Dune Part 1: Let’s first show you all the trailers, shall we?

How I Got to Dune

Here’s the funny thing: if you told me years ago that I’d be obsessed with Dune, I would’ve laughed. I always thought dense political dramas weren’t for me. But looking back, there’s a weird domino effect that led me here.

It actually started with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. That show — goofy as it could be sometimes — taught me that political intrigue could be fascinating. The senate episodes, Palpatine’s manipulations, the moral compromises of war… it stuck with me. From there, I gave Game of Thrones a chance, since it was basically politics with dragons. And I ended up really liking it (well, most of it — let’s not talk about the later seasons).

Because I liked Thrones, my brain was more open to stories with sprawling worlds, shifting allegiances, and deeper layers of political drama. That’s what finally made me give Dune a chance. And what do you know? I loved it. Denis Villeneuve’s vision, the scale, the weight of its politics — all of it clicked for me in a way I never thought it would.

So in a roundabout way, Dune is here on my “influential” list because Clone Wars made me curious, Game of Thrones made me receptive, and Dune delivered something incredible that I never would’ve appreciated without those stepping stones.

So, I want to begin discussing some background history revolving around Dune that many may not know. So firstly, the Dune books are dense, I mean entirely dense. There are six books in total. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will get an adaptation of all of them. Part 1 and Part 2 are an adaptation of the first book. Yeah, the director said he took the first book of Dune and split it into two parts….he’s planning on making a third part, but I don’t know what that will adapt…

The director who made this movie is Denis
Villeneuve……apparently, this guy (according to him) has been working on a storyboard for this movie since he was a teen….honestly, I could buy that because this film seems like a passion project of his..

BTW the original plan for the original movie was to make it into a trilogy but since the first movie failed the other 2 never saw the light of day….I love that this director is now gonna make that trilogy become a reality by making his Dune movies into a trilogy…or a 3 parter…

He took his time and thought out what he should add, take out, and keep…to please the fans and introduce newcomers to this world…unlike the 1984 film or that early 2000s miniseries did…no, which failed massively…

Now, here’s a fun piece of trivia for you all who don’t know this, but get this: the Dune book series went on to inspire different sci-fi properties such as

Star Wars

Mad Max

Bladerunner

Tremors

Game Of Thrones

If we didn’t have Dune, we’d never have gotten Bladerunner, then without Bladerunner. We’d never have gotten Cyberpunk 2077….just saying 1 inspires the other…

Yeah, so if any of those properties are your favorite, just know they wouldn’t have existed without the Dune books….. Anyway, let’s get the rating out of the way before we give a rundown of the film, which will consist of spoilers…

BTW here’s another fun fact: it relates to the original 1984 Dune movie….I think, in a way, we can be grateful that the Dune movie failed because if it didn’t, then H.R Giger wouldn’t have gone on to collab with Ridley Scott to make the movie Alien, yeah so apparently, one of the failed designs as concept art for this movie went on to inspire him to make the design of alien…..so we can thank this movie forever coming out and failing…in other words if this film succeeds he’d be working with the director to make a sequel to that Dune, which means he wouldn’t have gone on to help make the iconic Design of the Alien in the Alien movie made by Ridley Scott….yeah I have tons of knowledge

This is somewhat hard because, when I first saw this movie back in 2021, I didn’t enjoy it at all…. I found it way too slow, but now that I have finally seen Oppenheimer (so I got a chance to get used to slow, great movies) and now that I saw Dune Part 2…I decided to rewatch Dune Part 1…I’m glad I did because I now absolutely love both Dune films; Dune Part 2 was already significant…but going back to Dune Part 1 with the knowledge of Dune Part 2, where it all leads to…

It helped enlighten the first film…so I saw Dune Part 1 in a new light…Once again, I’m glad I held off on this review and doing it now…..otherwise, back In 2021, I’d probably have given this film a negative review….now that’s not to say this doesn’t have issues because it does….it’s just one issue but it also an issue I have with Part 2…

It’s that after all is said and done with both these two films, I’m never going to be able to remember the characters’ names. It’s not because I’m terrible at remembering characters’ names, no far from it, I can remember the names of character’s, heck, I can remember names of characters from films back in the 1980s great movies or early 2000s good movies, for example, Shrek…

The reason I’ll never remember these characters’ names is unlike Shrek, we don’t get enough time with each character (we don’t get to know them entirely), their weaknesses, their strengths, or their personalities. The characters are just here to progress the story along. Now, that’s not me saying the characters are not characters… No, they are, but you know what I mean? They’re somewhat one-dimensional characters……

So overall, I’m going to give Dune Part 1 a solid 9/10

This book series, for the time, the fans believed, was not adaptable. Has the first book been adapted correctly? Where will the fans love this movie? And newcomers such as I? We’ll see….(spoiler alert, yes…this and part 2 are hands down better than modern Star Wars by a long shot)… by the way, these entire two films were filmed on set in the desert to add that feeling of realism to it….the director wanted the actors to be able to act on something against something, not a green screen like George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels….lolo

Spoiler warning from here on now, massive spoilers ahead if u don’t want to continue reading yall dont. But if yall do then plz feel  free to…

So, without further due, let’s get into the review, shall we?

We open up with the words “Dreams are messages from the deep” then the logos appear..

So, in this fictional world called Dune, we have different house names

House Atreides

House Harkonnen (that’s pronounced as Har-Ko-nen)

House Ordos

There’s also House Corrino

These different houses are trying to gain power/land/property by getting a hold of this drug called “Spice,” which is located all around the desert planet of Arrakis…so in this film, we have House Atreides, which is run by

Duke Leto Atreides (played by Oscar Isaac)

Lady Jessica (played by Rebecca Ferguson)

Their son Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet) (his last name spelled as Shall-ah-may)

Along with their right-hand men/friends

Gurney Halleck (played by Josh Brolin)

Duncan Idaho (played by Jason Momoa)

And there’s their consultant/general

Thufir Hawat (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson)

Then, on the House Harkonnen side (which is the enemy side), which is run by a bunch of humans who are now bald/pale….now why are they that way? Well, according to the director he said: “House Harkonnen is primarily located on Giedi Prime, a sunless and industrial planet that forces harsh living conditions for its citizens.” “Also, the  inhabitants have evolved to become ghostly pale and hairless.”

There run by

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgård)

His nephews (one of which doesn’t get introduced until part 2, so we won’t mention that second one here)

Glossu Rabban (played by Dave Bautista)

As for the side characters in this movie, we have the Reverend Mother (played by Charlotte Rampling). She wields enormous power in the Dune universe, as she is also the Emperor’s Truthsayer. She also trained Lady Jessica…

Then, as for the sand folks of planet Arrakis, you have got….

Chani (played by Zendaya)

Stilger (played by Javier Bardem)

Jamis (played by Babs Olusanmokun)

The Arrakis are a group of heavily religious people who believe in the whole chosen one, their Messiah, if you will …… Christianity inspired them. Well, not all of them are religious…half of them are, while the other half aren’t…Chani isn’t religious. She’s part of the side who doesn’t believe in the chosen one/Messiah thing…while Stigler is the heavily religious one who believes in all that….

Good, now that we got that out of the way…..so in this movie, Duke Leto Atreides wants to run things peacefully (he’s a kind-hearted guy). If we learned anything from Ned Stark in Game Of Thrones….when you play the game, it’s best not to be a kind-hearted, caring leader….that will only lead you to death…whoops spoilers, Lolo

While Duke leads, Lady Jessica prepares her son, Paul Atreides. What’s she preparing him for? Well, I don’t fully understand it because I’m new to the Dune universe) but somehow, for some reason, both he and his mother have a unique ability to Deepen their voices, which controls someone to do what they want at their bidding….think of it like the force that you can use to mind control people….except here it’s a deep voice, that only specific bloodline has the powers to use….. hm why’s this sounding very similar to midichlorians? Oh, wait a minute…

I think now is a good time to mention the elephant in the room, and that is the fact that George Lucas took massive inspiration from the Dune series when he made Star Wars….some times I think that he ripped off Dune, for example, both in Dune and Star Wars…there exists a drug called spice, they are also used in very similar ways, to be sold for profit and power….it kind of baffles me how George got away with that, I mean common? A drug called spice that is used for profit/selling? Couldn’t it be any less obvious?

If yall don’t know when they ever mentioned the word spice in Star Wars….here’s a little history lesson, it was first mention in Star Wars A New Hope, when offscreen Obi-Wan told Luke his father is a pilot, which the film cuts back to Luke saying “my father wasnt a pilot, he was a navigator on a Spice freighter” which Obi-Wan says that’s what ur uncle told u….

Also just like in Dune, there’s a sand planet in Star Wars named Tatooine….now here’s a funny detail I noticed recently, one of the locations on Tatooine is named “The Dune Seas” uhhhh huhh….”Dune seas” Yeah so clever…also I notice another thing on Star Wars lore…in the Dune seas there’s a settlement called the Arakeen, which was a old sanctuary that housed a clan named the Ophuchi…..Arakeen? Arrakeen? Wow they just sound completely different….clearly i cannot tell they sound similar in any ways, nahhh! Lolo

Anyways, Paul is also learning to fight sword-to-sword combat in case to be prepared for a battle…his teacher is Gurney Halleck, and he is trying to prepare Paul Atreides for the time when he has to face House Harkonnen….who’s described as “Virocious, and heartless” creatures….which they are…..by the way I find a specific line that Gurney says to be funny….Paul says he’s not in the mood today, to which Gurney replies with, “Mood? What is mood when it comes to having to defend yourself “Lolo, what is mood….well hey, I mean, fair point…btw in this universe they have these portable shield type holographic thing that can protect them, but it also can be Penetrated if u an object is using massive force against it….

By the way I quickly want to mention one crucial thing Paul does learn, and he stabs Gurney where he’d die, and says your dead, and Gurney says so are you my lord…then Paul looks down seeing Gurney stabbed him where he would have died…which Gurney says you would have joined me in the afterlife…. by the way keep this little session Paul learned, on how to stab someone without them realizing, in the back of all your heads till Dune Part 2….

So, one night, Paul is woken up by his mother. ,He is forced to follow her because the Reverend Mother has shown up to see about his nightmares…..he enters a room where the Reverend Mother is after he gets checked out by their doctor named Dr. Yueh (played by Chang Chen). Anyway, he enters. The mother forces him to come to her…she tells him to put his hand in the box near her, he does so, and she puts a poison needle near his neck. She says the rule is if you leave or scream, you will die….wow she’s awful.

Paul asks what’s in the box? She says pain, so he puts his hand irandomcreams once…she gets him to be quiet, and he starts having visions….she says enough…so he pulls the hand out…she asks about his dreams. Paul says he keeps having a dream of a random woman (Zendaya character)… Anyway, she leaves and tells Lady Jessica he must go on his path. We set the path for him, and hopefully, he does the right thing….

So eventually, the Emperor sends a group of his men to give House Atreides a note that says they will now be running the spice harvesting base on planet Arrakis…….here’s the clip

Also, I just love this piece of dialog between Duke Leto and Gurney while they are standing waiting for the Emperor’s ship to land and then for the men to walk toward them…

Duke Leto Atreides: smile Gurney

Gurney: (stern face) I am smiling

Lolo, yeah, no, you’re not, dude….lol just saying.

Anyways, Paul and his family head to the planet of Arrakis to attract spice for profit…..because they run a spice business, they are also going to have a meeting that the Duke wants his son to attend….he’s hoping his son will take his place once he’s dead…but he will be supportive of his son if he doesn’t want to take up the business…

Anyway, enough that for now, let’s talk about House Harkonnen. So we see the Reverend Mother asking Baron Vladimir Harkonnen not to harm Paul Atreides and his mother, that they are under her care…..Baron Vladimir Harkonnen says you have my word we won’t hurt them….of course, we know he’s lying, but still…. by the way, let me try to describe the way the Baron looks like

He’s bald/pale…he has a very long black robe on, and he can somehow levitate up into the air. Also he has an outer metallic spine, and he also has anti-gravity gadgets built into him to help him fly…..

He tells his men, “My Arrakis, my desert, my Dune.” oh, he said it. He said the thing…..

BTW, in the 1984 Dune, for some reason, all the Harkonnens had ginger hair. Why? I have no idea….it was an odd choice

So anyways, back to House Atreides, where they land at the base Arrakeen, Lady Jessica recruits a new lady to serve her..

Anyways our gang Duke, Paul and Gurney head out to the desert but first this woman named Liet Kynes (played by Sharon Duncab-Brewster) gives them black outfits that have built-in water so they can drink and survive….the outfit has built-in cooling as well, saving them from the heat because they’re about to go out there into the desert to see how the spice harvesting works….it’s an incredible process…

BTW the Emperor has sent them here to Arrakeen to continue the spice harvesting….this planet and area was run by the Harkonnen before, heck even earlier, Glossu Rabban was upset, wondering why the Emperor would give their enemies access to their spice harvesting base. Well, that’s important. Keep that in the back of our heads for now. And Baron Vladimir Harkonnen tells Glossu, “when is a gift, not a gift?” ohhhh now that’s suspicious

Do I even need to point out that planet Arrakis is just planet Tatooine? Once again, George Lucas ripped off Dune again

So they fly The Royal Ornithopter (which has metallic bug wings) to a spice harvesting site….they get there, and a sandworm is coming in the distance, so the harvest machine has to head out…so a ship with cords comes to pick it up, the cords attach to the sides of the vehicle, but what’s this? One of the cords is broken and cannot attach…uh oh

So the gang lands their Royal Ornithopter to get all the men on the harvest machine on board their flying vehicle….so they get everyone on board. Paul exists The Royal Ornithopter to try to help, but the spice gets to him. pssstt, the entire planet of Atreides which is covered in spice, and he starts getting visions….so Gurney goes out and grabs Paul…they get on board, and Paul is sent to his room when they get back…Duke Leto tries asking their guide lady what happened out there.

And that clearly they were set up to lose…she says I can neither say nor do anything. I’m just an observer…. Anyway, eventually, Duncan Idaho, shows back up, and he tells them he found the Fremen. He became one of them to understand them and infiltrate their place….he eventually left, and now he’s here…..if any of you all wondering when the action will pick up? Oh, don’t you worry? Things are about to get hectic….

So that night before everyone goes to sleep, Duke Leto Atreides asks Lady Jessica if anything happens to him, will she and the Bene Gesserit…she says yes…for you see why Duke is asking this question Is because he started piecing together that the Emperor sent them there to fail…so he can have a reason to kill them…but Duke doesn’t know that, he only knows that the Emperor can and will do something to them, he doesn’t know what that something is. Also, here’s the scene of the Imperium/Harkonnens getting ready to attack the Atreides..

I like that the guy making the vocal chants sounds like it’s heavily inspired by Mongolian throat-singing. It adds an otherly worldly vibe to the scene. I also like the detail of the wall is a giant human blood sacrifice…the soldiers are being given marks on their heads using the blood of the sacrificed humans…..uhhhhhhh

Fun fact: to get the feel for what a depressingly bleak, grey and rainy planet filled with psychotic men speaking an unintelligible language with strange and violent religious beliefs would be like, Denis Villeneuve spent a week in Scotland. He based this scene on football supporters getting ready for a Rangers-Celtic game.

Ok, I’m pretty sure I never want to go down to Scotland and see them get ready for a Rangers-Celtic game. If Denis Villeneuve got the inspiration for this scene from, well, that.

So, anyway, that night, while everyone was asleep. Duke hears something and goes to a guard who’s on the floor. It turns out the guard has been stabbed in the chest…the Duke turns on his shield to protect him…

Just then, a paralysis dart hits through his shield. He falls unconscious, it turns out it’s Dr. Yueh who betrayed them….wow what a shocker….

So they all get attacked by the Harkonnens, Paul and his mother get kidnapped by some Harkonnens…then placed on one of the Ornithopter jets….Duncan Idaho escapes in a separate Ornithopter…..the Doctor tells Duke he’s going to put a false tooth in his mouth, and if he times it right, he can kill the Baron…all he needs to do is bite down and a poison gas will come out killing everyone In the room..but it will also be his last breath as well…..

So, back to Paul and his mom, Paul uses the deep voice to tell the guards to pull off the gag around her mouth….so the guard does as he commands. U know, just like the force mind trick, “This is not the droids ur looking for.” (lolo, sorry, I couldn’t help myself)….then Lady Jessica uses the voice thing to tell the guard to kill the other guard so he does so then she kills the guard….then she proceeds to insult Paul by saying your pitch was too high…

Wow you, ungrateful woman, just be happy that you’re son saved you….anyways so back to the Duke, he’s now sitting at the end table of the dining room and fully naked…. that’s harsh, and on the other side of the table is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen who is eating a meal…while his guards stand around the table….so then the Doctor dude comes in with Harkonnen guards…

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen says the traitor, what do u want? Which Dr. Yueh says I did everything u asked and disconnected their communication…which Baron says down to the bargain letter, and what will I do for you? The guy says to free my wife…which Baron says ahh yes (Proceeds to get up by levitating. We hear his spine crackle) (flies close up to the doctor across the table) I said ill set your wife free, and that u van join her (Proceeds to grab the Doctor by his hair) so join her…then he stabs him…yep just never trust a guy named Vladimir, like ahhh ever.

So then Duke Leto Atreides starts mumbling to himself, so the Baron turns on his shield with the metal around his finger…he gets closer to Duke and says what did u say? Oh yes the oldest trick in the book and the Baron is falling for it….so then Duke bites down on his fake acid tooth, breathes out a toxic air which causes everyone in the room to start choking to death….ohhhh snap…the Harkonnens behind the door close the door in the room..

Later, some Harkonnens come in wearing gas suits and masks to pick up the dead bodies… they hear a gurgling noise up in the corner of the ceiling.. and they see the Baron levitated up in the corner, curled up…..dang he survived….

So Baron gets taken back to his base and placed in his dark, black, disgusting ink bath, which looks like it’s made of oil…..Glossu enters and says they hunted the rest of the Atreides to the dangerous storms, so they died…..the Baron comes popping out of the oil bath and says so it’s done? Good…I only have one favor, continue spice trade….increase it

Glossu: what about the Fremen?

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: kill them all (Proceeds to go back under his oil bath)

So back to Duncan, Idaho, he lands his vehicle in front of Liet Kynes, who once again The Emperor hired do I need to keep mention that? Which he tells her The Emperor sent them there to die…wow no shite Sherlock…

Anyways, back to Paul and his mother, Paul has a vision of himself as a soldier on a battlefield with the Fremen….he sees himself wearing one of the soldier’s armor, kneeling, and holding a knife while panting….anyways he starts screaming while he’s having a vision about how he sees the ultimate war coming, the holy war!

Anyway, he’s clearly upset that his dad is dead….heck he yells at his mom, saying you did this to me!!….ouch, let’s skip a bit, so nothing significant happens for the next while except for the fact that Paul and his mom accidentally stumble into sandworm territory at night…the sandworm comes out of the sand sticking its ginormous head with a round circular mouth with massive rows of sharp teeth….

Ok let’s take a moment to point out something…I do have to give George some credit because it seems he took 2 inspirations from the sandworm when doing Star Wars….

First inspiration: The Krayt Dragon (first appeared as a skeleton remain on Tatooine in a New Hope)

Second inspiration: Sarlac Pit (first appearance in Return of the Jedi)

So yeah when the mouth of the sandworm sticks out of the sand it looks like the Sarlac Pit but when it fully emerges from the sand it looks more like a Krayt Dragon….so once again here we go with George “taking inspiration” from Dune…lolo

So eventually Duncan reunites with them, they head out on foot…they find Liet Kynes , she leads them under ground in a safe place but the safe place gets over run by the Harkonnens…so Duncan takes a blade and goes into the hallway, closes the door to protect Paul from them….Paul is trying to open the door to get too Duncan but the door is jamed so they now have to go….eventually Duncan does die he gets stabbed, the harko make there way in by using a laser to cut the door down…

While the gang escapes, Liet Kynes hands them some items and tells them to head north while she heads south to get some help….Paul says how will she be able to survive? Which she says I’m Fremen. This is my home…so she goes outside and summons a worn…as she does so, she gets stabbed in the back by a Harkonnen….yep that lasted about all of 2 min. Guess the Fremen way didn’t do you any good…she then uses her last dying breath to pound on the floor to lure the sandworm which swallows them up….getting rid of any trace evidence that anyone was there…ok thats clever…

Anyways the Fremen, including Stilger and Chani, end up finding the group….Paul mentions to Stilger u know me. Remember earlier at the hearing? Which he says oh you’re the Duke’s son….hey guys, this is the kid I was telling you about. We cannot harm him…..so then the Fremen attack both Paul and his mom, and his mom bests Stilger….while Paul is on a higher rock aiming a gun at them he stole from Stilger…….then Stilger asks for mercy, so they stop attacking…

Chani comes up to Paul and says I wouldn’t have allowed u to hurt my friends (hey, it’s the girl Paul been wet- I mean dreaming about, yeah, that’s what I meant…dreaming, and nothing else)….

Stilger says they can join us, but this random Fremen named Jamis says I won’t have them….then Stilger says I’ve spoken, which Jamis says you act like the leader, but the woman bested you….Stilger says it’s dark out let’s not waste time…then Jamis says then the sun will be my witness, where’s her champion? Which Paul says I am, then Jamis says I accept.

So they wait it out till the sun comes up, I don’t know why. Because that’s a waste of time if u ask me, so then Chani tells Paul she doesn’t believe he’s the messiah but she wants him to die fairly so she hands him a knife and she tells him Jamis is a perfect fighter. He will make sure u don’t suffer when u die…..wow what comforting words…

So then Jamis gets up and says “May thy knife chip and shatter” then Paul puts his blade above his head then they start fighting…..Paul tries to get Jamis to yield, but Stilger says the boy doesn’t know our ways, there’s no yielding only death…..then he asks Lady Jessica is he toying with him? Which she says no, Paul’s never killed before…well uhh oh…

But he ends up killing Jamis, I mean it was the only way…it was either u or him…so he kills Jamis, he falls to the floor…which Paul closes Jamis eyes, it’s the least he could do for him….so then Stilger says ur one of us now, a life for a life….Paul says The Emperor brought them there including his dad, but his father didn’t come for spice or wealth, but instead came for knowledge…

He ans his mom will come with them if they will have them…..so they now head out to there base during a rising sun…then the film ends, the screen turns black and the end credits appear…..wow that was an emotional film…a very great slow emotional film…that was building up the world of Dune….I got to applaud u Denis Villeneuve u out did urself….ladies and gentlemen go watch Dune Part 1 on Max then plz go see Dune Part 2 in theaters on IMAX…these 2 movies are well worth ur time….hope to hear yall opinions on Dune Part 1 in the comment section…