Movie Review: Dune: Part One (2021)

[Dave Gray]

Dune: Part One (2021)

Premise: In a universe run by powerful political houses, the Emperor shifts control of a planet with an invaluable natural resource, bringing several factions to the brink of war.

Premise: As good an adaptation as can be made.

I really loved this movie.  The book, which I've never read, but I know a good deal about, is probably unadaptable, as the sci-fi story and concepts are too far reaching.  Perhaps you could tell this as on ongoing miniseries to bring all the details in, but there's no way this could exist in any quality form -- the budget would be astronomical.

This is an incredible achievement.  Everything that's there is great.  It's adult, sci-fi, taken seriously.  No corny jokes or one-liners, no meta humor, no dumbing shit down for the audience.  It's rich, beautiful world building.  It's gloriously and consistently weird.  And it just puts it out there.  The result is a slow-paced, deliberate epic tale that we'll probably be talking about for the next 50 years.

I can't help but compare this to Lord of the Rings, in that it's just a huge story with a ton of backstory and strange, sometimes magical concepts, that have to be introduced.  There are premonitions, not all of which are true -- there are drugs-induced hallucinogenic fits, there is what I would call witchcraft.  This move manages to deliver on all of it.

The visuals are perfect.  The use of CG helps tell the story, but everything is natural, as is the director's style in Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival.  Nothing is in your face, visually.  No shot looks like it wasn't actually filmed with a camera. 

The cast is great -- no actor is too big for the role.  Everything is played straight.  The lead is perfect.

The music is big and bold (my wife hated it), but I thought it was epic.

And maybe most importantly, this movie shows without telling.  It doesn't tell you how "freaking", the blade-based shield system works.  They show you, with unique visuals.  They don't explain "the voice".

All this said, and as much as I like it, I think that some general audiences aren't going to like the slow-paced, weird sci-fi-ness of it.  Or that this is essentially half of a story.  But you should give it a shot.  It's great.

[Sunstroke]

I will watch this very soon. One of my all-time favorite sci-fi/sci-fan book series ever.

[Downunder Dolphan]

I saw it on the weekend, and overall I liked it a lot and recommend it (especially to any sci-fi fan).

It is a lot to take in (especially if you are new to the Dune story) and is a slow burn, but is superbly filmed and acted - reminiscent of Blade Runner 2049 in the way it feels.

The plot is a bit of a jolt to the unfamiliar (I described it to someone as like diving straight into Empire Strikes back without seeing/had a skim view of Star Wars - A New Hope), the ending promising a lot to come. But like Dave, I like that they are not treating the audience as idiots by trying to explain everything - anyone who is patient will get it.

[Tenshot13]

Dune: Part One (2021)

Premise: In a universe run by powerful political houses, the Emperor shifts control of a planet with an invaluable natural resource, bringing several factions to the brink of war.

Premise: As good an adaptation as can be made.

I really loved this movie.  The book, which I've never read, but I know a good deal about, is probably unadaptable, as the sci-fi story and concepts are too far reaching.  Perhaps you could tell this as on ongoing miniseries to bring all the details in, but there's no way this could exist in any quality form -- the budget would be astronomical.

This is an incredible achievement.  Everything that's there is great.  It's adult, sci-fi, taken seriously.  No corny jokes or one-liners, no meta humor, no dumbing shit down for the audience.  It's rich, beautiful world building.  It's gloriously and consistently weird.  And it just puts it out there.  The result is a slow-paced, deliberate epic tale that we'll probably be talking about for the next 50 years.

I can't help but compare this to Lord of the Rings, in that it's just a huge story with a ton of backstory and strange, sometimes magical concepts, that have to be introduced.  There are premonitions, not all of which are true -- there are drugs-induced hallucinogenic fits, there is what I would call witchcraft.  This move manages to deliver on all of it.

The visuals are perfect.  The use of CG helps tell the story, but everything is natural, as is the director's style in Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival.  Nothing is in your face, visually.  No shot looks like it wasn't actually filmed with a camera. 

The cast is great -- no actor is too big for the role.  Everything is played straight.  The lead is perfect.

The music is big and bold (my wife hated it), but I thought it was epic.

And maybe most importantly, this movie shows without telling.  It doesn't tell you how "freaking", the blade-based shield system works.  They show you, with unique visuals.  They don't explain "the voice".

All this said, and as much as I like it, I think that some general audiences aren't going to like the slow-paced, weird sci-fi-ness of it.  Or that this is essentially half of a story.  But you should give it a shot.  It's great.

As someone who has read the first three books and saw the movie over the weekend, they did a phenomenal job with this adaptation.  I can't think of anything different from the books to this movie except the Baron should be more gross looking with boils and pimples, and Lady Jessica should be more cold and calculated, where she came off crying a lot in this.  That's it, such minor things and frankly I like this version of the Baron better.  My wife knew nothing about Dune and she loved it.  There was nothing that she didn't understand, they did a great job world building in such a short time with the slow burn method you spoke of.  Splitting the first book into two movies was a good idea so not to cram everything into one movie.

[Downunder Dolphan]

I watched the 1984 version by David Lynch last weekend (at the risk of it being a spoiler to part two when it's released).

It's different, far less mainstream which is why I could see how it bombed (especially coming off the tail of the original Star Wars trilogy) for not being accessible to the average movie goer at the time.

The bizarre and grotesque elements are something out of a Terry Gilliam film, some bordering the comical at times. There were concepts that (so far) have not been tackled in the latest version (such as the need for spice for space travel, an Emperor overseeing and manipulating). Will these be introduced, or will they continue to be conveniently left out to avoid comparisons to Star Wars? (and continuing to make it easier to understand to the average punter not familiar with the Dune novels)

Lynch crammed a lot into that one move which was a remarkable achievement in itself - what was considered a long movie nearly 40 years ago would be considered almost average now. The special effects are typical 1980s fare, some stunning, some rather amusing in their uniqueness.

To anyone who liked the latest incarnation of Dune, I'd recommend seeing the 1984 version. Yes it's flawed, but it's interesting to see the similarities, the differences in some direction, and the ambitious attempt to paint this canvas with the limitations of the time.

[Dave Gray]

There were concepts that (so far) have not been tackled in the latest version (such as the need for spice for space travel, an Emperor overseeing and manipulating). Will these be introduced, or will they continue to be conveniently left out to avoid comparisons to Star Wars? (and continuing to make it easier to understand to the average punter not familiar with the Dune novels)

The spice-for-travel thing was tackled, although I don't think it was super explicit.  They showed the calculators where their eyes rolled back in their heads to do math.  Those guys were the navigators, powered by spice.

The movies run together a bit, so I can't remember exactly.  I know that in the new movies that it's all the stuff that's in the book, but they're just choosing what to specifically explain and what to be left implied or in the background.  I think they mention the Emperor, though, specifically.   He's the one who sets up the betrayal on the spice planet.

[Tenshot13]

For Dune fans, there was a Dune SCYFY channel original mini series in the year 2000 that did a pretty good job on the story.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert's_Dune

They did a Children of Dune mini series after this too staring James McAvoy.  I never checked that one out though.

[Sunstroke]

I did end up watching this movie about a month ago, and believe it is the best movie I've watched recently. Can't wait for part 2!!

[Downunder Dolphan]

The guys at redlettermedia looked at Dune (2021) and Dune (1984). There are spoilers, so you may wish avoid this if you have not seen them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ClY9yo7-9o

They mirror most of my thoughts, and highlight some of the really weird stuff from the David Lynch direction: Milking a cat in a cage with a rat taped to its back? Charging into battle with a pug dog under your arm? Baron Von Fartbag (LOL).

It also seems like Canadians say "For sure" and "Blah, blah, blah" a lot.