Biases in the open: David Lynch’s 1984 movie adaptation of “Dune” is a childhood classic of mine, and I’ve never seen a Denis Villeneuve movie that I’ve liked. Denis’ films are “aesthetically pleasing” and favour “showing” rather than “telling” (all the Film School buzz words), but their runtimes are artificially inflated with superfluous texture, narratively esoteric, and none I’ve seen have satisfactory endings. “Dune Part 1” will impress Gen-Z yuppies who prefer style over substance, but it lacks the “space oddity” of Lynch’s version. Gone is grim but lush production design that suggests the evolution of man through the spice, and in its place sleek, clean CGI and “practical effects” you won’t notice surrounding a bunch of dusty celebrities.

In Lynch’s Dune, Kyle MacLachlan plays Paul as a young man who accepts his destiny and leans into myth: not the most considered arc, but there is never any question that he wasn’t ready for his responsibility. Timothée Chalamet’s Paul is an emo teen burdened by his birthright, who has no control over his actions because why bother if his future is already written? Timothy could have laid the angst on thicker rather than being so rigid and passive: look at the scene between Paul and his mother in the tent between performances and it’s clear who comes out as the born leader.

While I’m complaining: for a guy who said he’d stop scoring superhero movies, every Hans Zimmer-composed soundtrack since 2016 sounds like Batman music. Here, Zimmer layers on the tribal throat-yodelling that lets you know what you’re watching is really, really important (including such instant classics as the “I Will Miss Water” theme when we leave Caladan) while simultaneously sounding way too similar to Toto’s music from the ’84 film. And the movie’s final third of fishing for a good spot to put a cliffhanger ending is disrespectful of the viewer’s time: I’d have much rather had the fight with Jamis held-over, thus leaving the under-developed spiritual angle of the story for the sequel.

Frank Herbert’s original book came out in 1965. It’s ignorant to think that the movie industry isn’t going to remake or reboot properties for subsequent generations. It’s equally ignorant to think that new generations won’t latch on to what’s current and trending, and discount what’s old and lame. Dune Part 1 is acceptable, but it’s cold & distant in ways Lynch’s interpretation is not. If I had my way – rather than going with the wife – I would be skipping Part 2.

2 out of 5