Pretty epic all around. My one 'thing' with this version is that it will easily confuse people who don't already know the story and/or have read the book. I really feel like this movie was made for Dune fans rather than the average moviegoing public, but it IS a very hard story to put to film. Will definitely be taking in second and maybe even third viewings. I want the second half made! The one thing I will give the '84 version over this one is the music by Toto / Brian Eno- that wasn't going to be topped, no how, no way, even though the soundtrack for this version is superlative.
What was really needed here was the same cast, director, production values, and an 8 to 10-part miniseries. All story elements and world building could have been done justice.
The sad truth is that even 2.5 hours isn't enough to do justice to half of the book. This could have easily been a 3.5 hour movie. I'm sort of hoping for an extended Director's Cut, kind of like with the 4-hour Lynch version.
Although relatively coherent, it is a little odd which story points get attention in this version and which are all but ignored. Dr. Yueh's Imperial Conditioning is not mentioned once, making one wonder why he was so trusted to start with. No mention of the abilities of Mentats (human computers), and the roles of Thufir Howatt and Piter DeVries are cut back to almost cameos. The Bene Gesserit and their abilities are addressed, but they have to be as they are essential to the narrative. What is missed, however, is their need for Spice along with that of the Guild Navigators, and the whole politicking between the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Emperor, and the Landsraad. The Butlerian Jihad gets no mention or reference whatsoever.
The trip from Caladan to Arrakis is handled as a jump-cut- you never see a space-fold or hear it mentioned; for the uninitiated, Heighliners might as well travel by warp or hyperspace. There is no real mention of Guild Navigators or the way they are mutated over centuries by the Spice. One thing the movie does well is impart a sense of scale with respect to the various ships and vehicles- they are frakkin' huge. You could fit half of starfleet in that Heighliner!
The scene of Paul's Testing by the Reverend Mother, and the way this version handled The Voice, is awesome, although I felt that someone with Jessica's level of training would have maintained better control over herself. The Litany Against Fear is so broken up that it never gets done justice.
One of the cooler things from the new Dune movie- the ornithopters. Been reading about these type of craft since I was a kid and they always seemed fanciful. Even more so in a movie where the protagonists obviously have gravity control. That said, these were really neat, and in a theater with good Dolby, you felt their arrival or departure in every pore of your body. I know some people are still reticent about movie theaters- that's their loss. This movie shines on the big screen with theater-quality sound.
