Early signs look very good for Dune, but why are critics so high on Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic? For many years, Frank Herbert's 1965 Dune novel was deemed impossible to film; the alien landscapes, enormous creatures and sweeping scale thought too grandiose for live-action. David Lynch's highly divisive 1984 Dune adaptation solidified that stance, but it was only a matter of time until another bold director took the reigns with a major studio budget and the benefits of modern special effects. Denis Villeneuve is that director, Warner Bros. is that studio, and 2021's Dune is that adaptation.
Boasting an all-star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista *deep breath* Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and many more, fans are expecting Dune to finally do the source material justice. Reaction to trailers and images has been largely positive, and Villeneuve speaks with such reverence to Herbert's world, there's little doubt he's one of few auteurs with any hope of making a Dune movie that's authentic enough for the Arrakis faithful, but accessible enough for the uninitiated. Like 2021's other Warner Bros. releases, Dune will premiere on both HBO Max, and in theaters.
At the time of writing, Dune sits at an impressive 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, based on over 150 reviews. That figure will undoubtedly change once Dune releases to the general public, and it's not unusual for the Rotten Tomatoes audience score to skew significantly higher or lower than the critics' Tomatometer. For now, however, Dune has cause to celebrate, as reviews heap praise upon Villeneuve's ambition and visual splendor, as well as the individual performances and ability to capture Frank Herbert's vision on film. Here's a taste of what the critics are saying:
EW:
Villeneuve's new adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic 1965 novel is exactly the kind of lush, lofty filmmaking wide screens were made for; a sensory experience so opulent and overwhelming it begs to be seen big, or not at all.
Good heavens, what a film. The drama is played out with relish by an ensemble cast and Villeneuve is confident enough to let the temperature slowly build before the big operatic set-pieces eventually break cover. He has constructed an entire world for us here, thick with myth and mystery.
Dune feels most reminiscent of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. Like Fellowship, it’s merely the opening part of a story, but manages to feel like a masterwork in its own right. Like Fellowship, it establishes a sprawling and complex world that feels both familiar and utterly new with the lightest of touches.
An experience that’s made one of the most foreboding science fiction sagas ever conceived fairly accessible to any audience willing to be transported. Dune is an astonishing swing of ambition and passion from filmmakers at the top of their craft, and it more often than not connects like a thunderbolt.
Villeneuve’s Dune is the sandworm exploding out from the darkness below. It is a film of such literal and emotional largeness that it overwhelms the senses. If all goes well, it should reinvigorate the book’s legacy in the same way Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy did for JRR Tolkien’s work.
“Dune” is so sublimely rendered that you could easily follow it with the sound off, sans Hans Zimmer’s hulking score. With an immense sense of scale ranging from mosquito to (Jason) Momoa, “Dune” renders an age-old tale of palace intrigue and indigenous struggle in exaggerated cosmic contours. Like any drift of sand, “Dune” feels sculpted by elemental, primal forces.
Many of the above reviews concur when it comes to Dune's strengths, and agree that Villeneuve's world-building is chief among them. There's little doubt that those who purchase a ticket (or, indeed, load up HBO Max) are in for a sensory battering, the likes of which sci-fi fans haven't experienced for some years. Dune's ability to craft a believable, compelling Arrakis with its cultures, quirks and peoples has been roundly applauded and, for this reason, most reviews admit that 2021's Dune adaptation is a mostly faithful reflection of Frank Herbert's original novel - or as close as any film could reasonably get. Multiple reviews are comparing Dune to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, and that's a hefty pat on the back by itself. Jackson's trilogy set a new standard for epic cinema, and 20 years later, Dune appears to be rewriting the rule book. With that said, not all Dune reviews are glowing and, once again, there's consensus among the criticism. Here's a cross-section of the negative takes:
The ensemble is committed, but the storytelling is liminal. Whether Dune: Part Two will ever be made is a question mark, and standing on its own, Dune: Part One is all setup with very little payoff.
The first and most fundamental problem is a screenplay (credited to the heavyweight trio of Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Villeneuve himself) that drills into Herbert’s novel with all the thunder and calamity of a spice harvester, but mines precious little substance from underneath the surface.
“Dune” makes the worms, the dunes, the paramilitary spectacle, and the kid-savior-tests-his-mettle plot immersive — for a while. But then, as the movie begins to run out of tricks, it turns woozy and amorphous.
The overwhelming problem most reviews (even the positive ones) have about Dune is how incomplete the movie feels. Denis Villeneuve has always spoken transparently about his intention to make a sequel covering the second half of Herbert's novel, but a significant portion of the write-ups are accusing Dune of focusing too hard on setup, and not telling a compelling enough story in isolation. A few go even further, and criticize Villeneuve for covering up lackluster storytelling with sumptuous visuals. Predictably, some fans of Frank Herbert's Dune novel have taken exception to some of Velleneuve's handling of the book, describing Dune as a "streamlined" version of the source material that filters the outright strangeness and finer details Herbert included.
On the whole, however, Dune reviews err predominantly toward the desirable end of the spectrum, with more critics singing Denis Villeneuve's praises than dusting off their pitchforks. Whether that enthusiasm will translate into a sequel remains to be seen, but everyone agrees that Dune desperately needs a continuation - either because the first is so good, or because it'll be incomplete otherwise.
