Warner Bros.Before 2021, Dune was, in many ways, a lot like The Lord of the Rings was prior to the year 2001. Like Tolkien’s epic stories of Middle-earth, it is undeniable that Frank Herbert’s Dune saga was influential and pivotal in the history of science fiction. Not only did Herbert’s first three Dune novels penetrate a larger readership outside of science fiction circles, but the themes, world-building, and pure originality were like nothing else in the genre before. You can’t out-Dune Dune, which is why the saga has remained so singular since 1963, when the first installment of “Dune World” was published in Analog. But important and singular are not the same as mainstream and popular. Before 2021, with the release of Dune: Part One, relative to other sci-fi franchises (like Star Trek, Star Wars, or Doctor Who), Dune still felt niche. While the 1984 David Lynch film had a cult following, and the books have never been out of print, it was hard to say whether a new mainstream film based on Dune would succeed on a larger scale. But it did. Sort of. And five years later, Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune film remains both glorious and a strange example of a new status quo when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy epics. Because for all of the brilliance of the Villeneuve Dune films, the movies are extremely safe, and in retrospect, a little bit too dull to carry the true spiciness of Dune.Dune (2021) was saved by the global box office Simon Shin/SOPA Images/ShutterstockIt’s hard to remember this now, since Dune: Part Two (2024) was such a success at the box office, but the first film — which had not yet been subtitled “Part One” — struggled at the U.S. box office, and that’s because, just one year after the COVID lockdowns, Dune was released directly on HBO Max at the same time it hit theaters. Villeneuve was furious about this, and even penned an op-ed in 2020, shaking his fist at the decision. His concern was valid: his take on Dune was a movie event, which means it needed to be treated as a movie, rather than a streaming sci-fi thing people could watch and forget.And, essentially, the U.S. box office numbers reflect a shoulder-shrug from the general public. You could blame COVID if you really wanted to; that’s not really it. This is the same year that Spider-Man: No Way Home did $500 million at the domestic box office ($1.9 billion worldwide), and Black Widow beat James Bond, even though it too was released directly on Disney+ at the same time it hit theaters. Dune isn’t even in the top 10 for U.S. box office numbers in 2021; it’s 13th, right behind Godzilla vs. Kong. Two spots ahead of it? Jungle Cruise. Yes, Jungle Cruise beat Dune easily in 2021 at the box office, proving that given the option of staying at home to watch a sci-fi adaptation from the guy who directed Blade Runner 2049 (a massive box office bomb, mind you), people would take that option. But elsewhere in the world, where HBO Max wasn’t yet a thing, audiences did turn out for Dune in the theater. Hilariously, it was still 11th globally in 2021, with $402 million overall, which meant it basically tied with Eternals. Against a budget of $165 million, though, this meant Dune was a success, but realistically, its impact in the U.S. was muted at best. Did U.S. fans converted by Dune in 2021 turn out to see Dune: Part Two in 2024 because they had missed seeing the first film in the theaters? Does that explain why Dune: Part Two did so much better? Maybe, maybe not. Because in reality, the global box office is really what’s making these movies into massive hits. In 2021, Dune did 93 million at the U.S. box office. In 2024, Dune: Part Two did $282 million in the US, but $700 million worldwide. So, the pattern has held: the global audience turns up in the theater more than the U.S. audience, which, if you’re making bets for 2026, when Avengers: Doomsday goes head-to-head with Dune: Part Three, even a Bene Gesserit would tell you to put your money on the Avengers.Dune (2021) is good, but is it Dune?Oscar Isaac and Denis Villeneuve discuss Dune in 2021. | Gregory Pace/ShutterstockMoney talk aside, the triumph of the 2021 Dune is that it’s the most faithful movie version of Dune that also can be watched by normal people. The actual most faithful version of a filmed Dune is the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel version directed by John Harrison, which, for certain kinds of fans, has never been topped in its utter devotion to the source material. Frank Herbert would have probably preferred Villeneuve’s, but Frank Herbert was also an environmentalist who insisted on flying first class. Which is kind of a good metaphor for Dune (2021) more broadly — it feels like a super deep movie for people who maybe haven’t read the book, which is fine, but that doesn’t change what it is. This is perhaps the biggest understatement of all time, but Villeneuve and screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth aren’t remotely in the same league of writing as Frank Herbert. In talking about aspects of the final moments of the first novel, including the massive battles and even some lines spoken by Lady Jessica, Herbert later referred to certain sections as “high camp.” And, when you allow that unhinged claim to sink in, it sort of makes sense: Dune’s depth and intelligence rely on its quirkiness and perhaps the fact that Herbert is sort of messing with you. Perhaps because Lynch actually met Herbert, he seemed to understand this, which is why the greatest thing about his 1984 Dune is the perfect blend of earnestness and camp. Even Harrison’s 2000 miniseries seems to get this; Dune is perhaps not supposed to be so deadly serious all the time, otherwise it loses its Dune-y-ness. Villeneuve, as a filmmaker, is incapable of this kind of artistic contradiction. He couldn’t do camp if he tried. His movies are very plain and have very obvious and clear readings. While Herbert’s books intentionally confuse you about how to feel morally and politically (this is a compliment, by the way), Villeneuve’s preferred readings of storylines and plots in his sci-fi films (especially in Blade Runner 2049 and Dune: Part Two) are on-the-nose and almost preachy. In this way, Dune: Part One is his best film because it’s almost entirely world-building, setting up the story, so he doesn’t have time to smuggle in his simplified versions of the messages and themes. In Part Two, when he had the chance to start making these themes clearer, he wasted no time in turning Paul’s ascension to a messianic figure into a reductive plot device: Some Fremen are more fundamentalist than others, and so all Paul has to do his activate the extremists. This idea is not from Herbert, by the way, because Herbert’s point was that anyone can become radicalized. Villeneuve, in a cowardly move, would rather have us think that’s not true, and some people are just good, and thus, Dune: Part Two becomes a somewhat faithful adaptation of the second half of the book, which also totally misses the point of the book while somehow telling the story without changing it that much.But again, Part One doesn’t have this problem because Villeneuve is correctly taking his time building the world. This makes this film slower and more methodical than its sequel (or second part), which, in retrospect, makes it almost cozy.Will Dune (2021) be considered a modern sci-fi classic?Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho in Dune. | Warner Bros.Cozy or not, is Dune (2021) good enough to stand the test of time? I would say the answer there is a clear no. While Villeneuve’s vision of Arrakis feels like a miracle in faithfulness to longtime fans, it’s also, at least from a design perspective, not nearly as audacious as the source material suggests. As a movie, it simply doesn’t feel special, at least not in the way other sci-fi movies feel special. The stillsuits are sort of a great microcosm for this: While everything about them looks functional and correct, are these costumes as cool as the Bob Ringwood-crafted stillsuits for the 1984 film? To put it another way, if you took the stillsuits from the modern Dunes, and put them in a Christopher Nolan sci-fi movie, or, heaven forbid, one of the Zack Snyder Rebel Moon movies, they would not look all that out of place. This is also, sadly, true of many of the larger, expansive sets on Arrakis; you could easily squint and imagine you’re watching an episode of Foundation, which is, side note, a show that is doing what the Villeneuve Dune movies should have done: turned the whole thing into a sprawling, seemingly never-ending TV series.Still, outside of Rebecca Ferguson’s dresses, there’s very little to recommend in terms of overall production design for Villeneuve’s first Dune. Yes, the sandworms look more realistic in these films, but since we barely see a sandworm in the first film, I can’t really award any points there. Plus, although the sandworm looks right and the plot is mostly correct, is there anything, really, about the 2021 Dune that feels surprising or interesting, five years later? It’s a perfectly competent movie. But if you know the novel, is it a thrilling or bold adaptation? A hardcore, serious reader will find themselves wanting to say yes (I know I have for several years), but the truth is, Dune: Part One is too self-serious and plodding to be truly great. People like to talk about how slow the book is, but this is a myth. Go read the first chapter right now, and you’ll find it moves quicker than the 2021 film. This is because Herbert wasn’t just writing a novel; he was writing a novel that would be serialized in a magazine, and he understood how to keep a reader’s attention. And so, the hard truth is, the prose of the first part of the original Dune is better paced and more exciting than the 2021 movie in every single way. In the movie, it takes forever for Paul’s hand to get in that box, but Herbert’s got the Reverend Mother showing up to test Paul on basically the first page. When I re-read those opening pages, I can feel the castle on Caladan; I feel the oddness of Paul’s dream. In the 2021 movie, I’m just watching a movie. It’s not immersive. It’s not transportive because — and this sounds really unfair — it’s almost not even trying to be. It’s just trying to film the literalness of the book, which somehow removes the flavor and removes the spice.Knowing that this will bring the wrath of Villeneuve stans the world over, the basic issue with Dune (2021) is the same problem with Blade Runner 2049; it's beautiful, ostentatious, and somehow bland at the same time. Again, it’s not fair to compare a Lynch movie with a Villeneuve movie, but there’s not one single scene in Dune (2021) that is, artistically, just visually, more interesting than the 1984 version. The personal shields might look more realistic than the boxy-weirdness of the 1984 movie, and certain dresses might look less bonkers than the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, but who would actually prefer Josh Brolin’s by-the-numbers Gurney and those boring white tunics? Yes, Jason Momoa is pretty much the only actor to nail Duncan Idaho, but apparently, Villeneuve cut his best scene: A moment in which Idaho scouts Arrakis ahead of time and drops into the titular desert world from orbit. Which, again, feels like another microcosm for where the 2021 Dune lacks bravery: a scene not from the book that would have made sense on a purely cinematic level was cut. Dune (2021) and its sequel are safe sci-fi films that have flaws that read as strengths. This is why Villeneuve and his collaborators are talented; in Dune, every artistic decision is made with confidence, and it comes across in the performances and vibe of the film. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to like these decisions, however. Dune: Part One wants to make us think the spice is the most important thing ever, but we never see a Guild Navigator or really talk about space travel at all. (Again, Lynch, smartly, OPENED with a Guild Navigator in 1984!) The concept of the Mentats is basically non-existent in Villeneuve’s take, meaning our entire conception of “human computers” and “thinking machines” is relegated to the background of the story.This all works, more or less, and it allows Villeneuve to foreground the Bene Gesserit in his version of the story. It’s not wrong or unfaithful, but it’s still incomplete. Five years after the release of this Dune, watching it again feels like the movie itself is using the Bene Gesserit Voice to control your mind into having a more even-tempered opinion: This is a good movie. Don’t ask questions. Put your hand in the box.Dune: Part One streams on HBO Max. Dune: Part Three hits theaters on December 18, 2026.Dune: The Spice Must FlowPenguin -