Dune

FABULOUS 🥇🥇🥇🥇 . . . . And , Oh , Yes . . . . Hans Zimmer's Score's Already Got "OSCAR" Written On It 😉 ; & EXPECT A WHOLE " HOST OF OTHER MAJOR NOMINATIONS - AS WELL "

This Is A - B I G - Screen - MINI - Review. Picture Viewed Oct. 07, 2021 ; At Vox Cinemas , U . A . E

Paul Atreides : " Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear, and I will permit it to pass over me. When the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain ".

1. If you're  one of the -Millions- of people around the world who loved Denis Villeneuve's hauntingly riveting 2015 thriller 'Sicario', ( yours truly included ) ; then strap in for 'one hell of an Interstellar ride, with an -{ EQUALLY }- " INTERSTELLAR 🌠 " CAST . . . . that -literally- presents itself like a Who's-who of Hollywood's "Best, And Brightest". This time around, the unequivocally -{ Prolific }- Academy Award nominated French Canadian director has taken acclaimed American author Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi thriller, ( once touted as the world's -Best- selling science fiction novel ), & turned it into a veritable masterpiece of a movie. -Make Sure- to 'keep a special eye out' for Rebecca Ferguson's completely "Stunning" portrayal of 'Lady Jessica Atreides' . . . . I can promise that you most certainly -Will Not- regret it.

2. Almost needless to say, the Music, Acting , Cinematography 🔥 , Art-direction, C.g.i, Dramatic pacing & the sprawling, lavish Set-pieces are all, well . . . -{ " Past Compare " }- . When it comes to 2021's cinematic 'big budget" smorgasbord : if you want to see the -Very- best Popcorn Flick "Sensation" of the year, it's most unequivocally going to be Bond 25 : 'No Time To Die'. But, on the -other- hand, if you're more in the mood for some -equally- magnificent **"Artfilm Meets Blockbus...

The worst movie I've ever seen. Don't waste your time.

As a child, I remember catching David Lynch’s “Dune” on TV. I was too young to really understand the plot at the time, but I didn’t care, all I knew was that the worms were awesome. When I got a little older, I read the book for my first time. It was the first “adult” book I read on my own, and I was in love with it ever since. I read it many more times growing up, and when the miniseries came out, I watched and recorded it every night, then re-watched it time and time again. When “Children of Dune” aired, I again devoured it happily. In the case of the Lynch film, as I grew, I of course began to see more and more of the flaws, though I personally hold the “Spicediver Edit” in quite high esteem. That particular cut of the film manages to make the Lynch version into what is a genuinely good film, but still imperfect. The miniseries has, up until now, remained my preferred adaptation. Now we have a new adaptation: Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune”, and it certainly is quite different from the previous two versions in many ways, but is it good? Well, at least from my perspective, that answer is complicated. The short version is yes, it is a good film, but it’s not a great one.

The gist of the story is straightforward. Many, many millennia in the future, Paul, the son of the Duke Leto Atreides, finds himself and his family caught in plots of intrigue, and betrayal, after taking custody of a new and valuable planet. In order to survive, he finds that he will have to depend on the training of his mother, the Lady Jessica, the help of the planets local population, the fremen, and his growing awareness of a great, yet possibly terrible destiny that waits for him. 

In reality though, the story is anything but. The novel is infamous for being “unadaptable” with its complex “plots within plots” storyline, along with its sheer size. There is simply too much going on in the story to make it easy to turn into a film, or even a series. The previous efforts have all broug...

Great movie with excellent BG music and visual effects. Waiting for part two.

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/dune-spoiler-free-review

"Dune sets the new standard for epic cinema with eyegamic visuals, powerful sound design and score, and a compelling story told surrounded by an absolutely massive scale.

Denis Villeneuve adds yet another audiovisual masterpiece to his filmography, despite some narrative-pacing issues due to the heavy exposition and repetitive yet crucial dream sequences. Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson stand out in a stellar cast, where everyone delivers performances no short of impressive.

From the remarkable character work to the constantly captivating interactions, without forgetting the spectacle of the riveting action/war scenes, the extremely layered screenplay is beautifully translated to the big screen, where every viewer should definitely go to watch this movie.

Finally, don't forget that epic sci-fi/fantasy films are quite rare, so enjoy them as much as you can when they come out, instead of worrying about the comparisons with other sagas.

There's enough space to love them all."

Rating: A-

I'll open by saying I am not a fan of Villeneuve. In fact, I think he's a hack whose only genuine talent is making stupid people falsely think they are actually quite smart. I am also a HUGE Dune fan. They have been my favourite series of books since I first discovered them as a teenager. So although I hoped for the best with this, I was expecting the worst. What I got was somewhere in the middle. It's an OK movie, not great, thankfully not terrible, but OK

It got some things right the 1984 Lynch version got wrong, but still somehow managed to get other stuff wrong (including stuff Lynch got right). It was also a surprise how much Villeneuve just lifted directly from the Lynch film, both visually and auditorily.

The wardrobe choices were a huge disappointment. If you didn't know the time setting, going just on the clothes in the new Dune you'd be forgiven for thinking it was set a mere forty or fifty years (if that) in the future rather than the twenty thousand years in the future when it's really set. The Lynch stillsuits look futuristic, unworldly, and something that really would keep you alive in the deep desert. The new desert wear looks like they are just going to go dirt biking for an hour or two in our present-day world.

The casting (completely ignoring the pointless gender swap) was good, However, with the exception of Paul, Chani, and Rabban the original casting was all better. But the original (apart from the odd decision to use the totally unsuited Kyle MacLachlan) was a masterclass in how to cast the perfect people for the role.

Anyway, enough of the comparisons, This film is about the first two-thirds of the first novel. I always thought the story would be better told via a big-budget TV series (or even mini-series) rather than a standalone movie. I still think what they tried to cover here was too much for a single movie, but it was a step in the right direction.

The film mainly sticks to the book story but does make some needless change...

I enjoyed parts of this movie. But I seem to recall that I enjoyed reading the book this is based on (it was decades ago after all). And since I don’t remember the details of the source novel, I don’t know if it is the screenplay that dragged down my overall opinion or the original book.

I can sum up pretty quickly the pieces that disappointed me, and be advised they are probably spoilers.

I didn’t like how long it took to get our first glimpse of the spice worms, and even then they were represented as holes in the sand. Not exactly awesome. I didn’t like how they quickly killed off all the good guys except for Paul and his mom (okay, yeah that is definitely a spoiler). Plus I thought it weird that during the big battle scene we have awesome bombs and complex tracer missiles flying about, but on the ground we have merely well-choreographed hand-to-hand fighting with knives and swords. Couldn’t the folks who invented the missile come up with a pistol? Or am I being picky?

I read Frank Herbert's book, Dune, when I was in high school and really don't remember it much except that it was great and a little scary. At that age, I probably didn't get the subtext message.

I never saw any movies of it so I decided to watch both the 1984 Dune by David Lynch and the 2021 Denis Villeneuve version sequentially. I'm going to talk about both of them here.

This may not be a popular opinion: Lynch's version is brilliant and the Villeneuve Dune is absolute shit. Here's why:

First, is the Villeneuve Dune slick? Yes, absolutely. I should hope so considering it's nearly 40 years after Lynch did his, for crissake.

Are the character's in David Lynch's version kitschy and over the top? Yes! That's one reason it's so much better! It's Sci Fi, duh! You watch Marvel movies and suspend disbelief for incredible, imaginary super powers? All of Lynch's characters are downright gritty and believable within this particular surreal fantasy.

By the end of the Lynch Dune, I had sympathy for nearly every character in the film. Even the villains caught my emotions. Paul Atreides character development was realistic and attractive.

Villeneuve's characters? I felt like my neighbor came over and asked, "Hey, can you come to watch my kid's junior high school play?" "Sure, Denis, just let me fill my 1-liter flask with tequila first."

Villeneuve's characters were so damned flat and lifeless that they evoked NO emotional response whatsoever. Although I occasionally sit through a bad flick, I can't remember recently watching a movie as awful character-wise, as the 2021 Dune. If I were an actor on that set, I would be silently screaming. How does a director even do this?

Oh, and where's the creativity? It's 46 years since George Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic, and Denis can't create one single, new, goddamn space machine 46 years later? (One could argue the hummingbird copter is new, but it's not so creative when you realize that we didn't e...

This newest adaptation of the classic Frank Herbert novel (which I've never read) has the usual amazing visuals director Denis Villeneuve is known for alongside great cinematography from Greig Fraser (Rogue One, upcoming The Batman) plus the incredible and bombastic score by Hans Zimmer has the technical aspects but void of any real emotion behind the story and, especially, characters.

I couldn't find much wrong with the performances but nobody really wowed me despite having talents like Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa and Rebecca Ferguson, I didn't think anybody stood out, and that includes Timothée Chalamet in the lead role. I can't say this was at all bad and have some mild interest in part two, but, and this says a lot about Villeneuve's great career, this is one of his lesser films. I'll probably at some point give this another watch, especially when/if part two comes out (who knows when that will be). 3.75/5 (rounding it, I was debating 3.5 or 4, went with the latter)

On the plus side, it is much better than the 1984 adaptation.

I was really eager to watch this movie and at the same time a wee bit concerned because I knew that I would be hugely disappointed if it turned out to be another movie massacring a classic source material.

I have to admit that it was a very long time since I read the Dune books but I have to say that the movie was mostly true to the books, as I remember them, and also reasonably free of agenda driven rubbish apart from the odd replacement of some characters with “gender correct” ones for no real good reason.

There is really not much point in me saying much about the story. It should be well known for any science fiction fan and it is a great story and really good material for a big screen movie despite some “critics” at Rotten Tomatoes moaning about it and calling it unwieldly etc. Probably too big a book with too many words for the small, agenda driven, brains of Rotten Tomatoes “critics”. No surprise there.

The movie as a whole is wonderful to watch, the scenery is oftentimes very beautiful and the décor, the buildings, the machinery is very well done. I was surprised that the world of Caladan was portrayed as a rather austere Scottish looking landscape but after getting over the initial surprise it worked very well actually.

I also like that the Harkonnen, especially the Baron, are not turned into some exaggerated comical figures but, although disgusting and despicable, they are actual humans.

Overall the casting was quite good and everyone played their roles well. At the beginning I felt that Paul was a bit too wimpy, from what I remember of the book he was quite well trained and skilled already from the start, but he picked up as the movie went along.

It is a science fiction, borderline fantasy, movie so there should be some special effects, right? This is a difficult movie to make special effects for since this universe is a weird mix between futuristic science fiction, fantasy elements and old-fashioned traditions.

I have to say that they...