A giant epic, a visual appetite, and a nerd’s delight, Dune delivers a sci-fi epic that kicks off a series well. However it’s not without its faults but those with 3 hours to spare and a nerd heart will enjoy themselves… probably?
SPOILERS AHEAD
I’m really struggling with how to rate and review this. I did give the disclaimer I’m coming into this completely ignorant of the source material. Originally I thought that was an advantage. Unbiased look at the movie…
Now having seen it, I can unequivocally say that it was a detriment. The movie tries, and does mostly well to make sure the uninitiated can get hooked into it, but I often found myself confused and questioning the workings of the world.
The movie is visually stunning. The costumes are incredible. The spice eye effects are even good looking. I was even intrigued with the political workings of the world. But it was very easy for a non-book reader to feel overwhelmed and less committed to the happenings.
More positives. The cast is solid, and the performances delivered were quite good even if they killed everyone cool. And Dave Batista is barely in this thing. I also enjoyed where and how this movie ended. That coming of age moment if you will for Timothee feels epic
Back to negatives… the first hour draaaaagged. And then lotta stuff happened. Then draaaaggged again. Then fight scene! Then draaaggg. The runtime is 168 minutes. And you feel every minute of that
Back to a positive. The costumes are incredible, and weird (to the outsider) but I loved them. The ships, the world presented, very visually appealing. The cinematography is quite excellent as well.
Overall, my feelings of Dune kind of match this twitter thread. Mixed and a bit confusing. I think those that love Dune will love this. And those that struggle to dive into material like this will wish they spent 3 hours doing anything else.
I never got into Dune because anytime anyone gave me a summary of the world and the books, I thought nor for me. And I think this movie confirmed that.
But I can’t deny that this is a good, well made movie. Especially of those that love this.
Despite everything negative I’ve said I overall have a positive feeling about it, and will be watching part 2.
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