Does Dune Finally Have a Worthy Adaptation?

I agree with 90% of what you said. It's a good movie but too long for what it delivers. I wish they'd been more daring with their concepts, though. The visuals feel too sleek and uniform to me. And you get no idea of the vastness of the empire. Paul talking of marrying the Emperor's daughter came out of nowhere in this context. No matter how disputed the Lynch version is, it felt more daring, more willing to take a risk, and provided more of the cultural-political context. Since I already knew the story, I genuinely found myself bored by this movie... One thing I had a very different experience of than you is Baron Harkonen. The whole House Harkonen did not come to life for me. I wasn't intimidated by the Baron. He just looked like a greedy old dude that does what the Emperor tells him, not like someone who is dangerous under his own steam.

Going into this movie, I assumed that it would end after the Water of Life sequence. The time jump afterward seems like the perfect place to split the two movies.

Peter Theriot

That sounds interesting!

justjukka

Wait for Part Two for that to happen.

Iago24

When they showed the hopper mouse yet failed to make Paul its namesake!?

AnetteCB

I agree 100% with your review. Best adaptation so far and pretty great as a film, but when I look at it for adaptation review, it didn't wow me.

Historian Bret Devereaux has a good series of blog posts called The Fremen Mirage discussing the flaws in the idea that harsh conditions create good warriors.

Ryan Rowekamp

I saw this in the cinema, here is Spain you have to wear a mask, sit socially distanced and a sign comes up telling you the air is changed every 6 minutes...so I was happy to see it in the cinema. It is definitely a cinematic experience, the visuals are stunning and the soundtrack is amazing as well. Definitely a lot of references to Lynch´s Dune but I also thought there was a lot of referencing to some shots from Ridley Scott´s Blade Runner. The ornithopters were amazing. I am also baffled as to why they didn´t spend more time on who the traitor could be, and again the Shadap Mapes was downplayed. I saw the film with some friends who didn´t know the book and they were shocked by how many of the main characters were killed off. They were also a bit confused by the abrupt ending but enjoyed it and say they will see the sequel. I did wonder why they didn´t have Paul´s visions being more than just seeing Chani, and yes the little mouse was so cute!!!!! Lady Jessica did look like she was suffering from undiagnosed stomach complaints half the time though, which was off putting.

Eustacia Vye

I think that the Baron flying is an improvement over the original; even Stellan Starsgård's performance would have been hard to take seriously if he skipped across the ground like an air-filled balloon. Not that the other interpretations of the Baron were very serious to begin with, but that wouldn't have helped. I get why Villeneuve left out a lot of exposition; the Lynch version's failure was in big part due to just how much information he tried to cram into so small a space, so Villeneuve went the opposite direction and only told the audience exactly as much as they needed to follow the story and not one iota more. Likewise, I get why Feyd isn't in this film; he would have been just another cameo without a purpose until the sequel comes out. I agree, though, that completely leaving out the intrigue concerning the identity of the invitable traitor weakened the reveal that Yueh was the culprit. Doing a bit of a mystery to foreshadow this would have been a welcome addition. I kind of wish we'd get an extended edition just for that one subplot, even if it'd extend the runtime to three hours.

Iago24

I am an admitted apologist for the miniseries.

SpectralTime

I can usually figure it out, but on this one I'm having a hard time identifying the song Niege is parodying for the end credits

Working fine for me.

Maytree

The video doesn't seem to be working

Charu