The 1984 film of Dune directed by David Lynch was a significant failure, it was rated as the worst film of 1984 by many sources. I remember finding it ugly, confusing, and uncomfortable to watch.
This version directed by Denis Villeneuve is a far better film, it is beautiful to look at. The photography, art direction, set direction are magnificent. Sound editor Theo Green uses long sound waves to create the feeling that seats in the theater are vibrating as vehicles fly and crash.
The sand on the planet is filled with large worm like dangerous creatures that roam and swim throughout the sandy areas attacking humans. They remind us of Tremors with similar looking creatures gobbling up humans.
The film is spectacular and yet very often slow. We feel as if we are walking through the deep sand shown on the planet hoping to see a smoother and swifter movement of scenes and action. He must be back pretty soon because he supposed to put that plug-in for us and I can ask him how it was
Zendaya plays Chani, a young Fremen woman who has blue eyes where we see white in most folks eyes. It’s effective, and she has been prominent in the promotion of the film, but her time on screen is quite short so look fast when she appears.
The casting is right on the mark. Timothee Chalamet fills the lead role as the son of Duke Leto Atreides played strongly by Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson is the strong mother of Paul (Chalamet) as they spend a great deal of time working together and keeping away from enemies and worms who would do away with them.
In the hands of director Villeneuve, Dune is more of an art film than science fiction, the images of the rolling sand and even the burning battles filled with fire are filled with beauty to watch. He deserves credit for the attractiveness of the many scenes that fill the screen. The quality of those scenes speak to seeing the film on the largest possible screen.
Perhaps Dune can’t be translated well from the book here everything looks very good (like beautiful candy) but the substance of the battle the hero’s are a part of is not at times clearly defined. Perhaps it’s the pacing which is slow from time to time but the film is not as good as its individual parts.