Dune, A Comparison of the Movie and the Book
Dune 2021
by: Jonathan Chen
What the Movie Did Well On
The 2 major aspects I think the movie did fantastic on are the visuals and sound design. The world was immersive and there was always something that was interesting on scene to entertain the audience. I remember that the shield sound effects were a unique vibrating sound that I couldn't pinpoint how they made it. I tried searching up how they did that, but nothing came up which makes me sad. The scenes of the desert were beautiful in a way that you knew something ominous was there, and there are!
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| Ornithopter |
What could be improved
One of the main complaints I have is about the traitor that has infiltrated the Atreide's. In the book, they talk about how the person who is the traitor had no suspicions about them since they came from a place where they were conditioned to never harm anyone. To the whole galaxy, that conditioning is considered unbreakable, but it was broken. I think they should have at least mentioned it a few times about how they broke the person's conditioning.
In the books, they put an emphasis on the fact that there are no aliens. All of the individuals that are there are humans. All of the atrocious crimes that are committed are by humans. They made the Harkonnens, the main villains, look very different from "people". Besides the Baron who is described as grotesquely fat, the other Harkonnens look like they were made into aliens but retained their human facial features.
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| Baron Harkonnen |
The voice was also portrayed in an interesting way. The voice in the books was supposed to be a precise control over one's tone in order to control someone. The movie, in order to distinguish it from normal speaking, made them sound like demons. That was just some minor nitpicking though.
Another part I think that could have been emphasized a little more is how noble the Atreide's are. The book also has the same problem. They are known throughout the galaxy as being noble, yet you barely see any noble actions. The only memorable thing you see is when Leto saves the men in the spice factory from a sand worm.
A minor complaint I have is about the fremen eyes. Their eyes have no whites, and they are instead replaced with this rich blue color. I understand why they didn't do that, because it probably would have looked weird, so they instead tinted their eyes with a blue color.
Hopes for the Next Movie
I definitely hope that they explore the culture of the fremen as deeply as they did in the book. The fremen have a unique style that is often seen as savage or weird. Another important aspect about Dune is that Paul falls into a descent of madness. A lot of people don't empathize with people who go crazy, so they might not have Paul go crazy in the movie. I hope they do though, because that is a unique part of the books. I also wonder how they will portray his visions that become much more frequent and intense than the dreams he has in this movie.
Overall, I would say that the movie was enjoyable. Even if it is long and basically nothing happens. The visuals and sounds are appealing enough to compensate for the lack of plot. Go watch the Dune movie if you haven't already.
Hi Jonathan, I love comparing movies and books and I think that this was very well done. You went into a lot of detail for each aspect and it was nice and informative. I have not seen or read Dune but why is it that every fantasy book always has no plot when it becomes a movie? It's too bad.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean when it comes to the suggestions on improvements. I'm reading Twilight, and also saw the movie. There are scenes that were left out in the movie. The movie was more quickly paced than the book. I know its not the same, but I understand the disappointment over the unmentioned important events in the movie. It is like a reminder that it isn't accurate.
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan, I watched Dune this summer, but I have never read the books. I thought the movie was disappointing. After sitting for over 2 hours waiting for the setup of the story to be over the movie ends abruptly. I wonder if they made the movie only half of the book to make more money off of it or if the producers actually felt it would add to the cinematic experience. I agree that the special effects were good and there was a lot of skill put into the movie, but I feel like they probably could have covered one book in one movie. It is clear that you really liked the books, so maybe I will try reading them next so I can make a comparison between the books and the movies. I also liked how you formatted your text and images in the post.
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I watched the movie a few months back and thought it was ok, and very slow. I agree with you on the sound of the movie, that definitely helped the aesthetic. I thought that the mystery of the desert and the looming threat of the sand worm was really cool, and it got intense in the movie. I definitely should check out the book!
ReplyDeleteI hear so many people (including you now) talk about how slow the movie for dune is. I watched it when it came out and I loved it. The action, the graphics, and the sound in an imax theatre. Despite it's length, I think that most of the moments in it are enjoyable to watch and not too boring. When I finished the movie, I didn't feel satisfied though, like you mentioned, I was also pretty disappointed that they were only able to fit one half of the book into a 2 and a half hour long movie, and I really think they could've done better on that. Overall this is a great review, even though I don't agree with some of it, and I like the way you separate the review into talking about the pros and the cons.
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