A desert planet! Space wizards!
No, I’m not talking about Star Wars….I’m talking about Dune.
BQB here with a review.
I tried to watch the 1980s Dune movie once. It starts immediately with some floating space broad giving a full on, fact filled lecture, like I’m expected to take notes and prepare for an exam on space politics and space economies. Eff that. Hasn’t that floating space broad ever heard about show, don’t tell? Needless to say, I turned it off posthaste.
There is a little bit of an up front exposition dump in this new version as well, but it’s small and overall it’s a good film, if not cumbersome with deets on space politics, space money, space mining, space geopolitical intrigue and so on.
The plot? Paul Atreides, some sort of space prince, is gifted with space mind control powers, a genetic trait passed down to him by his space whore mother (Rebecca Ferguson and I’m sorry, space concubine is the preferred term.)
When House Atreides is called upon to take over spice mining operations on a desert planet, House Harkonnen, comprised largely of fugly bald dudes, is pissed, for that planet was theirs.
Blah blah blah, chaos ensues…we must discover if Paul will be able to save the day and use his mind control powers in doing so.
I gotta be honest. I didn’t dig too deep into understanding the weeds of this picture. It’s pretty. Lots of fancy colors and special effects. Enjoyable…though I have to be honest, I wonder if two of my favorite franchises, Star Wars and Game of Thrones, might have stolen from it heavily.
Star Wars – desert planet. Space wizards and space magic. Space worms. All happened in Dune first.
Game of Thrones – Royal families fighting each other for money and control. Well, I guess Dune stole that idea from the world if anything.
STATUS: Shelf-worthy but I’ll be honest, not my fave. The royal families, the space economy, the space politics, the space magic, the space worms – it feels like it tries to do too much and maybe Star Wars took some of these aspects and boiled it into something simpler and more watchable. To that end, Dune has long deserved more credit than it gets.
Bookshelf Battle 