My quick rating - 8,0/10. Finally. I will spare any comparison to the books since that typically makes the movies look poor and I read them when I was like 12 years old so I don't remember all that much of them in the first place. I say finally though because this version of Dune seems to have brought the elements needed for a solid adaption together. Visually this flick is absolutely spot on. When the vast majority of your locations need to be a giant desert, it makes it difficult to spruce it up. Yet the way this looks does capture the vast nothingness of the desert which when needed and there is something that makes that insignificant small thing appear huge. And yes, even if you are not a fan I am sure you are aware that there are giant worms under the ground on this planet so I won't keep alluding to them. They look astonishingly good and the attention to detail for their movements and the like were excellent (hopefully you saw this in the theater or have a quality 4K setup at home.) The story itself was a bit difficult to follow right from the onset which I think could've helped the audience out a bit with a little backstory of the hierarchy of the characters. The main jist is that spice is basically gold and whoever controls the spice market is at the top of the food chain. So in order to move up that ladder, certain parts of this story must head to one of the planets where there is this commodity and basically overtake it. There is more to it than that, I am giving a quick idea. In what is clearly just the beginning of the story (it says so at the start, no spoiler) the focus here was a bit more on the characters which are why I think they skimped a bit since the entire world-building portion is yet to come. Still, the ones that we have been introduced to are portrayed well and give performances that do draw you into what the plight of each truly is. I certainly expect to see Timothée Chalamet around Oscar time as the lead in this. There always has to be some ulterior motives to people and this flick is no exception. If you are aware, there was a 1984 Dune by David Lynch made that was actually quite good as well and if you are familiar with his work, it is a bit more "creative" than this one. Lack of a better word for anything Lynch does. And I felt like this version was more of a remake of that film than it was a reimagining of the books themselves. But as I said, I wouldn't be the best judge on the book portion. Overall this is an exceptional film and one that should be seen by nearly all. There is nothing in here that needs to keep viewers away. Even the action scenes that are so well choreographed don't venture into violence much.
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