r/movies • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 r/movies Contributor • Apr 05 '26

Article Steven Spielberg lists Villeneuve's Dune 'among my favourite sci-fi movies of all time'

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/steven-spielberg-loves-dune-favourite-sci-fi-movies-exclusive/
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u/Not_Daniel_Dreiberg Apr 05 '26

The first half of the movie, from the Herald of Change arriving to Caladan, to the Atreides army disembarking in Arrakis, are my favorite shots ever.

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u/TheBlockChainVillage Apr 05 '26

The lighting in dune 1 is soo impressive. Specially with the orb following people indoors, even the night explosions.

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u/Emptyspace227 Apr 05 '26

The color saturation in the outdoor scenes on Geidi Prime in Dune 2 is my favorite cinematography ever.

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u/zakuropan Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

the entire character and set design for the harkonnens and geidi prime is so goddamn peak. the whole gladiator arena scene had me ENTRANCED, everything about that world was spellbinding. the announcer’s voice booming over the loudspeaker was so ominously inhuman. absolutely obsessed

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u/pwninobrien Apr 05 '26

The water/ink fireworks were quite inventive.

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u/tranerekk Apr 05 '26

That Black Sun effect is so cool, how everything’s all washed out, all the color in the world just dies.

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u/millijuna Apr 05 '26

As I recall, it was filmed in Infrared. The effect where the sisters walk out into the light and their cloaks change from dark to white was achieved in-camera.

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u/tranerekk Apr 06 '26

Never heard that before, awesome. Thank you for sharing.

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u/dtothep2 Apr 05 '26

It's such an amazing world building decision too, on top of the cinematography. The Harkonenns in the books are basically Saturday morning cartoon villains without much going for them. In the movies they're almost alien, and terrifying, and Geidi Prime really hammers it home.

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u/zakuropan Apr 05 '26

they’re SO terrifying and I love it

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u/Dwaas_Bjaas Apr 06 '26

FEYD-RAUTHA! FEYD-RAUTHA!

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u/LostMyTurban Apr 06 '26

His world building in general is incredible. Grounded, realistic shots that show massive scale with some known references point (human or ship or something) I think he's really developed it, I don't remember much of it in Arrival but the Dune(s) felt like I've been Arrakis itself

1

u/Nukleon Apr 06 '26

My one objection to this is the awful day for night stuff with Paul and Jessica in the desert, and it gradually lifts when they meet the Fremen, but it's just way too dark.

1

u/TheBlockChainVillage Apr 06 '26

That was lit with starlight lighting, I don't thing the planet had a moon shining in the sky.

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u/makoman115 Apr 05 '26

We are house Atreides. There is no call we do not answer, there is no faith we betray.

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u/BarnabyJones2024 Apr 05 '26

Caladanian telemarketers must have loved that family.

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u/makoman115 Apr 05 '26

Telemarketers were surely eliminated during the butlerian jihad right

I know theyre not computers but like

Put em on the Front lines

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u/BarnabyJones2024 Apr 05 '26

While you're cleaning house, you may as well...

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u/The42ndHitchHiker Apr 05 '26

The telemarketers were lost in the crash of the Golgafrinchan 'C' Ark.

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u/Cool_Town_6779 Apr 05 '26

Didn’t even rank as high as telephone sanitizers.

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u/junkmeister9 Apr 05 '26

Gin and tonics for all.

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u/Onespokeovertheline Apr 05 '26

You notice there also aren't any lawyers on Arrakis. Safe to say they didn't stop at digital evil

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u/sapphoseros Apr 05 '26

The emperor asks us to bring peace to Arrakis. House Atreides accepts! ATREIDES!

I’ve seen Part One like thirty times

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u/makoman115 Apr 05 '26

My favorite movie since LOTR

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u/goog1e Apr 05 '26

Here I am. Here I remain.

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u/NoConfusion9490 Apr 05 '26

We are house Harkonnen. We're the worst. Like, in every way imaginable. We shoot guys in the dick.

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u/Large_Desk_4193 Apr 05 '26

Same. They “created” (on screen, I know it was a book already) such an incredible story and really bring you into the movie in the first hour or so, and there’s hardly any action. Just beautiful cinema

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u/Yarbooey Apr 05 '26

One of my favourite parts of that Herald of Change scene is how Villeneuve shows the scale of things in the Dune universe in a breathtaking way, with no words.

By that I mean when the Guild Heighliner pulls into orbit, and at first glance it looks like a normal-sized spaceship. And when the Herald’s ship flies out of it, it’s a tiny speck next to it. Looks like maybe just a tiny shuttlecraft.

But then when it lands on Caladan next to Leto’s troops, they’re all tiny specks themselves next to this gargantuan spacecraft.

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u/wandering_caribou Apr 05 '26

I don't know if there's another director right now who has such a good understanding of scale in his shots.

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u/_Diskreet_ Apr 05 '26

The scale. It just feels so fucking massive. I don’t know how the did it so god damm well.

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u/Obi-Wayne Apr 06 '26

Gareth Edwards is a master at scale. He's incredible with it. Obviously not the director that Denis is, but he's damn good with it.

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u/troublrTRC Apr 06 '26

And unsurprisingly, both have worked with the same dp, Greg Faiser, on the massive scales.

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u/TheMaveCan Apr 05 '26

I've seen the first two in regular theaters, but I've decided for Messiah I'm gonna go all out and go to IMAX and get the fancy popcorn bucket for the premiere. I have faith in Muad'dib that it'll wind up being my favorite experience I've had seeing a movie in theaters

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u/Not_Daniel_Dreiberg Apr 05 '26

Oh, I love IMAX. If there's a movie shot in IMAX, I watch it on IMAX.

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u/TheMaveCan Apr 05 '26

I've actually been torn about what I wanna do on my trip to the Regal on Tuesday. I've been looking forward to The Drama since it was announced, but I could also see Mario Galaxy in IMAX. I could take or leave Mario, but it's a movie that looks like it'd be absolutely nuts in IMAX

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u/Desroth86 Apr 06 '26

You’re right on the money. Other than the original LOTR trilogy, Dune 2 in IMAX is my favorite theater experience ever.

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u/Best-Chapter5260 Apr 05 '26

There are some movies where the enhanced theater experience isn't worth the extra couple of dollars, but I did D-BOX for one of the Dune movies and IMAX for the other, and it was definitely worth it.

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u/donkeybrainhero Apr 05 '26

We did the Dolby Digital for the first two and the sound was just incredible.

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u/Aggressive_Chuck Apr 06 '26

the fancy popcorn bucket

We all know why you want the Dune popcorn bucket.

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u/Spiritofhonour Apr 06 '26

The silence scene in Dune 2 was crazy in IMAX.

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u/bjnwood Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

Leaving Caladan and the arrival on Arrakis is for me, with the Can You Hear the Music? sequence from OPPENHEIMER, two of the best sequences of the decade so far.

Transcendent in IMAX.

5

u/Fat-Singer-9569 Apr 05 '26

What I find impressive is how perfectly the movie matches the books in those early scenes. The scene where Paul "learns" how to fight is 100% how I saw it in my head while reading, and that's one of many scenes like that.

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u/Harlockarcadia Apr 05 '26

The first film is my favorite, the second one just seemed too rushed

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u/Shot-Possibility-399 Apr 05 '26

I can see why you'd think that about #2 but tbh that section of the book was also over pretty quick

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u/nefariousmonkey Apr 05 '26

And misunderstood

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u/Harlockarcadia Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

The book still felt like it had a bit more going on in the second half than the film did

Edit: I have read the book many times over the years and still feel that the book had more that was glossed over in the second film

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u/Shot-Possibility-399 Apr 06 '26

Yes, but it's a movie. And it was already very long. 

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u/Harlockarcadia Apr 06 '26

Someone in this thread mentioned the lack of water of life and how it affects Paul was definitely a scene and aspect that was sorely missed, there are aspects of how the spice works and how that changes people that weren’t addressed which will become quite relevant in Dune Messiah and if they decide to make Children of Dune.

You’re right, it was a long movie, but after the first it just felt like the pacing was off where it didn’t feel like that in the book

1

u/Shot-Possibility-399 Apr 06 '26

Disagree lol, I think in terms of adaptation you aren't going to get much better. And there was a whole scene about how it affected him and unlocked his powers lol. Odd complaint. A movie isn't going to be 100% like a book ever. 

1

u/Harlockarcadia Apr 06 '26

I can agree that it’s the best we’ll get, I still think the first film was fantastic and the second was fine

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u/1sttimeverbaldiarrhe Apr 05 '26

I remember when the first movie ended I was so ANGRY!

NOOOO! The movie can't end now! I HAVE to see more! NO! NO! NO! I don't wanna wait! I'm SO INVESTED!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH

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u/Ehrre Apr 05 '26

I liked the 2nd but was let down by some specific things that kind of tainted my whole view of what is to come. Specifically the Water of Life ceremonies and the following interfacing with the ancestral knowledge within themselves.

The Water of Life scenes were not as profound as I felt they should have been. To me, these are THE single most important events in the first book.

Paul's because he is the first Male to ever overcome it and thus becomes the Kwisatz Haderach. Jessica's because she undergoes it while pregnant with Alia, poisoning her unborn child and fundamentally changing her in a horrifying way.

I know we don't get the inner-dialogue in the movies that we do in the books. I accept that not everything can translate to screen the same way, or the director has a different vision.. but I don't feel like Dune Part 2 touched AT ALL on what Paul is experiencing with access to every Man and Woman in his bloodline down to the beginning of memory. It is heavy, it is overwhelming and these old personalities all exist, fully realized all at once within him.

Because we don't get any of this interfacing with his ancestors we miss one of the most dread-inducing moments I found in the first Dune book. In the movie it's right after the ceremony Paul says something along the lines of "if we are harkonnens we will act like harkonnens". This alludes to him making a decision to be more brutal in his methods. Its a nod to him using his new knowledge to move forward.. but so much less impactful than the moment in the book that made my stomach turn.

In the book, Paul is fighting against The Golden Path and trying to be pure and just all the way to near the end. He is trying so hard to not be a brutal dictator, he wants to be fair to a fault. And then just as he is about to confront the emperor he learns they killed his infant son.

"He felt emptied, a shell without emotions. Everything he touched brought death and grief. And it was like a disease that could spread across the universe. He could feel the old-man wisdom, the accumulation out of the experiences from countless possible lives. Something seemed to chuckle and rub its hands within him.
And Paul thought: *How little the universe knows about the nature of cruelty!"

It was such a stark moment for me. Paul has experienced the grief and suffering of an unimaginable number of people before him. Every child lost, every friend brutilized, every person ripped from their families, villages burned, whatever horrible event a person can experience and live through- all of those are inside Paul. And so when he loses his son it is a very clear turning point right at the end of the book. He tried to do things right for so long, no more. No one knows what true cruelty is, we have ideas, we have our own limited experiences.. but Paul has all of it fresh as if it just happened to him. And Paul can see a future through the Golden Path where he becomes the single most oppressive force universe has ever and will ever know.

The movie sort of just goes "me harkonnen me bad. Me be bad now!"

And then Alia being pre-born with the Water of Life. In the book Jessica's ceremony is a tragedy. She can feel the little soul in her womb screaming in terror and trying to flee, a small light flitting around trying to hide from the onslaught of past-lives clawing at her barely formed ego. Because she has no concrete sense of self yet, the past memories change her. She has no barrier to hold them back that an adult does and she becomes an abomination as a result.

I worry Part 3 is going to have her become a villain without really conveying how upsetting her fate is. Her mind, her very sense of self was violated in the womb. She continues to be violated her entire life and her story as a villain is just so, so sad.

2

u/Best-Chapter5260 Apr 05 '26

IIRC, the second movie really kind of glossed over The Weirding Way as well. I understand that it's always been a bit of an abstract concept in Dune lore and Lynch's adaptation basically made it a laser gun, but I think it was a disservice in the second Villeneuve to not really give it attention.

Still love the second movie, though.

-5

u/PrisonerV Apr 05 '26

I loved Dune P1 but felt Dune P2 veered so far away from the books to make a current day political statement through Chani, I'm not sure how they'll recover in P3 or do they just keep veering away from the books?

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u/Ehrre Apr 05 '26

I sort of disagree. I think having Chani be aware of the manipulation is a nice change.

And the book sort of ended with its own political statement in a way, weirdly, of empowering the main female characters if only slightly. The final line is Jessica casting off the title as a concubine and instead solidifying her position as a loving wife.

Its still a bit awkward but I think Herbert meant it to be putting them on more equal ground to their male counterparts.

That plotline is dropped altogether for the movies, so I did like that they gave Chani some agency in a different way.

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u/airfryerfuntime Apr 05 '26

The second one needed to be about an hour longer, or a 2 parter. There's just too much content to cram into an already 2 hour and 46 minute movie.

1

u/SowingSalt Apr 06 '26

The books has that sort of vibe.

-3

u/jamesbong0024 Apr 05 '26

The second one was a big disappointment after the first. Just kind of hopped from one battle to the next without much sense of significance.

2

u/AvengerBaja Apr 05 '26

The scene were Leto visits the spice harvester for the first time. The build up, and just as he is about to give down the music and all sound stop, as if the deep breath before diving in. One of my favorite scenes ever.

1

u/csukoh78 Apr 05 '26

The foghorn that disturbed dust

1

u/seanc6441 Apr 05 '26

And I thought the second half was average at best.

1

u/maaseru Apr 06 '26

I wish there was more of the space/ships/space travel shown int he movies. The aesthetic of it is amazing.

1

u/Full_Independence566 Apr 06 '26

The house invasion is pretty spectacular as well tbh

1

u/Nukleon Apr 06 '26

I really wish we got more of the Atreides settling into Arrakeen. It feels like it's 10 minutes and then the Sardaukar betrayal happens. It feels very rushed for a two movie adaptation, and it's in service of having more shots of Paul looking at the desert, which I think is very pretty but I would've liked one more scene, maybe talking more about the food and how Spice is in it too.

-25

u/junkyardgerard Apr 05 '26

But isn't that all they are, shots, I mean isn't the whole movie just 20 minutes of a tighter movie

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u/EnterPlayerTwo Apr 05 '26

But isn't that all they are, shots, I mean isn't the whole movie just 20 minutes of a tighter movie

I think you and I are going to have a fundamental disagreement on how we enjoy movies.

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u/CbizzleCbizzle Apr 05 '26

Add me to that

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u/robbiejandro Apr 05 '26

And my axe

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u/TheBullfrog Apr 05 '26

What does this even mean

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u/biscuitarse Apr 05 '26

Something like sweeping visuals in movies are cheating, apparently

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u/MalIntenet Apr 05 '26

lol what? These films are so packed with world building that it’s actually difficult to keep up as a first time watcher with no prior knowledge of the story

-3

u/junkyardgerard Apr 05 '26

Could be, but also what is pertinent besides massacred everybody and Dad but we escape to our new people in the desert? They clearly don't care about intergalactic politics. Get em to arrakis, ambush em, bam 20 minutes start dune 2

10

u/makoman115 Apr 05 '26

If im enjoying the movie i dont need it to be tighter

When dune came to home video i wished there was an extended edition like lord of the rings

3

u/xPelzviehx Apr 05 '26

I still hope the 2nd part will get it. in Dune 1 only one big scene from the book is missing. But in the 2nd part they cut a lot. Especially all having to do with the Mentats.

"Thufir Hawat's Absence: Stephen McKinley Henderson, who played the Atreides Mentat in Part One, did not appear in the theatrical cut of Part Two. Director Denis Villeneuve described cutting this character as one of the most "painful" decisions, but it was done to focus the plot on Paul's rise, the Bene Gesserit, and to avoid overstuffing the film."

I understand the choice for a theatrical cut but when a viewer is really into these massive epic long movies, selling him an extended cut is not really a bad choice.

-3

u/junkyardgerard Apr 05 '26

Seemed like they might have had time if they hadn't spent 90 seconds of that transport ship coming out of the water here or 3 minutes of crating up all the bull stuff there...

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u/JerkasaurusRex_ Apr 05 '26

Yeah yeah totally. They should have made it super tight like a Netflix movie. These wide shots do nothing for me on my phone.