Review of Dune (2021) by Mystichydra — 03 Nov 2021

Despite 8, the lingering feeling I have after seeing Dune is one of disappointment. First the good - There's basically 2 ways to approach a film with source material such as this. Either make it "fun-size", and palatable with people who purely want escapism (i.e the mass public), or try and evoke the nuance and political complexity interwoven throughout Herbert's novel. I'm frankly really glad they went the latter avenue, and overall I think the info overload actually pays off well. The acting, special effects, cinematography, aesthetic, costumes, and overall feel was stellar. It felt epic without being pretentious, and I would imagine seeing it on the big screen (yes, I'm one of the toadies who streamed it) would only add to the awe. However, much of the dialogue and the pacing were rather bland. A lot of pure exposition. As I said, all the actors did a really good job (with the possible exception of Javier Bardem, who's accent was jarringly distracting to me. Why does he sound so drastically different to the rest of the Fremen? I half-expected him to say "fine, we'll settle it with my lucky quarter" at any moment) but with an oft one-dimensional script, there's only so much that can be done.

And lastly, my real chagrin. The pacing. I don't know if the original novel frankly has enough sourced material to warrant two long movies. This movie is 2 1/2 hours. They could so easily trim 30 minutes. A major pet-peeve of mine in any movie is when they have a bunch of slowed-down walking scenes, void of any dialogue. There's a TON of said shots riddled throughout the film, that only makes the rather slowed-pace only feel uncomfortably more so. And they could have been clearer. Hard to tell who's who and even what faction is what sometimes.

I did enjoy it. I'm super excited for part 2. I don't however, recommend it to people who are on the fence about seeing it, or aren't a sci-fi/Dune fan. I just wish that when thinking about it a day later, I wasn't focused on questionable approaches or confoundment with certain elements. The Worms are worth the price of admission.