Rent Dune (2021)

Astonishing - Dune review by AL

Wow! The scope, the sound, the story, a masterpiece. Dennis Villeneuve is a great Director and visionary. Watched the David Lynch version just the other day, have seen it 4 or 5 times and I think only recently did I sort of understand all of it. I was surprised how much from David's version was in Dennis's version. I suppose it helps that there will / should be a sequel. I wonder if David had the chance would he have done a 6 hour version, perhaps that would have worked. Soundtrack is amazing, very much like Blade Runner 2049 in parts (which isn't a surprise) and some of the shots were like BR as well, no bad thing. Don't want to give any more away, but is well worth a viewing, I want to go and see it again.

Mesmerising - for an hour - Dune review by PD

For an hour or so, 'Dune' is mesmerizing, throwing off seductive glints of treachery as it presents the tale of Paul Atreides (an admirably restrained Timothée Chalamet), the gifted scion of the House Atreides, whose father is leading what looks to be an opportunity, though one that’s fraught with peril. This first section draws us into Herbert's world slowly but successfully, and hopefully will get many scurrying back to the books. There’s also much to admire in Patrice Vermette’s production design, particularly the Zen elegance of the aristocratic Atreides household on their beautiful oceanic home planet of Caladan and the Arrakis stronghold Arrakeen, a sprawling structure that combines ancient Egyptian and Aztec influences. The costumes by Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan also are full of eye-catching touches, from the gauzy gowns of Paul's mother Jessica and other women billowing in the desert wind to the utilitarian body-cooling “stillsuit” developed by the Fremen for survival in the desert, whilst the techy stuff is also really good, notably the giant Harkonnen harvesters raking the sands like desert beetles as monstrous sandworms tunnel up to the surface to swallow everything in their path, and the splendid wasp-winged choppers known as ornithopters, buzzing through the skies.

BUT. What the film doesn’t do is shape Herbert’s intricate world-building into anything really meaningful. For the history and complex societal structure that are integral to the author’s vision are condensed into a blur, cramping the mythology, whilst the layers of political, religious, ecological and technological allegory that give the novel such exalted status get mulched in a terribly thin, superficial screenplay (have these people actually read it all? or are they simply not clever enough to transfer it to screen?) - far too much of the dialogue could have been written by George Lucas, which is fine if you're 12 years old but I was hoping for so much more. Meanwhile, far, far too much of the latter stages of the film are dominated by Star Wars / James Bond style chase scenes which are both predictable and mind-numbingly tedious, whilst the sadly inevitable Lord of the Rings style portentous, subtle-as-a-flying-mallet score is among the most intrusive I've heard for many a moon. Only part one, of course, so jury out, and enough of interest to send me back for more, but if it's going to be more of the same then I'm afraid I'll probably be sensing a missed opportunity here.

Just Good - Dune review by JR

It's very cinematic, lots of impressive visuals. The sound track is very effective if a little over used in places. Good acting, it's generally a really good film however it left me a little cold, and I found it a little unengaging, much like Blade Runner 2049. It doesn't have the charm of Lord of the Rings, and the characters are less likeable.

I'm a fan of the book and the story in general so my expectations were high going in, and I suspect it maybe one of those movies that needs rewatching to take it all in, especially because it's pretty long.

Overall I would recommend it, and it is worth seeing at the cinema for the big screen visuals, however some may find it nice to watch at home so you can take a break half way through!

Best adaptation yet - Dune review by DS

You really need to have read the books to get the full benefit but this is a great adaptation. Looking forward to the next episodes.

A bit underwhelmed - Dune review by SH

I get the feeling if you watch this WITH the upcoming extra parts it'll be better but watching this as a stand alone movie it is a bit underwhelming. It looks good, it's acted good but lacks any real umph. Hoping part 2 brings more grit to the movie.

Better than I expected… - Dune review by JM

Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE is (mostly) a delight, closer to the excellence of ARRIVAL and SICARIO, even if it doesn’t reach the same heights. Still, having previously expected this to be an opera of unintelligibility (to say the least), it’s something of a triumph for Maestro Villeneuve that I never ran into any scenes that had no rhyme or reason to be there, unless you’d read the source work, as can happen in movie adaptations. I understood it all the way, and I really love it for that.

The visual implementation of the script is (mostly) excellent too; Aussie eye Greig Fraser, PD Patrice Vermette and VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert team up to bring Arrakis to joyously impressive life, while ace composer Hans Zimmer and the sound team of Theo Green and Mark Mangini make it sing like Beethoven’s 9th. They rock and rule here…mostly. More on that later.

Same goes for the cast. The casting here is uniformly superb, I certainly appreciate it considerably more than the Lynch version - never quite bought Kyle McLachlan and Sir Patrick Stewart as Paul Atreides and Gurney Halleck. Timothee Chalamet and Josh Brolin are more convincing, IMHO. Indeed, the casting here beats the Lynch version to a royal runny pulp overall. Even Rebecca Ferguson, who struck me as a touch too young to be Chalamet’s Mom, is superb!

 You may gather I approve, and I do. So what’s with all the “mostly”? Well, while the cinematography is otherwise superb, at times it severely impaired my enjoyment. Like one or two David Fincher films, it was much too dark visually for my taste, even on a 4K home theatre system, and at times unwatchable, most notably the long sequence at night where Paul and Lady Atreides meet the Fremen in the desert after their escape in the Ornithopter. Simply poor. Still, DUNE is a worthwhile experience generally and one I recommend. My only complaints are the visuals, plus that October is far, FAR too long to wait for part two…October 2023 that is! The rest I can live with happily.

Hmmm… - Dune review by Rod

Stunningly futuristic sets and enchanting cinematography that captured the desolation of Arakis and the uneasy, ever-present sense that, despite the advancement of humankind, the Atreides were at the mercy of the utterly punishing environment and those that would do them harm. With the combination of the cinematography, storyline and characterisations (faithful to the book) I found myself feeling oddly uneasy all through the film. And that… satisfied me.  

BUT… there were two things that pushed the other way, uneasiness into boredom - (a) sometimes too much of a samey feeling of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’. At least the David Lynch version gave me the wonderment -for a world 8,000 years in the future - that things I was witnessing should be weirdly unfathomable in those future days! But I think that impression was deliberately intended with a ground breaking sci-fi 1980’s film - I got the fact that I didn’t “get” what I was seeing sometimes in the Lynch version.  I liked that weirdness that wasn’t quite there with this newer version. And (b) too much time spent later in the film at the stage of the encounter with the Fremmen - among the rock and sand in low light and often inaudible script. An anticlimax - but then the ‘Part 2’ film should pick up the pace again??