A SCI-FI epic and Broadway adaptation vie for attention this week. One’s superb, one not so and we don’t even have time to mention Boss Baby 2.

First up, Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve tackles Frank Herbert’s Dune. This was the novel that felled the great David Lynch, whose 1984 adaptation proved an admirable mess. A tale of desert sands, survival and unfailing devotion.

Little Women’s Timothee Chalamet leads a blockbuster cast as Paul Atreides, son and heir to Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto. When House Atreides is gifted responsibility for overseeing the manufacture of the mystical drug melange on the planet Dune, all foresee a trap but are helpless to refuse. It’s not long before Paul, and his ‘witch’-trained mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are on the run. But can they survive the sand worms and indigenous Fremen awaiting them?

In a gamble that may prove his masterstroke, Villeneuve sidesteps the challenges faced by filmmakers before him by splitting Herbert’s novel in two. Should it prove a hit at the box office, Villeneuve’s Dune will serve as the first in a two part odyssey. One that hopes to give Herbert’s thicket of ideas and concepts room to breathe.

Success is by no means guaranteed. Villeneuve learnt that the hard way with Blade Runner. That said, his Dune cast should turn heads. Alongside Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Dave Batista bring Hollywood to the table, whilst Mamma Mia’s Stellan Skarsgård offers gusto as the film’s big - literally - bad.

That the film is visually gorgeous to behold should also help.

Also this week, Wonder director Stephen Chobsky steals Dear Evan Hansen from Broadway, Tony award winning musical that propelled Ben Platt to fame.

Platt reprises his Evan Hansen for Chobsky’s film, despite now being a good decade senior to his character, and does solid work in reminding audiences what an impressive pair of lungs he has.

And yet, much like the stage show upon which it is based, Dear Evan Hansen is a film that fumbles challenging issues and raises dilemmas without ever taking sides or laying blame.

Where this is due, a blunt script by Steven Levenson - who penned the book too - simply, meekly, responds ‘it’s complicated’.

At well over two hours, the result is sadly drab and really does seem to drag on and on for forever.