A Look Back at Dune (1984)

 

With Denis Villeneuve's Dune arriving in theaters and HBO Max in October, it's time for me to once again look back at a movie that came before it.

Dune is a 1984 science fiction film based on Frank Herbert's 1965 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by Dino De Laurentiis Corporation and distributed by Universal Pictures. Dune was written and directed by David Lynch.

The story is in the distant future, two rival nobles families battle for control on the planet called Arrakis aka Dune. During this battle between royals, Paul Atreides soon discovers the truth about the war between the royals and Dune itself.

• Negatives

The biggest problem with the movie is the script. I think David Lynch really should've had a co-writer for this one. Cause the script is the thing that hurts the movie the most. It's very jumbled, confusing, and there were even times when I forgot who was who, and what was going on. Which I think that's were most critics and fans have issued with the film.

The other huge issue with Dune was the pacing. It's all over the place. One moment we're taking our time to tell the story, next moment we're dragging on and on about the same subject, and then we quickly wrap up a portion of the story through narration. I remember part where the narration went (and I'm paraphrasing here) "And Paul and Chani's love grew", and I thought to myself "Hold on! Wait a minute! When did they fall in love?!".

• Mix

The only mix bag was the special effects. For a good majority of the film they're really great. At first I was confused when I looked up old reviews when the movie first came out, and they sad the special effects were awful. Like I said for the most part they're great. I think what they were referring to was the blue screen. Cause yeah, that's where things look pretty rough. And also not very convincing.

• Positives

One positive with Dune was the score. Both Toto and Brian Eno made fantastic music. This'll probably come as no surprise but, I absolutely loved the Prophecy theme. It was both beautiful and epic.

Another good aspect of the film is the performances. Despite the script not being very good, everyone really did their best for this movie, in matter of fact some of the performances where the main reason why I continued to watch the movie from start to finish.

Dune (1984) isn't the worst sci-fi movie I've ever seen. A title like that is best suited for other really bad sci-fi films but, it's really lackluster. The script really needed a polishing and the pacing was dreadful, and because of those two issues, the movie suffers in a big way. The special effects are quite good, but the blue screen could've used a lot more work. The saving graces for Dune was the score and the actors/actress.

My final rating is Bad.

Hopefully Denis Villeneuve's verison is much better. Anyhow, that's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Oct 2nd for my review of the much anticipated Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.