What is Dune? (Micah):
“Dune” is a science fiction/adventure film that is a movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel. It has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.2/10 on IMDb. It centers around Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), a member of the House Of Atreides, who journeys to the planet Arrakis, which holds the most important resource in existence.
Comparison to Star Wars (Marina):
Even though Dune (the book) was made twelve years before the first Star Wars, it took twenty years for a movie to be produced. The 1984 movie came out and only made $27.5 million in the box office while Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope made a whopping $775.8 million. Which is better? The more commercially successful one that came later on or the less popular one that came first?
Since the Dune book has roughly 700 pages, they could not fit all of the stories in one movie, so they are making a total of three. The book gave more background and insight into the characters than the film. I, personally, have not read the book, but from my experiences with movies adapted from books, the movie seemed very fast-paced. With all this considered, the movie was still extremely well made and seemed to be an accurate depiction of the first third of the book.
In contrast, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was an original screenplay written by George Lucas. Thus, the story was always intended to fit within the time constraints of a single movie. However, it grew so popular that they decided to make three trilogies. It was a very progressive movie for its time. It’s cutting-edge special effects made it look more realistic than its predecessors.
While these movies don’t seem alike at all on a superficial level, when you take a deeper look, more similarities are there. First of all, both main characters are males with common four-letter names, Luke Skywalker and Paul Atreides. They both are boys looking for more than the life they have can provide. Along with that, the main planet of each movie is a desert that no one enjoys going to for very long, Tatooine and Arrakis. Both universes have a group of very strict religious people, the Jedi/Sith and the Bene Gesserit. These strict religious groups have powers that ordinary people don’t have, The Force (controlled using gestures) and The Voice (controlled by voice commands). The main villain in the movies are both older, bald men with pale faces that need breathing chambers, Darth Vader and Baron Harkonnen. Both boys have a man they look up to that sacrifices himself to the bad guy, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Duncan Idaho. Both boys train using long, close combat weapons, lightsabers, and blades. Both villains have supersoldiers in white armor, Stormtroopers, and the Sardaukar. Both desert planets have dangerous, tan-colored beasts without legs, Sarlacc (live in the Great Pit of Carkoon) and Sandworms (live thousands of miles underground). There could be even more similarities in future movies, but for now, that’s all I found.
The real question is, was this all a coincidence?
How the trailer was misleading (Liz):
The trailer was just *chef’s kiss.* Ask anyone, they will tell you that that trailer makes “Dune” look phenomenal. But once you actually watch it, you get a little confused. Zendaya was highly advertised. If you viewed the trailer prior to watching the movie and/or having slim to no knowledge of the story, you would have never known that Timothee Chalamet was the actual lead. The trailer just did not focus on what it should have.
A freshman’s biased opinion (Liz):
Okay, let’s agree on one thing. This movie was very confusing. Don’t get me wrong, the cinematography is stunning. But there were so many little details that made the rest of the plotline confusing. I thought Zendaya was going to be in the majority of the movie, but that was not the case. A quick Google search will let you know that Zendaya was only in the movie for 7 minutes. The producers fooled us, just like how Marvel tricked the Harry Styles fans into seeing Eternals. Some parts were understandable, but the majority left people lost. Maybe it’s the lack of context that that film provides. Hopefully the next two or so movies that they will soon produce tie it all together and make it easier to understand.
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