Starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Warner, out 21 October (UK), 22 October (US)

The son of a noble family finds himself entrusted with the protection of the most valuable asset in the galaxy.

Denis (Blade Runner 2049) Villeneuve’s lavish adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 Hugo and Nebula-award winning classic arrives nearly a year later than planned, but when the product is this good, what’s the rush? If it’s safe for you to do so, go and watch it on the biggest screen available to you.

A definitive adaptation of Herbert’s novel has never been successfully made, and we can look back at Jodorowsky’s abandoned version from the 70s, David Lynch’s over-ambitious but muddled 1984 movie and John Harrison’s Emmy-winning 2000 mini-series for Sci-Fi Channel for proof. All brought something to the table, but with Villeneuve’s version the director has conjured an alchemy to the project, which so far succeeds on all levels.

Of course, this will come as no surprise to those already impressed by his work on previous projects like Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. But every director can have a blip, and was the scale of this undertaking too much for him to handle? Not in the slightest. From Hans Zimmer’s sweeping score to Greig Fraser’s breathtaking cinematography of the desert plains to the literate (but accessible) screenplay by Villeneuve, Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts, or the intricate costume design, the movie enables both newcomers to the property and diehard fans to experience and appreciate the wonder.

There’s a lot of world building, with viewers expected to rapidly get up to speed with the lingo (appendices in the novel are handy in this respect) but I think that Game of Thrones has demonstrated that modern audiences can handle the universal theme of multi-cultural political backstabbing, regardless of the jargon and location. And there’s the device of the ‘film books’, used to educate both Paul and the audience about Arrakis – an equivalent of the Encyclopedia Galactica or Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Timothée Chalamet is perfectly cast as Paul Atreides, joined by Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson as his parents, Atreides royalty. Other members of this court are Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin, each enjoying significant moments in the drama. For the villainous Harkonnens, Stellan Skarsgård is a huge presence (literally) as the Baron, and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista is a brutish Beast Rabban. Zendaya has little to do beyond her appearances in dreams/premonitions and some moments at the end, her role surely coming into its own in part two.

Talking of part two, this is a major fly in the ointment, because as I sit here writing this, part two has not been greenlit. There’s no ‘To Be Continued…’ and the movie does stop at a logical break point – even the opening credits describe the movie as Dune: Part One. Surely, with its healthy box office to date, this is just academic – why stop now when there’s a story to complete that so many people will want to watch?

Verdict: Better than we dared to hope, Villeneuve’s first half of Dune is an excellent first half – the version I’ve been waiting for – but can you truly judge a product on something that’s incomplete? Take my money, greenlight the rest of the book, and reduce my anxiety levels at the same time. 9/10

Nick Joy