Here’s What Critics Are Saying About The Long-Awaited ‘Dune’

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was always going to be a risky proposition.

An adaptation of the first half of the classic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert, the film has to contend with the source novel’s reams of lore, deeply un-cinematic imagery and plotting, and the sheer abundance of details that makes Dune what it is.

Then there’s the question of whether audiences are ready to deal with another sci-fi epic, particularly given that Villeneuve’s last — Blade Runner 2049 — struggled to find its cult at the box office.

Whether or not audiences will embrace the film remains to be seen — it doesn’t release for another few months. But Dune-heads can relax in the knowledge that critics, for the most part, have embraced the knotty, strange work. Yep, the reviews out of the official premiere of Dune at the Venice film festival have been almost entirely positive, with critics calling the work a once-in-a-lifetime and dazzling cinematic experience.

Let’s dive into what they’re saying.

Some Critics Have Their Reservations…

The praise hasn’t been uniform for Dune, mind you. There are a number of high-profile critics who have expressed their disappointment in the film, with most of these negative notices focusing on the film’s supposed structural issues.

For instance, Scott Collura of IGN feels that Dune collapses into a heap. “There’s a shapelessness to the latter part of the movie that drags it down and distracts from its beauty; it’s a story that ends at Act 2, and it shows,” he writes.”Just as Duke Leto himself would find out, harnessing the power of Dune is no easy task.”

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair, calls the film a “turgid preamble with little payoff.” In his opinion, Villeneuve’s work on adapting the sci-fi classic is too much the servant of two masters, alternating between the “plodding” plotting that will be familiar to fans of Herbert and “hurried” set-pieces that dip too deep into exposition. “By the end of Dune (Part One), I was ready to leave the whole thing to the enormous worms who move through Arrakis devouring all the little things that matter to us petty humans,” Lawson wrote. “Watching as Villeneuve’s film eats itself up, those beasts started to seem pretty familiar.”

Owen Gleiberman of Variety similarly takes issue with the film’s pacing, praising its first half but expressing sorrow at its “laggy” finale. “Dune is a movie that earns five stars for world-building and about two-and-a-half for storytelling,” Gleiberman writes.

“It’s not just that the story loses its pulse,” he says, pithily. “It loses any sense that we’re emotionally invested in it.”(Dune purists should note that Gleiberman is one of the sadly growing pantheon of critics who have taken time out of their review to trash Lynch’s masterpiece adaptation, so would do well to take his assessment with a grain of salt.)

Perhaps harshest of all is David Ehrlich of IndieWire, who has some reserved praise for a few of the film’s key players — especially Chalamet — but who calls it overbloated and draining.

“Here is a film consumed by dreams from even before the moment it starts (you’ll see what I mean), but also one so arch and full of empty spectacle that it keeps your imagination on a tight leash, which grows all the more enervating as Paul and his mother find themselves being chased through the desert by sandworms in the final act,” Ehrlich writes.

“Eventually, Dune only resembles a dream in that it cuts out on a note so flat and unresolved that you can’t believe anyone would have chosen it on purpose.”

…But Dune Purists Will Be In Love

All that said, anyone who has read and loved Herbert’s novel will know that these are “issues” that are baked into the source novel. Herbert’s masterwork is as unconventional as they come, famous for following ideas down rabbit holes and spending pages and pages on the exposition of minor characters. Pacing isn’t something that Herbert did well — and that’s the joy of the thing.

To that end, the critics who are onboard with the film seem to have totally accepted that this is a strange work of blockbuster cinema. Ben Travis of Empire gives the film a glowing five stars, dishing out praise for Villeneuve’s uncompromised vision. “This is blockbuster filmmaking in the Christopher Nolan mould — smart, propulsive, and really big,” Travis writes.

“But more than any one Nolan film in particular, Dune feels most reminiscent of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. Like Fellowship, it’s merely the opening part of a story, but manages to feel like a masterwork in its own right.”

Elsewhere, Justin Chang of The LA Times calls the film “magisterially brooding.” “Dune is an unusually philosophical speculative fiction that ponders the difficulties of language and coexistence,” he writes.

Most effusive of all, Xan Brooks of The Guardian calls it an “epic of otherworldly brilliance” and notes that the film is here to remind audiences of what blockbuster filmmaking can be. “It’s a film of discovery; an invitation to get lost,” he writes, calling it a masterwork to pore over.

Sounds good to us.