Dune (2021) 4K Ultra HD/Blu-Ray Combo

(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own)

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WARNING!!

 SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN!!

WARNING!!

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Dune is based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, it was adapted into a 1984 movie by David Lynch, and then a mini-series in 2000, followed by the sequel, Children Of Dune (also a mini-series) in 2003. Apparently, Herbert did not stop at one novel, there are five sequels he wrote: Dune Messiah (1969), Children Of Dune (1976), God Emperor Of Dune (1981), Heretics Of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985). The first two sequels were used for the Children Of Dune mini-series.

I’ll be honest, I was never a fan of Dune, either of the David Lynch version or the mini-series. Although, I thought I’d try again in 2000 to see if I could get into it, figuring an updated version might be more interesting, but it bored me to tears. Based on that reaction I never even watched Children Of Dune. Concerning the ’84 movie, I did see it, and there were certain elements I liked and still remember to this the day: the general concept of a desert planet populated by massive sandworms, and the home of this “drug” called, The Spice I can get on board with, and the weird, voice weapons used. But that’s pretty much it. Ultimately, the 1984 film did nothing for me. I have a friend I’ve known since high school, Chris, who’s a massive fan of Herbert’s novels, but I can’t recall anymore if he was a fan of Lynch’s version. As soon as he reads this I suspect he’ll remind me. So, when news of this new adaptation was announced a few years ago, I told him about it, but he wasn’t all that enthused presuming they were going to fuck it up somehow. I can sympathize with that, I generally feel that way when I hear a new version of anything H.P. Lovecraft wrote is getting made. I didn’t care one way or the other personally, though I did take note of who was directing, Denis Villeneuve. I’m a huge fan of his sequel to Blade Runner (1981), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and thought, well, no matter how much the story might bore me again, visually it’s going to look spectacular, so I was kind of interested in seeing it based solely on that.

Then Chris told me he was planning on seeing it. Right then I decided whatever he says about the flick will determine if I ever plan to review it. Generally, when you have someone in your life who’s a major fan of some literary source material, and knows it like the back of his or her’s hand, you pretty much need to value that opinion, and, so, if Chris hated it—no review! And I assumed he was going to hate it too. But then something really weird happened, he told me he loved it!!

Well, that was unexpected.

And, so, my fate was sealed, a review was going to happen after all. Though, I have to say it boded well that if he loved it I was probably going to love it too. And, yes, that’s exactly what happened, I loved the movie. So, it would seem this 21st century version of Herbert’s novel works for me.

All right, let’s get into this . . . in this universe there are “Houses” that are overseen by an Emperor. We never see this Emperor, he’s only spoken of, maybe in the sequel. The planet Arrakis is crucial to the survival of this universe. It’s a desert planet that produces something called, “The Spice,” it’s in the sand, in the environment. The inhabitants of the planet, the Fremons, use it for food, it makes their eyes very blue, and it’s kind of a consciousness expanding substance. It’s also a crucial component in interstellar travel, the particulars of which are never explained, but without it you don’t get anywhere.

I don’t know how many Houses there are but two are focused on in this flick —House Harkonnen and House Atreides, The Emperor has given Arrakis to the Harkonnens, and they have ruled it for the past 80 years, not to mention gotten rich from it. Then out of the blue he informs the Harkonnens, you’re out and Atreides is in. Obviously this doesn’t go over well with Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), nor does it go over well with Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) of House Atreides. I was wondering why Leto didn’t seem all that enthused with this new position until he gets to the planet and refers to is as “hell hole.” Ah, I get it, he never wanted to rule Arrakis. It would seem with this new role ruling Arrakis means you have to move to the planet, and so Leto takes his concubine Lade Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and their teenage son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) to a new life on this desert world.

The Atreides have a unique role to play in this universe, mostly thanks to the mother. Jessica is part of this order known as the Bene Gesserit. They’ve always reminded me of rogue nuns. They’re also rumored to be the real power behind the power. They influence the Emperor politically on certain matters, and that’s probably due to their ability to us “the Voice,” this power appears to be similar to mind control. And this order is made up solely of women. But, they have this prophecy of one day this male being coming into existence that push mankind to be a better species. And they’ve actively been working towards this outcome for centuries by marrying themselves through various bloodlines of the Houses. This is where Jessica comes in, she took it upon herself to have a son (yeah, these women have such mastery over their bodies they can choose the gender of their child) where she wasn’t supposed to, which puts her at odds a little bit with the order. She also chose to train Paul in the ways of “The Voice,” something he’s only moderately able to do, but he succeeds at it at a very crucial moment where death is on the table for him and his mom.

So, Paul isn’t entirely human (maybe), he has visions of the future, mostly in the form of dreams and they mostly revolve around his future role in the “evolution” of Arrakis. You see, the people that live there don’t want anyone ruling them, even if they need the Spice, and resent those who come down and take it like they already do. I will say, at least, Leto came down to try and make peace, where the Harkonnens I got the impression were full on dictators.

The crux of the movie focuses on Paul realizing what he may be, while his father braces for some kind of retaliation from the Harkonnens, intent on retaking what they see as their livelihood. Things go massively sideways, there’s treason, there’s death on a wide scale, there’s Paul and Jessica trying to survive a desert planet, and there’s a lot of Paul’s visions coming true. Though, since this is a Part One (there’s a trilogy being planned, with the third film set to adapt the first sequel book Herbert wrote called, Dune: Messiah, and a prequel series coming to HBO Max revolving around the creepy Bene Gesserit, called Dune: The Sisterhood), the movie stops with Paul and Jessica joining Arrakis’ freedom fighters.

Even though I didn’t care for the 1984 version, burned in my head is Kyle MacLachlan as Paul and Kenneth McMillan as the Baron. This new version downplays the Baron and make’s him less disgusting looking. I remember he had this pock-marked diseased face in the ’84 version that was hard to look at. Though he’s still fat and uses some kind of ability to levitate at times. I will say, though, I liked 2021 Baron is more sinister and ruthless. MacLachlan was clearly older than Chalamet, so it took a little getting used to see a much younger version of Paul, I’m going to assume that age change is closer to the source material.

As I expected, visually this was a stunning film, and my only quibble was the lack of sandworm action, but I knew that going in, since this is Part One and remembering what I could of the Sandworm action from the ’84 flick, obviously Part Two will see a lot more of them. But what they showed in this first part was impressive nonetheless. They’re teased for most of the flick, until we get a reveal towards the end when one of them rears up and studies Paul for a moment before a “thumper” pulls it away. A good chunk this film is about being educated about life on Arrakis, be it fauna or the Fremon, and I loved that. Get the right filmmaker, the right visual style and the right way to tell such a sweeping story and even I can get swept up in a fictional franchise that at one time never interested me. Yes, I’m a Dune fan now. Well, to an extent, I should stress, I still don’t have any desire to read Herbert’s novels, but I’ll damn well be there will bells on to see any movie/TV show adaptation of them.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has Dune (2021) in release in four separate editions: DVD, Blu-Ray/DVD Combo, 3D Blu-Ray/DVD Combo and a 4K UltraHD/Blu-Ray Combo. All of which can be purchased right now!

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Video/Audio/Subtitles: 2160/1080p 2.39 ultra high definition widescreen—English Dolby Atmos, 7.1 English Dolby TrueHD, 5.1 EnglishDolby Digital, 5.1 French (Canada) Dolby Digital, 5.1 German Dolby Atmos, 7.1 German Dolby TrueHD, 5.1 German Dolby Digital, 5.1 Italian Dolby Atmos, 7.1 ItalianDolby TrueHD,  5.1 Italian Dolby Digital, 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital, 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital, 5.1 Hindi Dolby Digital—English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish subs

Extras Included . . .

Disc #1 (4K Version): 

• None

Disc #2 (1080p Version w/Extras): 

• The Royal House (8:12)
• Filmbooks: House Atreides (2:08)
• Filmbooks: House Harkonnen (1:51)
• Filmbooks: The Bene Gesserit (2:23)
• Filmbooks: The Freman (2:12)
• Filmbooks: The Spice Melange (1:51)
• Inside Dune: The Training Room (5:07)
• Inside Dune: The Spice Harvester (3:12)
• Inside Dune: The Sardaukar Battle (4:04
• Building The Ancient Future (6:26)
• My Desert, My Dune (4:50)
• Constructing The Ornithopters (5:38)
• Designing The Sandworm (5:40)
• Beware The Baron (5:00)
• Wardrobe From Another World (2:52)
• A New Soundscape (11:12)

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For the uninitiated, like myself, this release comes with extras that are educational, with added facts the movie doesn’t reveal, so you’ll learn something new with the Filmbook featurettes, which covers the Dune universe. The rest mostly involve the making of the movie, with some Dune universe knowledge thrown in here and there. All of it was great to take in. Only thing I missed was a commentary. This really should have had one.