Warning: spoilers ahead for both Dune the novel (by Frank Herbert) and Dune the movie (directed by Denis Villeneuve)
When Velu invited me to watch Dune this weekend, I asked for a one week delay. Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel was taking longer than expected to read and I was only 80% through.
Later, a conversation with my friend Eric made me realize that I was already past the ending. Eric had streamed the film using HBO Max after a Thursday night Tofu Plus dinner with his accountant friends. By asking about tiny details (i.e. “Did Alia get born yet?” and “Did Leto bite down into his tooth?”), I was able to gauge where the movie ended (aka right before “The Prophet”) without spoilers.
On Saturday morning, I let Velu know I had changed my mind; together we booked a 2:45pm IMAX showing at the Saratoga AMC 14. All of our other friends in the area were either uninterested or unavailable, so it ended up being just us two.
Both of us liked the film. It follows the book pretty closely for the most part, although there were some changes. The biggest one is probably how the Baron Harkonnen is able to levitate (and use that power to avoid poison gas). Other changes I noticed include cutting Feyd-Rautha and Rabban’s appearances and turning Liet-Kynes into a black woman.
Velu thinks that the movie would be hard to enjoy without reading the book. Personally, I believe that’s only partially true. Even if someone does not understand all the details, Dune is a good watch. Eric and his accountant buddies are a good counterargument. Many of them had never even heard of the book, but all of them liked the film a lot.
As for flaws, the film is a little long at 156 minutes. Perhaps it would’ve been better cast as a TV series. That’s even more true considering the cutoff point in the movie is rather abrupt and leaves the audience hanging.
PS: box office numbers for the opening weekend look good; part II is officially confirmed to be coming in two years
