Dune (2021) movie

"Dune" is an epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve that was released a few weeks ago. Denis Villeneuve has previously directed some great movies like "Blade Runner 2049" and "Arrival".

Dune the movie is the adaptation of the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert, primarily covering the first half of the book. This movie is the first part of a planned two-part adaptation with part two already being greenlit.

Adaptation challenges

Dune the novel is a long and complex story set in the far future and for the most part was considered unadaptable by a lot of people, however some have tried to do make a movie out of this masterpiece of science fiction.

My ranking of all the adaptations

#1 Dune (2021)

In my opinion Dune (2021) movie is not only the best adaptation of the Dune book but also the best adaptation of any book to movie. The director has stayed faithful to the source material and has crafted the movie with great detail, the aesthetics of the movie reflect the themes that it explores. Moreover it is also possibility one of the best Science Fiction movie ever if not the best and overall one of the best movie ever made.

There is not a single dull moment and even the mundane scene seem to be building up to something that keep escalating. It does make it feel fast paced but never does it felt like rushed.

Director does a great job of 'Showing and not telling' as exposition and voiceover are to the minimal and the movie feels more like a fluid experience.

Moreover the movie's music score is the best work of Hans Zimmer till date, it is the music that immediately grabs your attention. For more the music stay with me in my mind for days, especially the Baron's theme.

Overall I am all praise for this movie and the director and score composer on an exceptional performance.

#2 Frank Herbert's Dune (2000) mini series

Dune (2000) is a 3 part mini series directed by John Harrison and was aired on Sci Fi Channel. It is also the adaptation of the same novel and because of the total run time of 265 minutes and for the Director's Cut version 295 minutes, it was able to tell more of the novel's story.

Moreover it stay faithful to the book and was crafted by care with great performance by all the cast members.

For me it was the definitive Dune adaptation before Denis Villeneuve's 2021 movie and while others compare the 2021 movie with the older 1984 movie adaptation by David Lynch, I think it is best to compare it to the 2020 mini series as it is the more of a better faithful adaptation rather than blend of sci-fi troupes.

Overall I still enjoy the mini series for being a great adaptation and for being an enjoyable experience with good narrative and decent effects for its time and budget.

#3 Dune (1984) by David Lynch

David Lynch's Dune is just that David Lynch's Dune and not the Dune as written by Frank Herbert. Moreover it is a clear example of style over substance as while the movie looks good in terms of costumes and 80's sci-fi set pieces. It lacks any coherent story and seems like a mess of multiple narrative that just don't fit together, making it come out more as a comedy rather than thought provoking.

It was clear the director didn't understand the book if he has even read it and has distorted the whole point of story and didn't understand the message that the writer was trying to pass on.

The director changed the concept of the weirding way which in the books is kind of a martial art to that of a weirding module which is kind of a voice activated gun, because according to him he didn't wanted to have 'Kung Fu on Dunes' which tell a lot about the director and his understanding of the source material.

Furthermore their is exposition after exposition through out the movie in a clear example of telling too much and not showing, which is clearly a lazy way of movie making. The comical performance my the actors doesn't help either.

#4 Jodorowsky's Dune

Now we are officially in dog-shit category, this is the worst movie that was never made and thank the merciful heavens that this abomination was never made.

The director has clearly no understanding of what the story is or what the message is that the director was trying to teach. Instead he wanted to make a hilarious dumb movie that could have only be described has the steaming pile of poo.

How do we know that this movie was going to be so bad even when it was never made?

Easy, there are many concept art and scripts and other materials that exists from the failed production, Moreover there is a documentary movie about what the director wanted to make but couldn't get it done. In the documentary he talks about all the crazy ideas he had about the story and how he wanted to tell it.

Which at best can be described as idiotic and stupid, while there are many people who believe his version would have been the greatest but clearly those people have never read the book. They are just clearly attracted to the images of colorful spaceship, which to me looked like drawn by a kindergartener.

The original 1965 science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert is a cautionary tale about charismatic leaders and how messiahs are flawed and lead to destruction.

Whereas this director wanted the tell about a hero that is born from a drop of blood to a virgin mother and leads native savages against evil forces. He basically wanted to make a movie about Jesus in space.

If you want to make a movie about Jesus in space then just call it that, Jesus in space. Why use the Dune backdrop and name. It is clear that the director was an incompetent fool who didn't understood the book or hasn't even read it, even more than David Lynch. It is a good thing that this garbage was never made and polluted the Dune's name.