“Father... the sleeper has awakened!”

When I first read the original Dune novel, I completely understood why it was split into two different films with the recent adaptations. There was simply too much lore and, well, story, to warrant just one movie. It would undeniably end up feeling rushed, even if it was like three hours long. After watching this version, I understand even more why it was split into two parts. Everything I had heard and feared about this adaptation was completely true.

For one, the directing was shockingly bad. I know that David Lynch is held up as one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time, so I know he could do better than this, though I haven’t seen any of his other films yet. Just the way it was shot was really not good or pleasant to watch at all. It simply didn’t feel “cinematic.” I’ll try not to compare this version to the new ones, but one thing the new ones did really well was getting you fully immersed in the world(s). Here, every set piece feels like a set piece, and it really took me out of the experience overall.

The acting is unbelievably bad too, and probably some of the worst I’ve seen in a while. Everyone is either overacting or giving a completely dull and dry performance. I blame both the director and the actors for this because it was pretty clear there wasn’t very much communication between any of them at all. The actors gave off the impression that they just didn’t know what to do in their scenes, and this led to some pretty hilarious scenes, one of them being quoted at the top of this review.

Regarding the story and characters, I truly believe they did an awful job of transferring the story in the novel into a feature-length film. The first hour or so was okay – kind of boring but not too poorly paced. However, after a while the pacing just zooms through the entire story and gives absolutely no time to breathe whatsoever. Especially once you get to the Fremen stuff, the rest of the movie feels almost like a series of random snippets from the book. It was kind of crazy.

While I said the movie wasn’t pleasant to watch because of the way it was directed, I will say that the visual effects, for the most part, really weren’t as bad as I had expected and heard online. There were definitely some pretty awful visual effects, yeah, like the shields the people used, but mostly everything else was fine. I liked the way the worms looked, and for being practical, they were surprisingly believable. The design of them was cool too. Not as cool as the modern ones, but still cool.

Regarding the story and characters, I truly believe they did an awful job of transferring the story in the novel into a feature-length film. The first hour or so was okay – kind of boring but not too poorly paced. However, after a while the pacing just zooms through the entire story and gives absolutely no time to breathe whatsoever. Especially once you get to the Fremen stuff, the rest of the movie feels almost like a series of random snippets from the book. It was kind of crazy.

This definitely transfers to the story. Partially due to the acting and partially due to the script, I found none of the characters to be compelling at all. Even Paul – like how do you mess that up? Paul’s father, the Duke, was just kind of there because he had to be. His mother had no personality at all, and her arc was entirely rushed, so much so that I truly believe no one would understand it at all if they hadn’t read the book first. Paul’s two warrior friends, Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck, like the Duke, felt forced in and added nothing to Paul’s character. And then there is Chani – they barely set her up, and once she does finally become a part of the story, she is given almost nothing to do and her romance with Paul both starts out of nowhere and goes completely nowhere.

Paul is supposed to feel a little distant from the audience in the first half of the story, which was why he felt that way in Dune (2021), but by the second half he should be an entirely different character with complexity and authority. Yeah, there is none of that in this movie. His whole legacy never feels grand in any sort of way, and by the end of the movie, he seems like the exact same person he was at the beginning. I really have a hard time understanding how you mess up such a compelling character arc from the original source material, and now the new movies.

Overall, even with everything I’ve already criticized, the thing I disliked the most about this movie was how they handled the Harkonnens. They’re supposed to be creepy and terrifying, but here they are just straight up weird. There is nothing imposing about them at all, and they just end up being kind of, to put it blatantly, stupid.