Review of Dune (2021) by Han73R — 24 Oct 2021

I am writing on the facts, I will try without spoilers, decide for yourself - to watch or not.

Good:

1. Scenes look epic against the background of the desert and large objects (ships, planets, moons). You can put it on your desktop wallpaper.

2. Worms. The desert really kills. You understand that this is a merciless, unforgiving death.

3. Costumes. Yes, in 140 degrees heat they go without helmets, but this is rather a convention to show an acting game.

4. Some aircraft. The device of their work, animation, flights, their control, etc. have been thought over.

Bad:

1. CGI graphics. Disgusting low-poly monochrome city. Technique - squares, balls, cylinders, and other primitive geometric shapes. The same poor low-budget room décor. The highliner in the form of an empty eclair is already overkilled with minimalism. The eye has nothing to catch. It's just not interesting to watch the visuals.

2. The universe and characters are not revealed. It is not told why the resource is so valuable, how it appears, what it is used for, why travel is so expensive, why there are no computers, etc. Yes, all questions would be closed if you read the books. But that's a weird excuse for the movie. The film should be self-sufficient in itself. An excellent example of the disclosure of the universe from the latter: Demon Slayer: Train "Endless" - you don't have to watch the early anime or read the manga to figure out what's what. Even a small insert would be enough for the film. An example would be the start of any Star Wars. Those. solutions for disclosure have been around for a long time - why has not been applied is a mystery.

3. Bad combat. Firstly, it is completely incomprehensible why, when armed with firearms, people use ordinary swords? There is simply no excuse for this. And the sword fighting itself is poorly staged. They are pretentious, but the feeling is that it is more important for wars to wave epic at the camera than to fight. Hence the impression that this is training, rather than a real fight. Again there are good examples: Game of Thrones, Gladiator, 300 Spartans, Star Wars, Vikings. Each stroke is verified, logical, and looks good on the screen.

4. Music? Was she there? I would like to say that it is boring and not expressive. On the other hand, the music should complement the film through sounds, and here Hans Zimmer did his best to match the soundtrack with what was happening on the screen, creating white noise in the background. The music fits the picture 100%. In this regard, Mad Max: Fury Road is a great example, where the soundtrack also perfectly complements the film without "shouting over it.".

5. Installation. The feeling that it was filmed for about 10 hours, and then the editor had to meet at least 2.5. The problem is that the elements important for understanding what is happening were shown crumpled, very quickly and without details, but at the same time there are whole chunks of timekeeping that can be cut out without loss. For example, the situation with the servant: why was it shown that she was giving a blade? How did it then reveal itself, where did the blade go? Why are we talking about palms? To show the value of water on this planet? To just burn them later? But the time to explain the reasons why the Great House left its planet and was completely transferred to another was laid in a few minutes.

Here are questions about timing. The feeling that 2 days have passed since the landing on the planet and the subsequent attack. Judge for yourself - we arrived and examined the principle of the harvester's operation. We went to bed - an attack. Moreover, the attack was expected, but no one was ready for it in the end.

6. Action. It simply does not exist. Almost not. Except for a couple of scenes of flying and fighting with swords. Can you make a movie without such scenes? Of course, there are many good straight films. Only for this it is necessary to switch the viewer's attention to other elements. But they are not here either: the picture is scanty, the scenery is poor, the music is pale, the characters are mostly not revealed, the plot is not clear to the uninitiated.

Verdict. The feeling that the director wanted to grab onto everything at once: epic, deep, wide, but in the end a lot of things failed. The film is as diligent as possible not to be Star Wars - we don't have lightsabers, we fight on regular ones. There is no strength - but there is a voice. We don't have robots yet, but we won't tell you why. And he even succeeds. At the same time, for the film to have a WOW effect, as many people say about it, it must at least show at a decent level what is already in the industry.