‘Dune,’ unfortunately, is not one of those. He’s an overloader, and only the keenest and most urgent of scripts can survive beneath that weight. Even ‘Arrival,’ his most successful big-budget film, groans under the tremendous onus of his construction. But Villenueve can’t help but lacquer it all up into something hyper polished and hard to the touch. “With ‘Dune,’ Villeneuve has the chance to right the wrongs of David Lynch’s 1984 misfire (a misfire according to some, anyway) and truly honor Herbert’s text. Lawson hoped that the new movie would be a chance to re-set “Dune” from it’s much-maligned, former film adaptation. A shame, then, that it feels like a drag in its back half.” “This is a technically brilliant, visually amazing movie with a top-notch cast and deep sci-fi concepts. Such are the pitfalls of making a movie so large that not even its director can see around the sets.”Ĭollura was also let down by the second act of “Dune.” “For all of Villeneuve’s awe-inducing vision, he loses sight of why Frank Herbert’s foundational sci-fi opus is worthy of this epic spectacle in the first place. Viewed in that light, ‘Dune’ is a movie that earns five stars for world-building and about two-and-a-half for storytelling.”Įhrlich had a slightly colder take, calling hype “the mind-killer” and tweeting that the pic was a “massive disappointment.” ‘Blade Runner,’ in its way, is an amazing movie, but its world-building packs more punch than its transcendental neo-noir noodlings. In the first two ‘Star Wars’ films, those dynamics were in perfect sync they were, as well, in ‘The Dark Knight’ and the ‘Mad Max’ films.

It’s one in which the world-building is awesome but not more essential than the storytelling. “Here’s one useful definition of a great sci-fi fantasy film. Gleiberman wrote that “Dune” is “spectacular and engrossing … until it isn’t.”

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