Dune may perhaps be one of the most anticipated movies of 2021. Currently, while I am writing this article, Dune ranks at 12th place just behind Cruella and Halloween Kills for the year of 2021. However far behind it might seem, one must keep in mind that it was only released on October 22, 2021.
The suspense leading up to its release was largely due to heartthrob Timothée Chalamet. At just 25-years-old he has managed several hit films and tends to work on several projects at once. A few of my personal favorites are Calm Me By Your Name, Little Women, and Beautiful Boy. However great Chalamet is, the remaining cast members are worth giving attention to. Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Oscar Issac, and Javier Bardem are just a few of the popular names on the cast list.
Below is the summary I found online:
“A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.”
I will section this review into categories for easy reading and then at the end I will fully rate the movie.
Images/Filming
Now, obviously, a movie of this caliber would have an enormous budget and this rings true. The crew put a whopping 165 million dollars into the film and the effort is truly seen. The set alone was enough to make my jaw drop. The film is set within probably two dozen major environment shifts and each one has its own aura to it. The desert scenes are stunning and the sky in the background is dotted with other planets and moons. This truly adds a unique feel to the movie and creates a distinct setting. Personally, the set and filming did so much for me as a viewer. However, I am a very visual person, so someone else might not value it as much for its aesthetics.
The movie is labeled as an adventure and the action scenes fit that. The most compelling scenes were high intensity and they were well done in my opinion. Even looking back though, the most dangerous scenes don’t stick out in my mind as they would in some other movies.
I feel like the sandworm deserves its own subsection. I am honestly surprised that I have not had nightmares the last few nights because it was that scary. Before the worms were shown on-screen I imagined some small snake-like creatures similar to those in Tremors. However, they were much larger and more terrifying than the worms that were dreamed up in the 90s. Their mouths were filled with sharp spikes and their jaws managed to swallow whole harvesting machines. It almost makes me wonder how appetizing one small person would be, but that is beside the point.
Plotline
In my opinion, I feel like the movie itself was very anticlimactic. I am someone that values a slow burn but this one just felt rather uneventful. The conflict surrounds the enemies of the main characters but the tone of the movie felt stagnant. The movie ended with a resolution but no major problem was fully laid out.
Structure of the World-Building
One of my favorite genres to read used to be dystopia so I am relatively familiar with how they are structured. Now you are probably thinking, but books are different from movies! And that is true, to some extent, but the same layers of world-building apply.
There are several renditions of Dune and I have seen none of them, and I am not familiar with the book series either. This lack of background knowledge forced me to rely on the movie alone and it fell flat in giving me a clear picture of the world the movie describes. I am sure there are fans out there that would question my lack of understanding but it is important that Dune stands on its own without reliance on other versions or books.
I saw this movie with my sister and boyfriend and they were also unsure of how to handle the jargon that was used early on—mentions of places, groups of people, weapons, and government were used with no explanations. I kind of felt like a detective while watching it (not in a good way) and I often found myself asking questions in the middle of the movie like, “Wait, why does that matter?” or, “What does that mean again?” Each time I asked these questions I was often given a blank stare or an “I don’t know.”
More realistic movies do not have this hurdle to cross. There are no distant planets to name or groups of people that need to be mentioned because it is assumed that they occur in a world similar to ours. This is not the case for Dune and proper world-building remains one of the key pieces for viewer clarity.
Characters
The characters in this movie add a lot to the feel of it and it is one of the positives of the film. There is major character development among main characters and minor ones as well. This adds a sense of depth and realness to the movie that would otherwise be lacking.
Dune takes place in 10,191 and it is a comfort to know that people are relatively the same in the assumed future. Main characters suffer from huge personal flaws which add another layer of conflict to the plot. Mistakes are made and people get hurt as a result; characters are betrayed by close friends—these are all deeply human things to feel and it makes the characters all the more believable.
Rating
I would give this movie a ⅗ stars. The cinematic filming and effort that went into the various sets were some of the most compelling pieces for me. I found myself drawn to the expansive desert and towering metal buildings rather than the quiet plotline. The portrayal of the characters was well done and well written and mirrored the human condition in the best way possible. I would watch this movie again because I believe that rewatching movies can add so much to the overall viewing experience. However, I would not pay to see it again. If I at some point find it on Netflix or Hulu, I would watch it there but it is not something I would see in theaters again or rent.
I recommend, if you haven’t already, to Google the summary and familiarize yourself with the terms before viewing it in theaters. I know that I would love the movie a second time around because the background knowledge would be there, but a movie must stand on its own as well. So, will you find yourself sitting in the nearest theater watching Dune?