Review of Dune (2021) by The_Man_Xx — 22 Oct 2021

Before watching this movie I expected it to be slow paced,patient and visually stunning movie coming from Denis Villeneuve and mostly I was right and it it a good movie but did it live up to the hype for me...no.

The first half of this movie was a slow burn,took its time with the story-telling, character introductions and mainly focused on world building complimented with amazing visual shots from Denis Villeneuve and although I enjoyed some aspects of the world building,great visual effects and scenery and the mystery of the story and Paul Atreides' involvement in it, the first half of Dune was mostly uninteresting to me especially with mostly average characters(more on that later).

The second half however picks up with the pace and delivers the sci-fi epic that I wanted with good action, amazing set pieces and I know i've said it before and i'm gonna say it again THIS MOVIE WAS VISUALLY AMAZING and directed well but most importantly the story and pacing started to gel together well too along with the mystery aspect of the movie kept me kinda hooked but still had problems with paper thin character arcs and the when the movie is getting really interesting it ends abruptly.

Now on the characters, besides Timothée Chalamet's character Paul Atreides who is the protagonist of the movie, I didn't feel an emotional connection with most of the characters most of them didn't have interesting arcs if any at all and it's not because of the acting, I mean look at the cast of this movie it's impressive and there wasn't any poor acting performance in sight all the actors gave their all in their roles but that can only carry you so far if I didn't care for the characters.

The most interesting characters were Duke Leto Atreides, Lady Jessica Atreides and Duncan Idaho(Jason Mamoa was the only one who looked like he was having fun in the movie and was badass too) and was the second best character of the movie.Zendaya wasn't really in this movie as I thought she would be even though it's implied heavily she is integral to the story but that payoff doesn't really happen. The villains were your typical bad guy villain with average motivations although Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was creepy.

For the protagonist Timothée Chalamet gives a good performance as usual. Paul Atreides' story and journey was your typical hero journey although it's uniquely told as his arc is full of mystery as doesn't really get resolved by the end of the movie but I liked the dynamic between him and his parents especially the beginning with his father which was a cool moment. So with Dune being a slow burn, patient movie and average characters it relies heavy on the plot and story-telling for it to be a success and for me personally I feel it wasn't enough to make up for the flaws I had with Dune like the heavy slow paced and kinda boring first half,not feeling invested with most of the characters and some of the world around Dune feeling mostly empty for a sci-fi but I did enjoy the second half more, the action was well directed,the acting performances were really good and the movie is a visual joy to experience thanks to Denis Villeneuve's directing complimented with good cinematography and some aspects of the score(kinda annoyed me at times but it was mostly good).

I think it's a good movie but it's just not for me at the end of the day. I respect the unique take it has especially with the movie being released in Hollywood nowadays so I think this movie is necessary but personally might not watch it again.