Dune – Spoiler Free Movie Review

The long-awaited movie Dune was finally released on Friday, October 22nd, after being delayed due to COVID. Originally a novel written by Frank Herbert, the story was made into a movie back in 1984, a television show in the 2000s,  in addition to multiple games. With the advancement of technology overtime, this new Dune movie exceeded my expectations with the cinematography, visual effects, and music. I had the opportunity of watching Dune during SCAD’s Film Fest and below I give my own opinion of the movie.

Before I even talk about the amazing cinematography and visual effects of this movie, I must mention Hans Zimmer’s music. As soon as the film begins, the music blasts eerie long tones which gets you into the setting of this film being mysterious and fantastical. The movie took place mostly in a desert, and you could almost feel as though you were there with the way Hans wrote his pieces. The long crescendos going from piano to forte and then staying at forte reflected how the sand dunes were visually and how the sand moved. I was in a movie theater;  the volume was turned up all the way, so I could feel the vibrations reverberating throughout my body. Part of what made me so involved with this film was the music and the way I was able to actually feel something as though it was a 4D movie. The music most definitely gave this film its distinctive mysterious foreshadow feeling. But I will say most movie theaters turn the volume up a bit too loud, so maybe it might have been too excessively loud. 

For the cinematography of this film, I loved the way they shifted colors from when they were on different planets. The more blue tones of Paul’s home planet gave you a sense of life and water being there. Then the shift to orange tones in the desert planet made it feel dry and bright. I also liked the way they used symmetry and rhythm in the cinematography. The symmetry of when there were meetings between the high officials and the people from the empire gave it an artificial and proper feeling. They also had many repeated shapes and forms in the movie, for example, the swaying grass at Paul’s home planet, the sand dunes, and layout of buildings at Arrakis. The repetition created a feeling of cohesion that carried throughout the film. 

Watching movies such as this, is what has made me want to become a visual effects artist. It blows my mind how realistic fake things can look. I have no doubt that there were probably a couple scenes that were entirely CGI and I had no clue that they were. A few of the many visual effects in this movie that I found amazing were the sand worm, shield effects, and the ornithopters. The way every aspect of the film worked together to make the coming of the sandworm suspenseful was great. You had the fantastic visuals of the sand plumes coming from the worm vibrating its way through the sand along with the sound and music building to a fortissimo as it comes closer to the characters. I found the shield effects to be the most amazing part of the film. I thought they were done very well and it seemed like such an interesting concept to have to be able to make them based on the book. I also thought that the ornithopters were incredibly cool! The models looked great along with the textures, and the animation of the wings. 

I think that this movie had amazing visual effects, cinematography, and music. Having not read the book, the whole movie was a little bit confusing, so that part was a bit of a downside. The movie was most definitely a set up for the next Dune movie and felt like an extra long trailer. If I were to rate this movie out of 10, I would give it an 8/10. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, it’s in theaters currently and streaming on HBO Max!