Review of Dune (2021) by Dandy-Mr-D — 07 Dec 2021

After the disappointment that was the 1984 film and the monstrosity that was the SyFy channels miniseries, I prayed to whatever god that would listen for someone to come again and give this franchise justice in film. When I heard Dennis Villeneuve was selected to direct a new movie, I believed my prayer might have been heard. When I actually saw the movie, I knew it was.

This new Dune movie is everything I believed the franchise could be as a motion picture. Villaneuve delivered, as I knew he would, with larger-than-life structures, the expansive wastes of Arrakis, the color and pageantry of the people, and the epic sense of a larger struggle at hand. Such influences were evident from his previous works like Arrival and Rlade Runner 2049, but he perfected them in this movie. The movie was also a good adaptation and covered nearly all the main and important parts from the book, while leaving itself some leeway to format the story to the pacing and style of a motion picture (something the 1984 film failed to do). If there were any flaws, it was in the performance of some of the characters and the somewhat lacking explanations of things for those who would not be familiar with the source material. The actor selected to play Paul could not have been more uninteresting, and I could not always tell if his reactions at times were very appropriate to the situation. This was not the case for most of the cast surrounding him, and I was definitely taken in by many of the performances from the star-studded cast (although as good an actor as he is, seeing a nicely shaved Jason Momoa will always be a hardship to endure in the future). Of course this is only part one to this project. I feel it is important to withhold complete judgement until the next installment can be compared, but for what we have, it is an excellent beginning. Needless to say, I can't wait for part two.