Rate "Dune" 1984

2/10. It's been a while since I was so repulsed by a motion picture just on an aesthetic level. It looks ugly, dank, and grimy. The costumes are lamer than the FOX-Men costumes. The dialogue feels like one of those primetime teen dramas that for some reason you begin watching in its 3rd season so you're so out of the loop.

6/10

Choosing names for fictional people and objects in sci-fi/fantasy stories is a tight rope. Your audience will have a hard time remembering them if they're too complicated to pronounce or if they're mundane and uninteresting. And if they're too far-fetched, your audience will dismiss them as silly and laugh. DUNE 1984 suffers from this problem. Sure, the lore comes from Frank Herbert's novel, but this adaptation deserves some of the blame. It presents the information in a way that requires viewers to take notes. You see, there's a feud between House Atreides and House Karkonnen on Planet Arrakis. It's inhabitants include Piter de Vries, Thufir Hawat, Princess Irulan Corrino, Sayyadina Ramallo, Stilgar, Captain Iakin Nefud, Gurney Halleck, Feyd-Rautha, Chani Kynes and Otheym. And who's the hero at the center of it all? The one who might defeat the Sardaukar? The one who must pass the Gom Jabbar test? The one who might become the Kwisatz Haderach? Drumroll... It's Paul. Ummm... Really? And who's the main villain? Jeff? While I was watching the movie, I was reminded of STAR WARS. No, not because of A NEW HOPE or THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (even though the intention was to recreate the success of those films with a new outer space franchise), but rather THE PHANTOM MENACE: So much time is spent on characters discussing politics or the socio-economic landscape to the point of boredom. I was ready to praise the actors for delivering those lines seriously, since it's a sign that they respect the material despite knowing that many would consider this genre to be inferior. However, I eventually noticed that they talk the same way even when they're supposed to be emoting. I know that's part of writer/director David Lynch's style, but he usually applies it to surreal stories that occur in an everyday environment in order to generate a sense of unease. Even though the setting here is entirely fictional, the plot isn't designed to have an unusual atmosphere. Therefore, the end result is a lifeless product.

4/10


The actors in DUNE 2021 also deliver their lines seriously. The difference is that they're are instructed to display more emotions (Rebecca Ferguson seems to struggle, but only in some scenes) and that the characters were designed to be invested in what they do and say. In fact, my favorite scene happens at the beginning: Leto (Paul's father) is given an offer by a messenger. Instead of simply saying "I accept," he spends several seconds talking about the values that he and his people believe in. Details like this don't move the story forward, but they absorb the viewer into the fictional world. Neither adaptation of the novel has the right pacing that the plot requires. Even though the second one is better overall, I still claim that the first one has more personality. The locations looked like sets, but they were inventive and distinctive enough to be told apart. The CGI effects haven't aged well, but the practical effects have. They brought some unique creatures to life. Here, between the limited color palette and the preference for realism over extravagance, most of the locations blend together. Cinematographer Greig Fraser does a good job in every scene, except for the one where a giant sandworm appears right in front of Paul. It seems like the viewer is expected to pay attention to the creature's details, based on the shot composition, but the bad lighting is an obstacle. In case you're wondering: No, I don't want to speculate on whether the first attempt at bringing this story to the big screen (as told in the entertaining documentary JODOWOSKY'S DUNE) would've been the best version. Too many variables.

6/10
-------------------------------------
You can read comments of other movies in my blog.