I first heard about the book Dune years ago. In high school, I had a few friends who talked about it non-stop and tried to get everyone they could to read it as well. But everyone else said it was impossible to get through writing-wise and that the world-building was insanely complex. I did try to read it at one point, but high science-fiction is not my preferred genre. I was hoping the movie would do a good job of summarizing it for me, and it did … sort of. Although Dune was a decent film overall, it was far from great. And it most certainly didn’t deserve to be the most Oscar-awarded film of 2021.
My first complaint about Dune is the pacing. One of the biggest issues reviewers had with the book was the fact that it was extremely slow and spent a great amount of time on details that may not have needed explanation. At least, not in the first film. It was clear that the writers were trying to set-up for subsequent films, but because of that, it left this piece feeling disjointed. For example, there was an entire scene dedicated to describing how these creatures called Sandworms couldn’t detect you if you walked in a specific pattern through the sand. But later, when they crossed the desert, the characters walked normally. And sure enough, they got attacked by a sand worm. It felt like that earlier scene had been completely wasted, unless they plan to bring it back in a sequel. That’s one example of many moments that felt like they would eventually come back, but never did. The other issue I had was the amount of stars in the cast that just felt wasted, and the most egregious of these being Zendaya. They marketed her as the star in the trailers, despite the fact that she had very few lines. They were clearly trying to use her star-status to attract people who otherwise wouldn’t have been that interested in the film. It left viewers feeling understandably disappointed.
Now, the film itself wasn’t unwatchable. I’m not usually a fan of Timothee Chalamet, but he was pretty good in this role. For the fantastical circumstances, his acting was believable, and I think he has the acting-chops to lead a large series like this. I also really enjoyed Oscar Isaac’s performance as his father. The soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer, was incredible and absolutely deserved the Oscar. It was also clear that a lot of time was spent developing the CGI world and really establishing an overarching tone for the film. But what fancy special-effects can’t cover-up is the lack of storytelling, and that’s what I believe Dune’s biggest flaw was. The world is intriguing and the characters are clearly well-thought out and performed. But in making this film, the creators clearly were more focused on setting up future storylines than they were at telling one cohesive story. I think this is going to result in many people not continuing on to further films in the franchise as they’ll believe that it will be just as slow as the first film. Although I’ll probably watch future films, the movie has definitely tarnished some of the excitement.
Overall, I do believe Dune deserved some of its Oscars, mainly score, production design, visual effects, and maybe sound. Cinematography and editing definitely should’ve gone to some of the more artistic films that were released, such as Tick, Tick … BOOM! or West Side Story. Although I respect that the film was a massive undertaking and well-executed overall, I believe Dune would’ve been much more successful had the writers focused on crafting one solid story rather than spending the majority of the time setting up the rest of the series.
Spoiler Alert is an Opinion culture column used to give reviews for movies, television shows, or other related media.
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