Over Analyzing the DUNE Trailer!

Alright! Today I'm doing something I haven't done in... a long time... I'm overanalyzing the Dune trailer! Yay! Yes, it was released two weeks ago! This is the earliest my blog schedule could fit it! 

But since I haven't done it since, like, Artemis Fowl, I thought it would be fun to do it again for something I'm actually excited for. Most of the time these are fun little things where I make fun of those YouTube channels that pull way too much content out of three frames, but for Artemis Fowl is was ripping through the entire movie and predicting practically everything it would do terribly.

Dune is the opposite. As a fan of the book, I can literally see exactly where some of these scenes are from and they all look pitch-perfect to what I read.

So this is a shot of ornithopters flying over a desert. It's unclear if this is a desert from Saudi Arabia, Arrakis, or Iran.

Never mind. It's the UAE.

"My planet Arrakis is so beautiful when the sun is low."

This is the closest thing to a No Way Home trailer we'll get at this point.

Ah, this is why the movie will be unwatchable. This is obviously a shot from Oman, meaning the cinematography will be needlessly complicated, detracting from the overall impact of the film.

"Rolling over the sands..."

"...you can see spice in the air."

Fun fact! Spice was invented by India, meaning that this shot was likely shot in India. Can't they pick a desert?

"The outsiders ravage our lands in front of our eyes."

Okay, this looks like concept art and I'm here for it. This'll look amazing on my iPhone when I see it on HBOMax.

These are the Fremen. They're basically space Muslims after 20,000 years of evolution or something.

Chani's eyes are blue here. This is actually part of a long-standing theory that every character she plays is in fact the Boo Berry ghost from those Halloween cereals that you only ever see in November.

It's like someone made Concept Art: The Motion Picture.

*screaming*

Now, the idea is that they're screaming because they're being hit by lasers, but it might be because they've been graced by the presence of Muad'Dib. 

Fun fact: The whip on his belt is actually a homage to the 1980 film The Return of the King movie, which featured the song Where There's A Whip There's A Way.

This is the main villain of the movie, the dark and gritty Mr. Potato Head. 

"Their cruelty to my people is all I've known."

This is actually untrue. The Harkonnens are incredibly nice if you're Harkonnen, and Chani is later revealed to be descended from Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and a Bene Gesserit. 

This is a pile of burning bodies, which is an homage to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's fates in A New Hope. The ship behind them is the same one from Eternals.

This is a crysknife, which, according to Dune lore, can show the location of the Maker (Sandworm) if you stand on a hill and point it at decades old wreckage. Frank Sherbert was kinda stupid when he wrote that in.

There's blood on this knife, which is actually symbolism to Jesus getting stabbed in the side by a spear. Zack Snyder's crying right now.

The plugs going into her nose are actually from these things called sillsuits. They're very shway.

"What's to become of our world?"

Fun fact! The "shot of a planet with ships over it" is actually trademarked by Star Wars.

"Paul."

This is actually false advertising, the guy's name is Timothée . 

This is actually a reference to the fact that Paul Atreides is a human that sleeps.

This is a movie by WB. Good for them, messing with DC, squeezing HP, and then potentially killing a second Dune movie by putting it on HBOMax.

This is Legendary. They think they're cool because their logo looks like the grooves on an off brand Oreo cookie.

These are Thopters. They're fun say out loud. 

"My boy."
"Duncan, can I trust you with something?"

No matter the role, Jason Momoa is the "bro" guy. That's fun.

"Yes, always. You know that."
"I've been having dreams about a girl on Arrakis."

This is actually a reference to a controversial scene in the book where the birds and the bees are explained to Paul after he keeps talking about his dreams with a girl.

"I don't know what it means."

Fun fact: If you utilize silhouettes, it gives you 100% more directing street cred.

"Dreams make good stories..."

Again with the sand. This was shot on Myrtle beach. 

"But everything important happens when we're awake."

This is false. I personally was asleep when Princess Diana died.

"Look at you, put on some muscle?"
"I did?"
"No."

This is a textbook example of humor.

Alternative read: From the director of Blade Runner 2049, Sicario, Arrival, and other movies you didn't bother to see in theaters.

This is actually a shot from the next season of The Mandalorian. It's the AT-TE they find Captain Rex in. Silly trailer editors. 

"We are House Atreides."

"And I... am all the Harkonnens..." Love the cinematography and sense of scale here.

It's not the focus of the movie, but Timothée Chalamet's profile here is wack. Hopefully, the movie can recover from this glaring oversight.

"There is no call we do not answer."

Unpopular opinion: They should have kept the shield design from the 1984 Dune. It was incredible.

"There is no faith that we betray."

And this is a frame from season 5 of The Crown. Get it together, people.

"Smile, Gurney."
"I am smiling."

This and the previous "Duncan" Donuts Idaho scene are the only scenes of humor in the movie.

"The Emperor asks us to bring peace to Arrakis."

AGAIN WITH THE SAND. Based on the texture and composition, I think it's from Egypt or Libya. I think.

"House Atreides accepts!"

The silhouettes. Like I said, it's a very clever trick to make you look professional.

This is Chani. She's a metaphor for Sprint Mobile's six months of wireless free deal.

"I know you."

This is an example of an unreliable narrator. Paul doesn't actually know her, he's just dreamed about her before. And we've all seen Minority Report, dreams aren't always the best cornerstones for reality. 

I swear, if I have to come up with some new funny thing to say about a shot of Zendaya as Chani I will throw the keyboard. 

"There's something awakening in my mind."

Between Timothée Chalamet in this and Anthony Ramos in In the Heights, freckled men are getting lots of representation this year in Hollywood. #OscarsSoUnfreckled.

This is a shot from when the Sandworm attacks the spice mine as they survey Arrakis for the first time. 

Apparently, Dune is trying to recreate the internet magic of other sci-fi franchises like Star Trek, this is practically identical to that one Picard meme. 

This shot is actually really cool. No complaints or snide remarks here, this is probably from when Lady Jessica decides to become a Reverend Mother by O.D.-ing on melange. Looks dope.

"You need to face your fears."

This Greatest Showman sequel is looking off the wall.

"Come with me."

Not sure who this guy is, so I'm going out on a limb here and assuming it's Brian Tyree Hemry's character from Godzilla vs. Kong back to haunt us with his podcast. Oh, I'm receiving word now that it is Jamis. Spoiler alert, he is actually Baron Harkonnen. 

Another good trick for directing: Blur the background. Makes you look cooler. 

This is important because it's when it comes out, but given the number of delays Dune has suffered, it's probably about to be delayed half a decade. 

Here we have some Thopters flying over an Arrakian landing field. 

"You need to be ready."

Again with the scale. Humans here look like ants next to their starships, which don't run on hyperdrives as in Star Wars (They run on children as in Snowpiercer). The scale is meant to make us feel small, which I already do a pretty good job of doing, thank you very much. 

I imagine this to be Saluda Secundus, the prison planet that Beast Rabban is summoned to Dune from. As you can see, their prisoner safety is not remotely up to date with the current Harkonnen standards.

"You've never met Harkonnens before."

It's great to see that they're sticking to some of the "Muslims... in SPACE!" imagery that influenced the books so. Even more impressive is the amount of black space utilized in the shot. It's not Batman: The Animated Series, but it's pretty darn close.

"They're not human. They're brutal."

While it is true that they are not human and brutal, it should be noted that some of them are technically "humans," albeit ones that adapted to fill the role of a computer known as a Mentat. 

This scene is meant to make a great wallpaper and nothing more.

"The Duke's son, he sees too much."

I actually have no clue what this scene is, but it looks pretty dope. 

Here we see Mr. Yueh test Mr. Atreide's reflexes with a space hammer, which likely takes place after an assassination attempt. Yueh is, fun fact, another Mentat, albeit one that specifically specializes in space field navigation, meaning he's called a Face-Dancer, or Koh for short. 

This is a look at David Dastmalchian's Mentat Piter De Vries, who looks like he was ripped straight from that Star Trek episode The Corbomite Maneuver. 

"This is my Dune. Kill them all."

Okay, I'm all for artistic integrity and not wanting to throw up while I watch a movie, but one must miss the sheer boldness the 1984 Dune carried when Baron Harkonnen would start flying around like a pus-filled pedophile gumball (Achievement unlocked: New sentence).

This scene is actually a metaphor for the geopolitical climate in Northern Kazakhastan right now. It's indicative via the orange lighting and black silhouette. 

"God in heaven."

This is when the original idea fails - when it has to tie into a larger property. I can't believe they couldn't stick it out and had to include the Death Sta to get butts in seats. For shame, Legendary. I trusted you. 

Dune's not going to win Best Editing anytime soon - Jason Momoa's beard has been all over the place in this trailer. Where is it now? 

Here, a Thopter flies away from an explosion. None of this is CGI - originally, the Thopter was supposed to fly straight into the explosion, but some of the extras got cold feet and flew away. The director liked it so much he kept it in anyway.

"Get everything with guns off the ground! Go!"

Once again I'm disappointed by the lack of cube shields, but the scale here looks intense, so it all balances out to a nice 4/7.

Such intense scale. Dune will likely be the largest movie you see this year, and that's okay. 

"This is an extermination."

Fun fact: These images of burning palm trees are actually from Florida during the last Purge. 

The mark on the center of Dr. Yeuh's head is a Bindi. It helps the Mentats focus. 

"They're picking my family off one by one."

Once again, The Greatest Showman 2 is looking radically different from my expectations. 

This scene was directly inspired by Space Jam: A New Legacy when Wile E. Coyote crosses over with the Mad Max movies. 

"Let's fight like demons."

This is a bit of an anachronism, in the Dune universe they don't really die and go to hell, they come back as these things called gholas. 

This is likely a legendary scene in the book from which Duncan Idaho kills nineteen Sardaukar singlehandedly. People talk about it for a while in the book, he gained quite a bit of notoriety from this event. 

Such epic scale. This scene was shot in Sweden. 

"Dad, what if I'm not the future of House Atreides?"

Not related to Dune, but man. Oscar Isaac's hair is absolutely magnificent. And he should totally be ready for a big sci-fi movie given some of his previous projects like Ex Machina. 

"A great man doesn't seek to lead, he's called to it."

False. No one asked me to lead because they didn't want me. 

"But if your answer is no..."

Fun fact! One of the reasons they keep putting the sandworms in the trailer is so that they have enough time to redesign them if fans freak out like they did with Sonic the Hedgehog. 

"...you'll still be the only thing I ever needed you to be..."

This design was likely chosen so that way the God Emperor of Dune could look like a whack-a-mole when he emerges from the center. That would be very entertaining to watch.

"...my son."

I'm really happy with this dialogue, it shows that they're really trying to one-up The Lion King for "Awesome dad character."

I believe this is Dr. Liet-Kynes carrying maker hooks, which is awesome. It means we might get to see some sandworm riding! How cool would that be? 

"If anything happens..."

Oh, they did a race swap and a genderbend for this one minor character no one cares about? Geez, movie will be trash and I hate it. Wokeness ruining Hollywood once again, first Ghostbusters, now this. Wait until my Discord chat hears about this.

"...will you protect Paul?"

Paul who? If they expect us to infer with this movie Imma be done. I'm having a hard enough time just trying to remember the difference between this, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and that Phineas and Ferb Star Wars movie. 

"With my life."

Ironic that she's the one saying that considering what happens to her, but I digress. 

Concept Art: The Movie is, like, looking incredible. I can't wait to see the HBOMax documentary series and thirteen spin-off TV shows for it.

Isn't it kind of a spoiler to put this scene in the trailer? After all, Duke Leto slipping a disk is kind of a major plot point in the book.

I like how many explosions they are putting in this trailer, hopefully it makes it more palatable for the mass audience. 

"Only together can we stand a chance."

This is the scene your parents will walk in on you watching. 

The Fremen were actually about to drop the hottest rap album of 2005 before they took this shot. 

This scene doesn't really have a place in the books, I'm pretty sure it's a vision to the future Jihad Paul has. 

I'm not entirely sure why the finale of the trailer is some masked low-level foot soldier getting stabbed in the neck with, like, an inch of a knife, but okay. 

Aw, Dune has a case of "floating CGI" head. That's terribly disappointing, this shot actually looks kind of bad. 

"It's time."

This one frame is in slow motion to emphasize how slow this movie is going to be. 

Overall, I'm going to give DUNC 4/5 avocados.