overall greatly enjoyed it, and my main comparison is the mini series (I don’t remember the original movie).
I loved how they portrayed the voice. The shields were a very cool effect and they did a good job showing how useful they are (at one point a characters take a gun blast to the chest and doesn’t even feel it). The ornothopter wing effects were very neat. And my god, real lasers…like you see them and go “now THAT is a freakin laser”. Last note here is I find the vision effects well done, they were mysterious but I actually could follow them. One part kd that I really liked was one of Paul’s visions is wrong…he sees future time with him and the man he ultimately kills…showing that he does have some say in which path he goes down.
acting wise I loved Jessica’s performance the best. When Paul is being tested her grief and concern is very visceral, she just sells it. Oscar issacs is awesome of course, and is never in the movie enough.
The music and effects are truly powerful, the sand worm is killer, they do a great job not just showing how the worm itself is dangerous, but the shifting sands around it can be just as deadly. I will say this is a great IMAX movie, I think it does help to sell the scale.
the main critique is the lack of intrigue, as that seems the main price for compressing dune bsck on the big screen. None of the “who betrayed Leto” is there, it’s the dr right away…and that got no build up at all. The barons scheming is really undercut, he definately shows his evil side but we never get to see how cunning he is. I will also say coming from the mini series it’s jarring how such “big moments” in the mini series were just given in the movie. Paul’s idea to become the next emperor…casual throw away line. The fremins secret cache of underground water and their dream of greening Arrakis…put out so casually that I actually wonder if newer audiences even caught what a big deal it is.
So it’s not a perfect movie but it is a grand one, and one worth seeing
