Mini Review #104: Dune (1984) (Patreon)

Today, I decided to watch that OTHER Dune movie that came out in the 80's due to the fact that Dune Part 2 is releasing soon in theatres. I had heard many things about this movie from it being a horrible mess of a film to a misunderstood great sci-fi epic. So what camp did I fall into??

While I didn't think think this movie was horrible as there were many amazing elements within it, I did not think this movie was good either. First the good: The backgrounds are amazing and so incredibly detailed. The sense of scale the movie gives from the ships to the sand worms is very impressive and the use of miniatures, specific camera work, and compositing to make the world seem huge was well done. The costumes as well were super cool and felt both 80's and futuristic which added to the movies kinda campy sci-fi feel. The music by Toto was well was so epic at times and I may find myself listening to the score on my own time in the future. While all of this is good, what lets the movie down is the story. There is no impact in anything that happens. Because the film attempts to portray the entire Dune novel in a just over 2 hour movie, events are glossed over like nothing. There are many moments where characters dying has little to no weight. There is no lingering over their deaths its just "oh they died, well on to the next scene now"! I didn't give a single toss about any of the characters and their relationships because everyone was treated as a vessel for the story rather than an actual person. On top of that, the movie spoon feeds the audience with the most mundane things of all time. I get that Dune is a dense book, but do we really need a voiceover narration from a character letting the audience know that he is happy... I can see that on his face you idiot sandwich I don't need to be told that. It's frustrating because you can tell that care did go into this movie and that people were passionate about making Dune, but they just went about making it the wrong way. Well, at least there isa good adaptation of the first part out there, let's hope Part 2 doesn't drop the ball.