Movie Review | Dune (2021)
Introduction
So, I'm taking a break from reading the works of Pierce Brown for a couple of weeks and will be sprinkling in a review for the movie Dune this week and a review for the game Metroid: Dread, next week. I’ll be back with a review for Iron Gold on December 1st, so keep an eye out for that! This review for Dune is one I’ve wanted to do for a while because I’d like to add my voice to the cacophony. That’s what everyone wants, right? Someone else shouting their opinion? Right? That’s what the people need?
While the reviews for the movie Dune have largely been positive, the opinions on the good and bad of the movie have been considerably mixed, with some people praising the film in its entirety and others noting the issues with it. I’ll be honest from the start and say that after the movie, I had my reservations and negative opinions on it, but was worried that maybe I’d just missed something or was being hypercritical. However, seeing others I respect voice my own thoughts has made me feel a little more confident in my possibly negative opinions about the movie.
Don’t worry, I didn’t hate it! I enjoyed it, had a great time, and will probably be watching it again before I see the second part once it’s released… in five or six years. I have a lot of positive thoughts, I just had reservations about my own negative opinions, at first. I’ll explore those in this review, so let’s get started.
If you’d like, I have a video version of this review (as I do with all of my reviews) on my YouTube channel! Feel free to check that out if you’d like.
Summary
If you somehow still don’t know what Dune is about, here’s a summary: roughly 8,000 years in the (hopefully) alternate future, the ruler of a planet is sent to replace the baron of another house in running the spice refinery on Arrakis, a brutal desert planet. The spice is essentially what makes interstellar travel possible and thus is an incredibly vital resource. When the Duke of House Atreides takes over operations on Arrakis, he finds that the equipment left behind by the baron has been sabotaged, rendering their efforts to collect and refine spice more challenging than originally expected.
But this is really just the setting of a much larger, deeper story. There are parallels drawn here to invasion and colonization, there’s a magic system, and there is a massive population of people native to Arrakis in the mix. This is an incredibly complicated story and the book—like many science-fiction books back in the day—is incredibly plot-driven. It’s tough to summarize everything Dune encompasses, especially when this is supposed to be a review and not a narrative deep-dive (and I’m avoiding spoilers), but this should give you the information you need in order to understand the premise of Dune.
Review
The Presentation
When I review books, the presentation isn’t all that important. With movies, shows, and other visual or audible media, presentation is huge. For Dune, I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that the presentation is five stars. This was easily the best part of the movie, for me. It was incredibly gorgeous from start to finish, with some well-thought-out, unique, memorable shots and movements. If you are going to see this, go see it in theaters. Seriously. Unless your home theater is just insanely awesome, you need to go and see this in a top-notch theater. I can’t imagine experiencing it any other way and having as great a time as I did in the theater.
The audio, the visuals, the music, the effects, everything in this movie was so carefully curated and considered. I loved all of it. Every movement, every perspective, every scene was a masterpiece visually and auditorily. This film’s presentation totally deserves five stars and I’m not sure who out there would disagree with that. This movie was stunning in regards to its presentation.
The Plot
If you don’t know, Dune is originally a book that came out several decades ago. It’s a classic sci-fi story and so falls prey to some classic science fiction tropes, though they weren’t really tropes back when the book was written. We as consumers and as storytellers have moved past some of these tropes, so you have to look at Dune’s plot with the eyes you used to look at other older works, as this film stays quite true to the source material and so is riddled with elements we now consider tropes.
The plot of Dune is solid when looked at through the appropriate lens. It’s actually, in my opinion, the second strongest aspect of this movie. The themes were well-explored and the story is set up appropriately for part two. A lot was promised by part one, though, so I really hope that the next film delivers on everything that Dune set up in part one.
While I don’t want to detract too much from the plot of Dune that is really just a consequence of its time, it’s hard for me to not take away a point or two for the classic Chosen One trope. This, to me, has always been a worn and tiring plot driver. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. I know that Dune was written in a time when this wasn’t a big deal (and I also know that it has its own ways of subverting this trope, from when I read the book), but it’s still exhausting and is really at the forefront of the story. This is the only major stickler for me and, if I’m looking at this objectively, it’s a sore spot for the movie as a whole.
To reiterate, I know why it’s there, and I can forgive it to a degree, as I forgive some of the other tropes in this film, but that suspension of criticism can only stretch so far. So I’m going to give the plot of Dune four stars.
The World
I found the world of Dune to be pretty dry.
…
Okay but seriously, I did.
This was also my problem with the book. Dune’s world is very straightforward and is just there to serve a singular purpose. It has some character of its own, but overall it isn’t anything spectacular that you can write home about. The world is simple and is exactly what it needs to be. There are some pretty cool things in this world, but it’s all stuff that we’ve seen before (again, this is a product of its time).
In the end, I think that the world of Dune and all it encompasses is pretty much average for me. I know that the other books expand the world a lot more, but I’m reviewing the movie here, and Dune: Part One sets up a world that is simple and exactly what it needs to be. It sets it up well, but this world is pretty average, so three stars.
The World-Building
The world of Dune is simple, so building it for the viewer isn’t too challenging an endeavor. Still, I was surprised by how well they established all of the functions and rules of this world. I know it’s easier to show and not tell in a movie versus a book, but this is still something that some movies can do improperly. Dune absolutely nailed the world-building. I don’t recall a single “As you know, Bob,”, but you can correct me if I’m wrong. Instead, the characters talk as though we, the audience, already have the information as viewers (sometimes even to a fault).
The world is built well and concepts are reinforced. I think that this is shown best in the shields that everyone wears. This stood out to me because we first saw them in action during a training scene when Paul tests his shield before beginning his training and we see that it flashes red on impact. Later, we see the shields in real action and get to understand their limitations. This is once again shown and not told. No one stops and says “As you know, Paul, continuous pressure focused on one area of a shield can pierce it over time.”, we just see that happening.
The world-building was superb in Dune and I want to give it five stars… except that it hits a serious pain point for me, and that’s the opening narration. What a way to start off the movie: me sighing. I really wish that they had nixed this. The opening narration was unnecessary and expository. Everything else in the movie avoids being overly expository, but we open up with a direct-to-audience narration that I just didn’t like. Maybe this was an homage to the source material or the first movie, but it was unnecessary and was bad enough that I’m going to be docking a star, so four stars to the world-building of Dune.
And let it be known that any movie that kicks off with opening narration is going to have at least one star docked in the world-building and/or writing aspect. I find it to be inexcusable. Just don’t do it. Stop it. Seriously, please stop.
The Characters
The Dune novel suffers from something that the vast majority of 1900s science-fiction books suffer from, and that’s terrible characters. Seriously, just poorly-written characters, characters without personality, characters who don’t have a unique voice, and characters who are just… basically about as distinct as a saltine cracker. The movie stays true to the book pretty strongly… including its boring characters.
If I were reviewing the book, I’d give the character one star. Sorry, I just would. However, in the movie, the actors bring a lot of depth and charisma to the characters that just weren’t present in the novel. Timothée, Oscar, Rebecca, and Jason in particular really shone in this film, delivering performances that brought their respective characters to life.
Still, the lack of personality was present, despite the best efforts of the performers. With excellent performances clashing with forgettable characters, I have to give Dune’s characters two stars.
The Writing
Dune’s writing is, overall, pretty sound. There were some awkward lines of dialogue and a bit of repetition that could get dull, but for the most part, I found that the script was exactly what it needed to be. Nothing in the way the story was actually told stood out to me as spectacular or noteworthy, but none of it was particularly bad, either. You know where I’m going with this: the writing for Dune—from the story beats to the dialogue—was average, so it’s getting three stars from me.
It’s tough to really judge Writing in a movie as it mainly pertains to dialogue, since the rest of it is covered in the plot section, so I think three stars for the writing is quite fair, here.
The Pacing
And now we come to the pacing of the movie… this is a sticking point for many people. Dune is extremely slow, but it also needs to be slow. The dull crawl of the film is necessary and none of it seems like something that could be sped up or cut with any significant effect. When the pacing picks up, it picks up quickly. And when it slows back down, it slows back down considerably. This movie can be a drag sometimes, but it’s a necessary drag and I’m not sure what I would change. This makes it hard to really pin down a rating for the pacing of this movie, but I think I’m going to give it four stars.
The pacing is always appropriate for where the story is at and where it’s headed. There are moments of high tension, nothing ever feels rushed, and nothing ever feels like it should be moving more quickly. This means it was well-done, even if sometimes I found myself wishing something exciting would take place during long lulls in the story’s progression. Sprinkling in some moments of interest or excitement could have helped, but I understand why they weren’t there, so four stars for the pacing of this film.
This is definitely a complicated point to rate. I absolutely understand people who disliked the pacing of this film. It’s slow. Really slow, especially in the beginning. I totally get people who find the pacing nigh on impossible to get over and I don’t blame them for being bored during much of this movie. I personally was never bored and was just enjoying the experience, but finding Dune to be boring is a perspective I can fully understand. Personally, though, I’m giving the pacing four stars.
And that’s how subjective opinions work! We can both be right!
Overall
So… my overall rating for Dune. This was an unforgettable, unique, and certifiably fresh cinematic experience. I myself am not ordinarily a fan of science-fiction, though it is growing on me, and this was probably the greatest science-fiction film I have seen in a very long time. I hope that it leads to a rebirth of the genre in film and sees a new wave of creativity and awesome experiences. However, while I had a lot of fun seeing this movie and was in awe of its visuals and audio design, there were some pain points in the film that reduced the overall score for Dune.
Dune is a five-star experience in terms of the stunning cinematography, but the narrative and characters really suffer in this film, as would be expected from a faithful adaption of Dune. These really drag the movie down so, while it was a joy just to watch, my review of the story as a whole is going to bring Dune’s overall star rating down to just three stars, for me, making it a pretty average experience, all things considered.
This is a movie that I have told people to see in theaters. I feel that, if you’re going to watch this, it has to be seen in theaters, because the beauty of the film isn’t in the story, it’s just in the actual film parts of it. The cinematography, the effects, the sound, and the music all come together to make a magical piece of art… but that art comes with a narrative that is largely flat throughout the film.
Conclusion
I hope that my review doesn’t seem too harsh. I have so much respect for this movie as a whole, but in the end, it’s fairly average. I have HBO Max but I don’t think I’ll be rewatching the movie on my own home screen. It’s really a movie that’s only worth seeing in a high-end theater. This is a theatrical experience. It’s also a theatrical experience that I fully believe you should have, and your chance to have it is dwindling (if it’s even still available to you at the time this review goes live). You should absolutely go and see Dune in theaters at least once while you have the opportunity because wants it’s out of theaters, I’m not sure it’s a movie I’d recommend watching.
Thank you very much for checking out my review of Dune: Part One, I hope that you enjoyed it and took something away from the thoughts I presented, here. I have really enjoyed seeing the opinions presented by other reviewers on this movie. I think that this is a film that many people have enjoyed in different ways. Honestly, I think that the opinions shared regarding Dune since its release have showcased the real meaning of subjective opinions. I’ve read many reviews that I absolutely understand but don’t personally align with regarding this movie, without a single one being something I believe to be inherently wrong. I hope that same grace can be extended to my reviews!
In summary: thanks for reading my review, go see Dune in theaters if you still can, appreciate the cinematic experience, take the narrative experience with a grain of salt, and lastly… subscribe to my YouTube channel. Additionally, you can follow me on social media. I’m @tlbainter on most platforms, particularly Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with the latter being my most active. Those links will be at the bottom of this post.
Next Wednesday I’m reviewing Metroid: Dread and then it’s back to book reviews with Pierce Brown’s Iron Gold the week after, so stay tuned for that! Until then… bye!