Dune
Watched 27 March 2026
I always wondered how this movie managed to fit the whole book into little more than two hours. Turns out it never could. Scenes go by so quickly and disjointedly that it feels more like watching a weird music video that’s left up to interpretation. If you take away all the dialogue and leave only the sound effects and Toto score, it probably works very nicely as a Heavy Metal-style psychedelic rock opera trip.
I didn’t think it was possible, but the ASMR whispers of characters’ thoughts managed to bring my least favorite aspect of Herbert’s writing to the big screen.
It’s fascinating how faithful to the original book it can get. Lynch was seemingly uninterested in, or unable to, bring his own flavor to the story, only really imprinting his personality on the aesthetics. And it seems to me like Lynch’s aesthetics turn really goofy when he is using them to illustrate a story that’s so clearly not his own.