In Dune, Jason Momoa is the only one sporting a whimsical grin and an out-of-the-box smile but barely says anything funny. Villeneuve’s Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 (even with Ryan Gosling), and now Dune, are imperiously dull, with characters who speak like they are the resurrected ghosts of their former selves. Nolan’s Interstellar is infested by sad sacks who just cannot share a light moment between themselves.

The perpetual seriousness of the protagonists (almost all of them), the near absence of someone who has a sense of humour, and the possible rheumatic condition that prevents these characters from letting loose, or speaking above a certain pitch. There are some titular tells of the modern sci-fi film. Even if we assume these dystopian futures imply the internalisation of stress and existential dread, at least someone has retained a sense of humour through genetic inheritance or the off chance they saw a long lost Blu-ray DVD of a ‘timeless’ comedy classic. Human nature is an outlier to everything we think is an empirical certainty. If humans could learn from distress, well, you would not have to ask them to mask up, impose fines, call them names at the next get-together or check if their Whatsapp forwards are the source of their latest science lesson. On an emotional scale, Dune is another in a long range of films by the likes of Christopher Nolan, Villeneuve, and their ilk who have simply sucked the soul out of sci-fi, and reduced them to a battle between characters trying to out-brood the other.Ī plaintive argument in favour of this tedious and dreary characterisation is that science fiction today is mostly about apocalyptic futures where the stress of scarce resources dries the humour out of humans like moisture from their lips. There is so much technical grandeur on display, it feels like a film that wants to impress upon you, immediately, its feats of engineering.Īnd though these impressions are undeniably registered, what is often glaringly missing is a sense of emotion, most importantly humour.

The technical flair is unimpeachable, so stunningly visceral are its scenes of life on a merciless desert planet.

The scale of the film is unimaginable – little CGI, actual sets – mounted as it probably is on the budget of a mid-size Indian state. But like pineapple on pizza, he is willing to see the lighter side of it.ĭenis Villeneuve’s magnum opus Dune has been hailed by critics as incredible high-stakes filmmaking. This column, the writer acknowledges, can also be viewed as a race to get yourself cancelled. Devil’s Advocate is a rolling column that sees the world differently and argues for unpopular opinions of the day.

Blade and soul stuck in first person