Well, courtesy of HBO Max I got to see Denis Villeneuve's Dune. And a lot of it is good, so I will lead with the positive:
1) Visually it is FAR superior to the past efforts. Not just in the scale and epicness of the visuals but in another way. Villeneuve toned down the "weirdness" especially of the costumes from the other film adaptations and to me this is a big improvement. This Dune feels more grounded and as a result holds my suspension of disbelief better.
2) The story (so far) is more closely aligned to the books than the Lynch film was. That said, the SciFi miniseries was a bit more closely aligned still.
3) The acting is overall good. Stellen Skaarsgard as Baron Harkonnen conveyed the evil and menace of the Baron properly without flamboyant excesses. Rebecca Ferguson played a good Jessica. Oscar Isaacs hit all the right notes as Duke Leto and Sharon Duncan-Bewster was good as Liet Kynes. Jason Momoa was okay as Duncan Idaho - he just played Jason Momoa. Timothy Chalamet as Paul I am still a bit torn on - Paul was young like he is but Paul even before his years in the desert was tougher than Chalamet portrayed - hopefully Part Two addresses this. Zendaya only appeared in tiny flashes so I can't rightly say if she is good in the role.
4) The film does an excellent job of setting its tone and sticking to it. The music supports it, the visuals support it, everything supports it. It has a serious but not overdark tone. The movie is saying it wants to be taken seriously and saying it in the best way - it ACTS serious.
That said it isn't perfect. Issues that spring to mind...
1) It ends VERY abruptly. We knew going in that splitting one book into two movies was going to raise the issue of when properly to break the story apart. I think I would have gone a little farther before doing so; to Jamis funeral and Paul's official acceptance as a Fremen and naming. But they were already at two and a half hours and lacked the time. Of course, that leads into my second point.
2) At times the movie is VERY slow moving. It makes the pace feel a bit uneven and some scenes kind of stall out a bit to take in visuals. Personally I would have done some trimming of those kinds of scenes both to even up the pacing and to create some time to address my first point - all they needed was between 5 and 7 minutes to use.
Overall it is well worth the watch - I may be a little torn but I do like it.
1) Visually it is FAR superior to the past efforts. Not just in the scale and epicness of the visuals but in another way. Villeneuve toned down the "weirdness" especially of the costumes from the other film adaptations and to me this is a big improvement. This Dune feels more grounded and as a result holds my suspension of disbelief better.
2) The story (so far) is more closely aligned to the books than the Lynch film was. That said, the SciFi miniseries was a bit more closely aligned still.
3) The acting is overall good. Stellen Skaarsgard as Baron Harkonnen conveyed the evil and menace of the Baron properly without flamboyant excesses. Rebecca Ferguson played a good Jessica. Oscar Isaacs hit all the right notes as Duke Leto and Sharon Duncan-Bewster was good as Liet Kynes. Jason Momoa was okay as Duncan Idaho - he just played Jason Momoa. Timothy Chalamet as Paul I am still a bit torn on - Paul was young like he is but Paul even before his years in the desert was tougher than Chalamet portrayed - hopefully Part Two addresses this. Zendaya only appeared in tiny flashes so I can't rightly say if she is good in the role.
4) The film does an excellent job of setting its tone and sticking to it. The music supports it, the visuals support it, everything supports it. It has a serious but not overdark tone. The movie is saying it wants to be taken seriously and saying it in the best way - it ACTS serious.
That said it isn't perfect. Issues that spring to mind...
1) It ends VERY abruptly. We knew going in that splitting one book into two movies was going to raise the issue of when properly to break the story apart. I think I would have gone a little farther before doing so; to Jamis funeral and Paul's official acceptance as a Fremen and naming. But they were already at two and a half hours and lacked the time. Of course, that leads into my second point.
2) At times the movie is VERY slow moving. It makes the pace feel a bit uneven and some scenes kind of stall out a bit to take in visuals. Personally I would have done some trimming of those kinds of scenes both to even up the pacing and to create some time to address my first point - all they needed was between 5 and 7 minutes to use.
Overall it is well worth the watch - I may be a little torn but I do like it.
