Alright! Today I'm reviewing the latest adaptation of the 1965 sci-fi classic DUNE, this time around directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049). Just to clear this up, it’s not a remake of the 1984 David Lynch Dune, it’s a new adaptation of the book, just like the 2019 Little Women or the new Percy Jackson show. I saw a few folks online calling it a remake, which it’s not, just wanted to clear that up.
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For a brief recap, Dune takes place in the year 10191 where, after a war against machines, humanity is now relying on the spice melange, which allows for interstellar travel and enhances human function. Melange can only be harvested on the harsh desert planet Arrakis, where it is religiously guarded by the native Fremen and giant sandworms.
The plot is about Duke Leto Atreides, his concubine Jessica, and his son Paul as they are given stewardship of Arrakis as decreed by the emperor of the known universe, who’s trying to upset the balance between the powerful House Atreides and House Harkonnen (The bad guys).
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| The Baron's not a gay pedophile here, that's both a smart move and somewhat disappointing. |
Denis Villeneuve has done something truly special here - he filmed what I imagined in my head as I read the novel for the first time. It’s a perfect adaptation of the source material, for better or for worse.
The for worse being that it is very slow. It moves fairly well, but it is still a very long movie mostly comprised of people sitting around and talking, or sometimes sitting around talking about talking.
It really reminded me about the book. When I read the book, I wouldn’t be too excited to start another undoubtedly dense chapter, but then my eyes just kept reading and I went along with it until I fell asleep. The movie’s like that - it just keeps going until it suddenly doesn’t.
It feels like they filmed the entire book, couldn’t decide when to cut, kept saying “Ooh! The next scene is interesting, hold off a bit!” and just kept going until Legendary execs told them it still needed to be traditional blockbuster length.
My other complaint is about the film’s score. Hans Zimmer does the score, but, and it really hurts to say this, it kinda feels like he lost his edge. When I look at his work from a decade ago (The Dark Knight, Inception, Megamind, Man of Steel) and then his most recent works (Boss Baby 2, WW84, No Time to Die) it feels like he’s on a decline. Dune’s his best score since Batman v Superman, but that’s not saying too much.
It needed a stronger melody, basically. Ripples in the Sand, the standout in the film, has practically no climax, they’re just banging instruments together for the last two and a half minutes of the track. The bagpipes were cool, Leaving Caladan was cool, but for the most part it’s disappointingly unremarkable. It has its moments, but it could have been much, much stronger, especially when compared to contemporaries like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, where the entire score is iconic. It needed a touch more heroism.
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Also, speaking of Lord of the Rings, this is not the next Fellowship. This is something else entirely. While Fellowship at least has a traditional third act where the gang splits up and Boromir dies, Dune just... ends... it's probably because Fellowship made walking into Mordor seem like such a huge and towering task, while Dune ending with Paul joining the Fremen just feels disappointing. Especially when the climax of the movie is an hour and twenty minutes in.
Fellowship and Star Wars are also very crowd-pleasing. Dune is slow and methodical, a bit more nuanced, with less action happening and more intense space politics and moments to breathe. But man, is it large.
Dune is the definition of a movie you have to see in an IMAX theater. The epic scale looms in every frame. Dune is a very large movie, oppressively so. 40 meter long sandworms roam the desert, large transport ships make regular-sized spaceships look minuscule, the humans are framed next to ship thousands of times their size. And all of it is beautiful CGI, every frame here is begging to be someone's wallpaper.
But you know what the movie isn't? It isn't very epic. It's just very large with a very large scale, but it's not really epic. Part II would be epic, but Part I? It's just large. It needed more sweepy, round shots. It's just lots of wide shots, very "boom" and in your face. It needed a sweepy camera, especially for scenes where Paul and Jessica walk through the desert night. And it needed to show the sandworm from the side, silhouetted with the humans!
I loved practically everything else though. The cast is god-tier. Like, it's pitch-perfect. Everyone does great, everyone acts exactly like their character. They're all good, but the favorites were definitely Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Liet-Kynes, and Stellan Skarsgård as the Baron. But everyone did great. I liked all of them.
Something I wish the movie had played a bit harder into was the religious side of the story with Paul becoming the Kwisatz Haderach. They talk about it a few times, but they never dwell on it long enough to make much of an impact. Again, this is something Part II deals with.
For some assorted random things I liked about the movie, every scene involving House Harkonnen was dope. Everything involving the sandworms was awesome, even if they needed a more prong-like design instead of the gaping butthole we see. My favorite vehicle in the movie was definitely the Thopters though, they had impeccable sound design and the coolest physics.
I liked how they were able to tease us with the maker hooks. They mention them a few times, show them once, have someone riding a sandworm for four seconds... the people making the movie knew how to tease the fans of the book.
Some assorted random things I disliked about the movie were the pain box. This is the only place the 1984 version reigns superior, showing Paul's melting hand in grotesque detail. Here it's an ashy hand intercut with visions of the jihad, it's less clear. It needed more really big shots of the silhouette of Paul walking through the desert (It only had, like, two). It's Dune's most iconic imagery and they barely tapped the potential. And the last two things I disliked about the movie were that Paul never said the Litany against Fear and they never make a big deal over Paul crying over Jamis' death. Like I said, really small nitpicks.
But at the end of the day, I liked it. It's a perfect adaptation, exactly how I always imagined Dune. It's a slow prologue to what would be a sequel where the entire movie is one glorified philosophical climax. Like, Part II would be insane. It would be more action-oriented, start with Paul riding a sandworm (Coolest opening sequence ever?), contain more of the intriguing false savior narrative that the books are so defined by, it would amazing. It definitely leaves you wanting more.
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