I’m not in the mood to bash movies these days. As I scroll through all my streaming services desperately looking for ANY movie to watch, I’ve realized more than ever the power of Hollywood entertainment. All it takes is one minute of I’m Thinking of Ending Things to appreciate big-budget high production value cinema.
Which is why I’m so bummed after the Dune trailer. Something about it left me feeling empty. “That’s it?” I thought. Even the money shot, a giant worm, feels tiny in comparison to the giant creatures we’ve become accustomed to in movies. Oh, um, cool. It’s in sand which makes it different, I guess?
But it was something else I couldn’t put my finger on which was bothering me. It hit me after I watched the below side-by-side 1984 Dune movie comparison trailer. The two movies looked nearly identical. And everyone knows how bad that original Dune was. It was lengendarily awful.
Could it be that the real problem here is the source material? That it doesn’t matter how much you throw at Dune or who directs it. That it’s always going to be bad. Cause if you’re looking at this trailer objectively, it’s pretty darn uninspiring. It’s a bunch of sand. A bunch of good actors. A bunch of cool costumes. And… what? At least David Lynch took some chances and did some weird things with his take. This looks like a pretty garden variety adaptation.
I’m sincerely worried for Dune, a movie that was really high on my expectations list. Now I’m just hoping it’s a little better than Blade Runner 2049.
