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davidahallnum5
Mar 110 min read

Dune (2021) 3D Blu-ray Review

MOVIE REVIEW

Dune (2021) is a Denis Villeneuve film based on the sci-fi novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. The story follows a young man named Paul Atreides who joins his father, Duke Leto Atreides, on a trip to the desert planet Arrakis after the latter was elected to become fiefholder there, in replacement of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. What makes Arrakis so special is a substance that grows there called "spice" that the planet's natives, the Fremen, use to achieve heightened awareness, and that everyone else uses for space travel. So becoming leader of the planet containing this "spice" is kind of a big deal. For Paul, however, his own journey consists of being seen by the outsider Fremen people as their Messiah, as reinforced by his mother's kinship to a group called the Bene Gesserit. At first, he dismisses the notion that he will lead the Arrakian people to paradise. But when Vladimir Harkonnen strikes back to retake his place as fiefholder, killing Leto Atreides in the process, Paul begins to wonder if maybe it's his destiny for something grand and dangerous.

I'll be honest with you, I'm probably the least qualified to talk about anything Dune-related. I haven't read the novel, I'm not highly knowledgable on the book's supposed in-depth lore, and even writing the synopsis for this review required a bit of help from Wikipedia in a few areas. For me, any film that invents its own fictional jargon that's not Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, I often have trouble keeping up with (and the quiet audio through most of the film didn't really help). I could certainly get the gist of the plot of Dune: Part One with the dialogue I did manage to pick up on and the events happening on-screen. But I can only review this film on the basis of how I think it works as a movie. As for whether or not this film does the novel justice, you'll have to check with somebody else.

As a movie, though, I surprisingly really enjoyed it. And the bulk of why that is can be easily traced back to one name, Denis Villeneuve. Without the direction this film has, I don't think it would have gotten as far as it did. Like I said before, Dune the book is well-known for how it create it's own world with very unique sci-fi technology, landscapes, politics, and just its way of life. And while I clearly didn't read the book, the movie itself did an excellent job of placing me into the shoes of Paul Atreides as he navigates this gritty yet strange, mysterious world. The atmosphere is what makes absolutely makes Dune stand out in the sci-fi film genre, with the scenery, music, acting, and lighting all come together in a well-crafted, thoughtful way capturing the enormous scale this film has to offer (I see why Hans Zimmer would easily choose to do the score for this over Tenet). But it also never losing focus of the general story at hand, keeping someone even like me with little knowledge of the source material engaged for a surprisingly long time. Unlike plenty of other blockbuster spectacles that have hit the silver screen over the past few years, Dune is clearly a film with its own vision that knows exactly how to tell the story it wants to tell. And even if I didn't fully understand what was going on, I couldn't say that I didn't feel transported to someplace I haven't been before for two and a half hours. For a sci-fi film, I don't know if one can give a greater compliment than that.

For the plot itself, like I said before, I could still get the gist of what was happening. And I was generally pretty invested throughout. The performances were top-notch throughout the board, the characters were all unique with their clear motivations and goals in mind, and the ideas the movie introduces from the politics to the religious elements to Paul's upcoming destiny as a Messiah were all very engaging. And part of that is, once again, the excellent direction, which gets across all the necessary exposition somehow without ever beating you over the head with it. That being said, though, the movie, at least for me, started to drag in the last third. After most everything terrible went down and Paul and his mother go wandering through the desert, the story doesn't really give us an objective to look forward to and it makes the film's last 45 minutes almost feel longer than the preceding hour and a 45 minutes. I've heard some people say they just couldn't get into Dune because of the slow pacing throughout. But while I can see where they come from, I personally think the slow pace works rather well for the film. However, I'd be lying if I said it didn't start to wear on me after quite a while. And to that I'd give a slight warning to anyone with a small attention span that Dune might not be everyone's cup of tea.

But if you do have the attention span for it, Dune still comes highly recommended. It takes all the advantages that modern cinema has and utilizes it to tell a unique and intricate story you seldom see on the big screen. It has some top-notch special effects that convey an immense scope, plenty of interesting ideas, great characters, and it's all backed up by a great story. In a world where it seems all big blockbuster spectacles, especially superhero movies, are drawing from the same pool of tired, cliched storylines and pointless humor, relying more than ever on brand familiarity, CGI, and focus groups for success, Dune comes with something new, bold, and different: a story that takes itself very seriously and tells it the way it wants to. Does it always work? Not exactly. And I know it certainly won't work for every viewer. But even if you're not a huge fan of the book, or know almost nothing about the book, I still say Dune is well worth checking out. In a world where people are going to the cinemas less and less, rare gems like Dune remind us of that special experience movies can still provide us, and would if they'd just break from their comfort zone every once in a while.


OVERALL FILM RATING: 4/5


3D REVIEW

Of all the aspects of Dune (2021) that people talk about, it seems like one of the smallest ones has been on its 3D. I guess it's no surprise in this day and age where the 3D buzz has kinda died down. But while that clear lack of buzz is understandable, it's by no means deserved. If anyone puts in a lot of work in modern filmmaking and only receives progressively less credit for it over the years, it's got to be the people who do 3D conversions. And Dune serves as another prime example of that. Despite the clear lack of discussion about it, the conversion here is not full of incredible detail, but it also enhances the movie as a whole. I'd draw the line at calling it flawless in a couple of respects. But on the whole, I still think Dune works very well in 3D.

Like pretty much all modern 3D conversions, the amount of depth on-screen is seemingly only limited by how deep the backgrounds go (we've come a long way since Clash of the Titans). That already does wonders for most 3D movies in general, but it's especially feels right for Dune. I've already talked much about the great direction and grand scope of this film in the movie review. But it works with 3D like bread and butter. When the camera is looking off into space, the vast desert, or onto the large architecture on display, you actually feel like you're looking off into space, the vast desert, or onto the large architecture on display. There are plenty of sequences that make good usage of this immense depth such as during a sand-worm attack on a large spice harvester, the attack on Atreides with plenty of firepower raining from the sky in the middle of the night, and even with the scene slows down to explore the city of Arrakeen. It all makes the world of Dune feel that much bigger, and in turn, much more immersive.

But even beyond the immense scope the 3D adds, it also follows a trend similar to Hugo or Frankenweenie where it highlights many subtle small details that wouldn't typically register that much in 2D, but stand out in 3D. One great example of this is one that movie even starts on, which is a shot of wind moving sand across the desert floor. It comes into play not just once, but several times, many of which overlap with what I was mentioning earlier about those vast desert shots. Wind and dust also work together for some great shots of sandstorms, which in one sequence is paired with a helicopter-like vehicle. Other great elements that lead to great 3D composition involve dirty windshields, long tables, those sand-worms whose mouths you can look into, one-on-one fights, those aforementioned helicopter-like vehicles, holograms, and long corridors. The film isn't really big on getting things to protrude the screen that often besides the occasional person's head or floating drone. In something like Shrek, that'd work against it. But here, where the action in the background is what's keeping the viewers attention, I don't deem it to be a problem. And usually when someone's head does come out of the screen, it's during an important character moment, making the 3D not only tasteful, but effective in the storytelling.

In all honesty, two thirds of the way in, I was considering giving Dune the rating of "excellent" because the 3D did work just that well with the movie. However, there were a couple things holding it back. For one, while the scenes in the brightness certainly shined, there were also good chunks of movie that occurred in the dark. And sometimes, those dark scenes would continue so long that when it does switch to a bright scene, it almost blinds you (something I bet no one ever thought they'd say about a 3D movie). Now, I'm not typically one to discount a movie's 3D that much all because of a bit of dimness (I gave excellent ratings to Beowulf and A Christmas Carol despite them both having some dimly lit areas). But the amount of time Dune spends in the dark did wear on me in some places, making it almost a chore at times to try and make out the detail in a couple scenes. I've looked at one particular instance of this, the sand-worm scene about 15 minutes from the end of the film, in 2D to see how it played out and yeah, it was already lit pretty dim (that's not a complaint on the film's lighting department as it's a pretty appropriate lighting to have at the break of dawn). But the 3D glasses certainly didn't help. Another issue would be that for all the excellent 3D cinematography in the first two thirds, it starts to dwindle off in the last third. It makes sense as this is a character-focused area of the story and 3D isn't exactly necessary for it. But while the 3D near the end isn't by any means bad, it also isn't used much in an interesting way like what we saw before, leaving the 3D to just feel like it's kinda there. Add on some more dimly lit scenes, and you can probably see why I moved the overall score down a few notches from being excellent.

But I don't want those couple issues to dissuade you from checking out the 3D version of Dune as it really does have a lot going for it. True, this isn't like Gravity or Hugo where almost every shot was framed specifically for 3D. But a lot more like Monsters Inc. and Jurassic Park, despite the lack of 3D preparation, the composition still lends itself well to 3D anyway and results in a truly memorable experience that brings the world of the film to life in a way that 2D just can't deliver. And it's no surprise coming from a film that already makes itself as large and unique as possible. It's subtle, but highly effective 3D. The only thing that I think could've made it all the better, aside from less time in dimly lit locations and the lack of great 3D choreography near the end, would be if they kept the IMAX ratios intact for the IMAX shots. They did this with Aquaman also on its 3D Blu-ray and I don't know why. But still, it's not my job to judge a 3D film on what we could've gotten, but on what we got. And what we did get is still a striking 3D presentation any way you slice it.


3D RATING: GREAT (but borderline EXCELLENT)


OTHER SOURCES THAT REVIEW THIS MOVIE'S 3D



Tommy Boy 3D's Review (cinema version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhoOtjUBSIc


Tommy Boy 3D's Review (3D Blu-ray version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExRiHJAdhhs


Go Find Fun's Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtJPJpLQ20 (whoops, wrong Dune)


Go Find Fun's Review on the 2021 Dune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU9_YKcuv6c




FINAL THOUGHTS


I might not be the biggest nerd on Frank Herbert's Dune or anything, as I've made abundantly clear. But I still greatly enjoyed this movie and the way it tells its story in such a bold, immense, but also artistic way you hardly get from the the cinema nowadays. Dune is, of course, a very well-renowned book, but it's had apparently a pretty long, strange history when it comes to getting a proper film adaptation. There was a lot of debating and arguing behind the scenes of what would eventually become the 1984 film that people seem pretty split on, the main issue with it being that it condenses a novel with such intricate world-building into a 2 hour feature that ultimately played it safe. And even a mini-series that allowed the story more time to breathe just didn't connect with people the same way the book did. However, it seems now starting with this film, that Dune is finally getting the big, bombastic cinematic treatment it's been begging for. And in an age where most all Hollywood blockbusters are just lifeless pieces of fluff, I'm highly welcome to this film's serious, slow-paced, highly detailed, and clear artistic vision. While I don't know how well this first movie does the original book justice, it works wonderfully as a film and it sets up what many are saying is an incredible second part. True, it drags somewhat in the last third, but that doesn't undermine what's otherwise a film that knows how to clearly put Dune into movie form. It's a great start and I can't wait to see where the story goes from here. The 3D conversion on it also works to do the film justice, emphasizing every little detail in the world Denis Villeneuve has created. If you haven't yet caught up on the first Dune, go ahead and do so. Maybe not in 3D because of how long it'd take the 3D Blu-ray to come in and with the second film already being out now. But if you're a fan of the first Dune and don't own the 3D Blu-ray, go ahead and Du so. It'll open up the world of Dune in a brand new light. True, dimness is a bit of an issue in some places. But if you can get passed it, it's easily The 3D Dinosaur's recommended way to experience the movie.


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