Anne Reyna ‘23
Staff Editor
Welcome to your spoiler-free Dune review brought to you by the Law Weekly’s official[1] part-time volunteer movie critic. Are you looking for a high-budget, surprisingly diverse sci-fi film that tackles complex issues like colonization, interplanetary drug commerce, and witches? Then have I got the film for you. Dune proved to be the epic and immersive experience that known Marvel hater[2] and director Dennis Villeneuve promised us. Many of my loyal readers have asked burning questions like “I don’t like sand; will I still like the movie?” or “Do I need to watch the other eighteen Marvel films before I watch this one?”[3] This review will do its best to address these questions and many others.
For those of you not familiar with the story of Dune, you might be a little confused watching it. One person who passed me on a park bench described it as “like watching season six of Game of Thrones with no other context.” And you know, that’s a fair critique. The writers really dove in head-first with this huge project, and they trusted that the viewer either already read the book or would be able to connect the dots on their own to figure out what’s really going on. What the writers failed to take into consideration is that even if you read the book, it’s still pretty much 800 pages of rough ideas that barely form a cohesive plot. Nonetheless, this modern film adaptation of the novel delivered a mostly faithful retelling of a complex story in a way that casual viewers can still mostly understand and enjoy.
If you’re looking for an oversimplified, almost entirely unhelpful summary that will not give you nearly enough context to understand the plot of Dune, then you came to the right place. In Dune, there are many different powerful houses spread across the galaxy that answer to one mysteriously elusive emperor. In this fictional realm, spice is the only currency that matters — and it can only be found on the planet of Arrakis. Spice is an incredibly in-demand energy source that fuels space travel and is also a sacred hallucinogen for the native people of Arrakis. The emperor colonized Arrakis to mine the spice and assigned one noble house the coveted job to govern the planet and to reap some of the profits from the spice trade. Timothée Chalamet’s character is also believed to be some kind of space messiah. Now you’re all caught up, I think.
After I had an extensive search for real-time audience reactions, Effie Kisger ’23, passed me in the movie theater parking lot and described Dune as “like Squid Game but with worms.” Honestly, I couldn’t have said it better myself. This movie really had it all: intense fight choreography, a character named Duncan Idaho, beautiful visuals, and, most importantly, a soundtrack to end all soundtracks. Hans Zimmer’s score of this movie was described as “colossal” and “loud” by known affiliate of the Law School, Justin Ngo. The soundtrack was so colossal, in fact, that it often overshadowed the dialogue between the characters. And by overshadowed, I mean you literally couldn’t hear what the actors were saying, as evidenced by affiliate Justin turning to me and saying “What?” a few times during the film. Which is why I am recommending that after watching it in theaters, viewers should immediately go home and watch it on HBO Max with the captions on. With that being said, I would still like to personally invite Hans Zimmer to inject his score of Dune into my veins.
Another critique of Dune is that it felt incomplete. Some viewers were not fans of how the film felt like it was ending “in the middle” or how it was just “building the hype for the sequel.” While I do concur that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One was no one’s favorite movie, I would still point to other movies that served similar roles and were still hailed as incredible films despite not being the grand finale. The Empire Strikes Back, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Avengers: Infinity War come to mind. While these movies were incredible and arguably the best standalone films of a major franchise, they also, like Dune, ended somewhat in the middle. These movies left you wanting more and ultimately brought millions of people back to the theater to see the aftermath of these films’ endings. I believe Dune will accomplish this same daunting task. My only hope is that the sequel lives up to the hype that part one built.
In conclusion, this might be the time to bring up that Warner Bros. has just greenlit Dune: Part Two, and its estimated release date is October 2023. Anyways, you guys stay safe out there.
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