Dune Movie Review

Dune is a movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 classic sci-fi novel by the same name.  Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the movie was released on HBO Max on October 21, 2021 and came to theaters on October 22, 2021. The initial movie in the franchise was such a hit, that Dune 2 has been officially been announced and slated to release on October 20th, 2023.

Dune received an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and generated $220 million at the box office. After watching this movie both in theaters and on HBO Max, I can tell you that the theater experience substantially added to my love for it.

Between Denis Villenueve’s genius directing and Hans Zimmer’s amazing soundtrack, this is a cinematic experience at it’s finest. That is not to say that the movie isn’t just as amazing on a streaming service, but if you do have the opportunity to watch it in theaters, please do.

The cast is filled with amazing actors and actresses such as Timothee Chalamet, as the main character, Paul Atreides and Stellan Skarsgård, as the main antagonist, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

All of the characters had amazing connections, feeling very natural. Dune’s whole cast provides a stunning performance and amazing faces to the character of Frank Herbert’s novel. 

The majority of the movie is set in Arrakis, a fictional desert planet in the Dune universe where the Fremen live. The real locations for Arrakis are the deserts of Jordan and Abu Dhabi. 

Every single setting in the movie is filled with so much detail and depth. The visual effects of the movie are masterpieces, from something as simple as a training sequence to Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica running from a sandworm. 

The thing about sci-fi is that it is futuristic and normally in a place overrun by technology and Dune adds layers of depth in the fact that it takes place throughout many centuries in the future in a world where artificial intelligence is banned. 

Overall, the movie’s setting does a flawless job of bringing including those otherworldly details that have an almost historic look to them.

One of the scenes in the movie that stood out was the Gom Jabbar scene. A very heralded scene in the books, it is filled with much accuracy in it’s movie representation. 

There are many small details in the scene that say a lot about the movie and the general lure. Between the very detailed flooring, the seat that the Reverend mother sits in, and the library in which it takes place,  all enforce the historic aesthetic of the movie. 

In this scene, Paul has to put his hand in an ancient box and go through a sequence with excruciating pain, as his humanity is tested to see if it will prevail over archaic, animalistic tendencies.

The Gom Jabbar scene is one we as an audience could not look away from and it held very iconic elements from the book, such as the box Paul puts his hand in and the “voice” that the Reverend mother enacts to force him in front of her. As well as the gom jabbar, a needle laced in fatal poison. The scene even holds one of the book’s most famous lines, “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.”

Frank Herbert’s Dune is extremely heavy and filled with extreme world building. Many people, including myself, were hesitant to watch Dune at first, unsure about how it was going to be pulled off, but it was done very seamlessly. 

Quite frankly, this movie is 2 hours and 30 minutes of background. It is an exposition, introducing the characters, settings, conflicts, etcetera. When the title scene of the movie comes on, we are immediately clued in that this is part one of many and the last line of the movie said by Chani, played by Zendaya, “this is only the beginning,” further proves this. 

Even though this first movie was mainly exposition, there were many thrilling fight sequences. Each of the Houses included a variety of distinct fighting styles which were showcased really well on screen. The sword fighting seemed less like a dance, filled with flourishes and flips, instead it was brutal and direct, in a way that seemed very realistic. 

Between stunning performances from actors like Timothee Chalamet, Charlotte Rampling, Rebbeca Ferguson and more, masterful editing from Denis Villeneuve’s, and Hans Zimmer’s genius, Dune is a great watch. 

Personally, after watching the movie the first time, if I knew how much of this movie would be so information packed, I might have waited for part two to come out, but in hindsight, the movie is amazing. Regardless of its dense worldbuilding, the movie is stunning. It is most definitely a cinematic experience that left me wanting more.