book which this is based on. Nevertheless, I was interested in a new sci-fi/fantasy epic based off some beloved source material. Heaven knows Hollywood has very little actual original material these days, so it is always pleasant to see some decent/interesting books being adapted to cinematic form. And frankly, we were due for a new successful franchise based off a book series. 

Dune has been adapted before to the big screen back in 1984 by David Lynch, but that film was apparently a failure and not so well-liked by the book fans. This new one seems to be faring much better in the latter regard. Fortunately, despite this being adapted from some pretty dense source material which made adapting it properly difficult, one can still understand this film without having read the book. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to not go in completely blind. 

So basically, in this sci-fi universe--which takes place in the year 10,191--interstellar travel is achieved by way of the substance called "spice"--which is also an hallucinogen drug. It also helps extend human life and heighten abilities and stuff... but the important thing is it makes interstellar travel possible, thus making everyone pretty reliant on it. And it's only available on one planet--Arrakis, a desert world. 

Arrakis, which is home to the Fremen natives (as well as gigantic sandworms--more on that later), has been occupied by House Harkonnen for some time who have been harvesting the spice. Now the Emperor (what exactly he's emperor of, I never did get straight) has re-assigned it to House Atreides--whose Duke Leto, his partner Lady Jessica and son Paul, are our primary characters--with the latter being the protagonist. 

The Harkonnen aren't very keen on giving up their monopoly on space's most precious resource, and Duke Leto is aware of the threat from them--among other possibilities in which this situation could go badly sideways for them. But hey, the Emperor has spoken, and that's that apparently. There's another thread or two going on here, namely the Fremen's belief that some kind of messiah is on the way to help liberate them--who could very well be Paul for reasons that would take too long to explain here.

Anyway, as you can probably tell by the fact that it took me three paragraphs to explain some basic background on what this story's about, that the lore of Dune is pretty loaded. To the point, in fact, that director Denis Villeneuve felt he simply couldn't tell the story in one movie--so technically, this movie's title is actually Dune Part One. And even Part One is loaded, because this movie is 155 minutes. 

Dune does a good job of explaining its setting and backdrop, as well as its gimmicks--such as the forcefield armor that everyone fights with that prevents anything fast from killing you--and is not that difficult to follow. There may be some trouble keeping up with some of the weirdly named places and people, but so long as you've got the primary ones down, you can manage. 

On a visual/technical level, this is a masterpiece. This has always been Villeneuve's primary specialty, and it is on full display here. The landscapes are gorgeous and the designs are well-done, as are the special effects. Of particular note is the first actual look at the scope of a sandworm, which is a jaw-dropper moment. The sound effects also give this a unique feel, which is helped out by Hans Zimmer's score which uses a cacophony of sounds that distinguish it from his usual work while still sounding enough like him. 

Story-wise, it's nothing necessarily special--it does rely on a familiar trope or two (chosen-one-esque stuff), but it's got unique enough concepts and is intriguing enough to keep one interested. But it is ultimately a movie that takes pride in its aesthetics most of all--and in that sense, it is a complete success, and you have enough substance that you don't feel like you are watching anything remotely brainless. The all-star cast certainly does not hurt either, of which Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa (mostly by virtue of his character being the coolest), and Josh Brolin stand out the most. Timothee Chalamet is fine as the main lead, though sometimes he's a little too straight-faced at seemingly the wrong times. 

This film does perhaps suffer a little bit from being a "Part One," but that's less the fault of the director or movie and more on the source material for being so dense that even 150 minutes isn't enough to do it justice. But, for example, we do have the result of there not exactly being much of a climactic sequence, and the final line being "this is just the beginning" further driving the point home that this is basically only half a movie. It's a good thing that Part Two has officially been greenlit, or this movie would be rendered pointless. 

For fans of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, Dune is well worth dipping your toe into even if you aren't familiar with the source material. It does more than enough to distinguish itself from other works of the genre and stand on its own. While I have heard that this series gets weirder as time goes on, I am at least quite interested to see how Dune Part Two goes. 

Black Widow

 

RATING: C+

It's hard to believe it has been two years since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film outing. Yes, we've had a handful of miniseries' via Disney Plus, but I'm not really counting those (and am also hoping they won't expect us to have seen those in order to understand future movies). But it's been two years since Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. And this would appear to be the last throwback to the Infinity Saga before we start rolling with stuff like Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home and bring in the multiverse (sigh). 

Ultimately, the main reason this movie exists is because the fans clamored for it; but the studio supposedly couldn't find a place for one before. Now with Natasha's storyline definitively ending in Endgame, there is nowhere to go but backwards. The result is a prequel of sorts that takes place between Civil War and Infinity War while Natasha is on the run (again). And the first thought that comes to mind is... why couldn't they just have released it in between those two movies? 

So shortly after Natasha went after the run in Civil War, she finds herself crossing paths with her dark past; specifically, the brutal "Red Room" where she had been trained that had been hinted at in Age of Ultron. This leads to her reuniting with her surrogate family from those early days; specifically, her "sister" Yelena. Together, they will face off against a new threat (I think?) from the Red Room, as well as the foe Taskmaster. 

There are definitely some interesting pieces in here. The film is at least partially built around Natasha and her old "family," and on at least two out of three members, it works pretty well. Yelena (Florence Pugh) is easily the highlight of the movie overall, with her frequent snarking with Natasha as well as being able to hold her own as well due to also being part of the Black Widow program. David Harbour is also clearly enjoying himself as Alexei / the Red Guardian and gives the film another strong source of levity. Rachel Weisz's mother figure doesn't fare as well, but that's in part due to her character being more complicated (and not in a good way). 

There is some fun action here as well. We get some of the usual moments for Natasha as well as Yelena to have some good fighting scenes. Natasha also gets another classic moment of turning the interrogation around. Some of the earlier Taskmaster fights are quite good as well, who is formidable due to having the ability to mimic fighting styles. Elsewhere, the film does a good job at times of showing the horrors (well, sometimes more implied than shown) of the Black Widow program--to the point where real-life trafficking parallels can feel invoked. Such scenes are creepily effective. 

However, there are definitely issues here. To start with, this doesn't completely feel like Natasha's film--in part because it does not do much with her character. She's supposed to be confronting her dark past, and there's good opportunity for this after a revelation about a particularly alarming thing she did. The problem is the film does not a good enough job of making her seem properly remorseful--a poor oversight on the writers' part, who seem to be more focused on the levity and family side of things--as well as the evils of the program itself--at the cost of character development, as well as sometimes borderline hand-waving the terrible things the individuals have done. 

And there is also the matter of Taskmaster. I cannot say I know much about the Taskmaster of the comics, but plenty of comic-book fans were unhappy with the film version. And the reveal of the identity of Taskmaster here is ultimately rather underwhelming. Taskmaster is set up as this formidable foe and the presumed primary antagonist, but much of this gets undone by the final act as Taskmaster is revealed to be playing a rather different role than expected. 

Speaking of the final act, that also in general is a bit underwhelming. There does not seem to be a grand deal in the way of stakes--or at least, not by Marvel movie standards. Yeah, not everything can be an "Avengers-level threat," as it was put in Far From Home, but it doesn't really match up to the darker tone set up earlier on, and due to the previously mentioned underwhelming reveals as well as the storyline not being entirely coherent, one can end up feeling less invested by the time stuff starts blowing up. While Ant-Man and the Wasp also did not have as big stakes (aside from Hank going to the Quantum Realm to find his wife), that one was at least a little more innovative and genuinely fun, and less fundamentally flawed. Black Widow at least gets the "fun" part more or less down, but it's too weighed down by the flaws to be particularly notable. 

Black Widow is a decently enjoyable pastime, but it's also a bit of a mess. While a lot of this boils down to poor character development and arcs, it also boils down to the fact that this film does not really mean anything in the grand scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It mostly just exists so that they could have a solo movie for Natasha and possibly introduce a future replacement for Scarlett Johansson. It does leave a tease for one of the upcoming Disney Plus series in the post-credits scene, but at this stage, I could not possibly care less about that. And while it may be a welcome enough addition for fans of the character, I do not think it should be too much to ask in an entertainment series this utterly vast that the installments matter in the grand scope of the series. 

No Time to Die

 

RATING: B+

Well, it only took six years including a year-and-a-half delay thanks to a global pandemic, but the newest James Bond has finally arrived--and the final one for Daniel Craig. Which is what we thought last time around, but this time it is pretty definitively the end. Though I liked Spectre a lot more than most, that last installment was a bit divisive--so the question is, in the actual finale, if MGM can stick the landing with this iteration of Bond. 

When we last left Bond, he had retired from MI6 and had run off with Madeleine for a happier life (hence why Spectre could've served as an ending for this iteration of Bond if it had to). This film initially picks up where that one left off, but when an incident leads Bond to believe Madeleine betrayed him, he strikes off on his own. Years later, he is approached by his old CIA friend Felix (who was missing from the last two movies), who is looking for his help in finding a missing scientist. This ultimately kickstarts a plot that leads Bond to cross paths with both Madeleine and MI6 again, as well as pit him against a new villain with world-threatening plans. And of course, despite being in jail, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE are still in the picture... 

This is an unusual recent case of a movie having a quite troubled production and still managing to overcome it. They had an abrupt director switch, writers who were initially allegedly at a loss for ideas for political reasons, a bunch of script rewrites even as filming began... and somehow this managed to not be a failure. 

However, this does feel like a bit of a different Bond movie. It kind of is purely by nature, seeing as this is the first iteration of Bond to have any serious continuity between movies and to actually have a conclusive "ending." But it also feels a bit more dramatic, as Bond finally wrestles with the cost of not trusting anyone. It has a bit more in common with Casino Royale than it does Skyfall or Spectre. 

This does kind of lead in to one of the bigger flaws of the movie--the villain Safin (Rami Malek) and his plan. It's never made completely clear what exactly the full scope of his plans and motivations are. He has a connection to Madeleine, but the "reveal" there turns out to be underwhelming, especially when compared to Silva's past with M in Skyfall or Blofeld's past with Bond in Spectre. Malek is appropriately creepy at times (an early flashback involving him invokes some jump scares, of all things), but his character is not fleshed out well enough for him to truly stand out. 

The issue there is that this movie seems to be wrestling between being a little more character-focused like Casino Royale was, and being the usual spy action flick we're used to. The difference is that the villainous plot/characters in Casino Royale, while convoluted, could still be followed. Here, the best we get is a vague monologue from Safin about how he sees himself and his "mission" which leads directly to one of the catchphrases used most heavily in the trailers from Bond: "History isn't kind to those who play god." Considering that Safin still plays an important role in the course of the plot, this lack of clear explanation does bring down the movie a notch. 

There is still plenty to like about this movie, however. There's both some great car chases and gunfight sequences, and some of the hand-to-hand fights are quite well filmed due to the camera not cutting constantly. Daniel Craig also turns in possibly his best performance in the series, and Lea Seydoux seems a bit more comfortable in her role as Madeleine this time as well. Hans Zimmer predictably gives us a great soundtrack which fits pretty well for a less traditional, more serious Bond movie. 

This movie also has some serious daring; in the pursuit of being a definitive conclusion to a saga of Bond, it takes the franchise to places it has never gone before. As a result, the stakes do truly feel like they are truly high and that anything could happen--and thus, it's an unexpectedly brutal watch at times. 

And while previous Daniel Craig Bond movies hinted at times at a less cold, more thoughtful Bond, this one finally seems to fulfill that ambition. If Casino Royale was the story of how Bond's heart was broken and thus turned him into the cold and sometimes ruthless secret agent we all know, No Time to Die is the story of him finally confronting his issues; and while the execution isn't perfect, the result is a pleasant and satisfying turn for his character arc.

The film can admittedly feel bloated at times with its 163-minute runtime, even without shoving a ton of side plots at us (and this again makes one wonder why Safin's character is not more fleshed out). And the different tone of this movie might throw some off looking for a typical Bond adventure--but this is not that. This is a definitively concluding chapter that resolves the story and character of this series of Bond movies, and it does so on its own terms. The results aren't quite classic, but they do leave an impact. It's anybody's guess what lies in store for the future of the Bond franchise, but the legacy of the Daniel Craig saga will be very difficult to top.