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Customer Review
- Reviewed in Canada on April 12, 2022The use of real spaces and locations gave the 'real' feel that much CGI can't manage even yet. The cinematography was good... at one point, you see a guild highliner disgorging minute little interface craft... and the highliner seems large. The interface craft descended to land, and they are like a massive sphere where the ramp down could support 25 or 30 files marching side by side and the entire thing would have enough internal volume for an office building. They play a lot with perspective to convey how big some things are. The soundtrack also had a lot to do with the cinematography - the sound and the visual aspects were harmonized in conveying non-narrative information.
The story follows the book (mind you, I read the book in the 1980s). It is definitely closer to the book than the 1980s movie of the same name. The actors were good, some even excellent.
It has periods of action, but there are more languid and rich periods of contemplation or where some internal drama was being explored. That's appropriate for a book like Dune and the size and scope of the vision where that vision included a lot of internal growth and change. It has, in those sections, more of a European film sensibility than the typically action-laden US fare.
I liked the casting for Gurney Halleck, Duncan Idaho, Duke Leto, Jessica and Paul Atreides. Having Bautista as Raban was fitting. Piter Devries was creepy. Thifur was not what I expected, but for what he was (a strategy and computation engine), it was interesting. The version of Yueh in this movie was I thought well cast and acted.
If I had any points of minor criticism, I'd say that folks who hadn't read the book would have not had enough to fully grasp Paul's battle with the angry Fremen (forget the name of the character) and the way that was handled. I know the Fremen were meant to be enigmatic, but for the uninitiated, they were a bit confusing (my wife needed some fill in to make sense of their actions). A bit the same with the Bene Gesserit.
Set design was a pleasant surprise. The Harkonen base the Atreides took possession of, Caldan, and the various dessert scenes were engaging. There costuming was better than the 1980s movie - stillsuits were plausible looking, the Sardaukar looked more like soldiers than a hazmat team (the 1980s look), and other choices were well made. They spent time and money to imbue the setting and the details with verisimilitude and a sense of depth. And Baron Harkonen was dressed not fantastically, but in a stark and understated way that let Starsguard's performance be what mattered. Good choices all around.
Overall, I look very much forward to the second movie and will buy the blu ray when it is available. I think we finally have a decent version of the book. I would expect that if the second movie (the second portion of the book) is as well done, there would probably be an impetus to try to do some of the ongoing story that was told in the other books of the Dune continuity.
