When watching movies, I always try to differentiate between my personal enjoyment and the inherent merits of the movies. There are a lot of bad movies, which I totally and thoroughly enjoy watching, and some really great movies, which I don’t enjoy that much, but still can respect/appreciate.
With this prelude, I totally do not get the positive reactions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies. At the time I am writing this question, part two has 94% critique and 95% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, 9.0 at IMDB.
In my opinion, Dune 1 and Dune 2 have obviously high production values and good special effects. What I do not like is the acting, the pacing, the total flat/simple characters and the whole narration, which is for me a trivial love story between Chani and Paul, plus becoming a leader and get some revenge. I could simply replace the ‘Dune’ theme with a standard war theme and a few tribes, and I would have exactly the same movie. Also the battle scenes at the end of part 2, they are for me totally cookie cutter war movie/battle aesthetics. (Total waste: There are big Sandworms after all, and combat with personal shields etc.).
My question is, especially if you very much enjoyed watching the Dune movies:
- Why did you personally enjoy the movie?
- Do you think this movies have some inherent merits?
- How do you like the acting/plot/pacing?
TL;DR: Dune is a novel packed full of culture, intrigue, and philosophy, and Denis tosses basically all of that out the window in favour of style and atmosphere.
As a massive Dune fan who has also only seen part 1, I’m very conflicted. It’s obviously the most faithful adaptation but that’s a pretty low bar to set. There are so many little changes from the novel that it’s hard for me not to feel Denis doesn’t really get Dune. I also have tons of small complaints with the script just in a general sense, weird moments that are distracting and pointless even ignoring their relation to the novel.
My biggest issue with the script is that it feels like Denis is focused on creating this super epic atmosphere. We have many beautiful shots of space ships or terrain accompanied by booming music. It’s cool, but it feels like a massive waste when the movie also has rushed scenes that could have been so easily adapted to film.
For example Stilgar meeting Leto. In the movie, Stilgar walks in, Leto says something along the lines of “I respect you” and Stilgar immediately spits on the ground to indicate his respect for Leto.
In the novel that scene has Duncan explaining how he tried to save a dying fremen but wasn’t able to and that the fremen gave him his crysknife before he died. Stilgar then dramatically interrupts saying something like “Do not unsheath that knife!”. What follows is an interaction between Stilgar and Leto where Leto deftly shows his respect to Fremen and their culture without capitulating or showing weakness. Only then does Stilgar spit on the ground giving us the dramatic scene where Duncan has to quickly intervene to prevent violence.
I don’t think I’m doing a great job of making my case but the difference to me is stark. The book uses this one scene to feed the reader knowledge about Leto, Stilgar, Duncan, and the fremen. But the movie rushes the scene and we learn next to nothing.
I could go on but I’m just ranting at this point. Dune is a novel packed full of culture, intrigue, and philosophy, and Denis tosses basically all of that out the window in favour of style and atmosphere.