Dune trailer review: the ups and downs and epic sandworm cameos

After much waiting, the first trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune it’s finally here. It has an almost unbelievably star-studded cast – there’s everyone from Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet to Jason Momoa and Oscar Isaac, along with stunning set design and, yes, gigantic sandworms. But it is also based on a classic sci-fi novel that has been infamously difficult to adapt for the big screen. Which raises an important question: how does The verge How do the staff feel about our first look at the movie?

So what do we think of the trailer?

Russell Brandom (policy editor): I’m tentatively pretty! The sandworm is awesome! The pain box / gom jabbar sequence looks extremely good, and the fact that it’s been given such a prominent location in the trailer makes me feel like Villeneuve really understands the story (in a way that maybe he didn’t for Bounty hunter). Even small details like crocheted Bene Gesserit veils feel good.

Chaim gartenberg (News editor): [chanting] Sandworm Sandworm Sandworm SANDW-

… So, you could say that I’m quite excited about the sandworm. But the cast looks fantastic too, and Villeneuve’s penchant for muted colors and massive scale seems to fit perfectly with something the size of Dune.

Megan Farokhmanesh (reporter): The trailer includes all the things you would probably want from him as a fan: sandworm! “Fear is the murderer of mind!” Oscar Isaac with a thick daddy beard! But mostly I can’t imagine that it makes much sense to anyone who hasn’t read the brick that is Dune. There is so much tradition and political intrigue in the story that it will be difficult to fit into one movie, much less two. Everything looks beautiful, dusty, and over the top. I have no idea if this will be good or a beautiful train wreck. I’m in.

James vincent (senior reporter): Much ditto. I love the casting; i love costumes; I was even getting into the kind of musical-theater-number-climate soundtrack they had. Was it really Hans Zimmer? And what does the choir sing? “Everything you create / Everything you destroy / Everything you do / Everything you say.” Those are my morning affirmations from now until I hit theaters.

Julia Alexander (reporter): Being one of the few people on staff who hasn’t read DuneI apparently cannot provide any detailed information on what the advancement means for Dune like an everything. But! I can judge the trailer as a trailer. In short: the drug of the trailer. It’s super gothy. People seem sad, angry and determined: my favorite emotions for the characters in a great space plummeting (I guess this takes place in space), fantasies about power struggles.

From Stan’s perspective, which is really what I bring to this discussion, I also totally agree with Oscar Isaac as ruler and father who is losing everything. Feed me the drama !! Timotheé Chalamet is pretty cool too, even if his formal wear reminds me of Tom Hiddleston in Guillermo del Toro. Crimson peak. And my girl Zendaya (this is where I hook up HBO Euphoria, a show that earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Actress) starring some kind of warrior, maybe? Again, I haven’t read the book, so I’m not sure what’s really going on beyond maybe some kind of war. But I promise to read it now.

Dieter bohn (executive editor): What excites me about the cast is putting so many prominent characters in roles that would be so easy to put aside in the movie. I love Gurney and Ducan, but the truth is that if I were adapting the book to a movie, I would drop one or both. It seems this movie is not doing that.

Megan: I, for one, am thankful that Dieter is not adapting this story.

Warning: Dune spoilers as of this moment.

What did we not see? What are we waiting for? What concerns us?

Russell: At this point, I’m more curious about what the movie does with Leto. Villeneuve has said that his film will only cover the first half of the book, which means that Leto’s death will come much closer to the end than in most adaptations. Newly played Oedipus on Zoom, Oscar Isaac seems to really sink his teeth into the role of a good, doomed man. Paul de Chalamet is so young that you can imagine his pain as he watched Leto’s house weaken and collapse. Other adaptations haven’t been able to do Leto justice, but given the split adaptation, Isaac could easily steal the show.

Megan: Where’s Feyd !!! You’re going to make us wait until the second movie, right?

Chaim: I’m a little concerned about shield combat.

Dieter: I’m completely in a panic from shield combat and combat in general. The whole thing feels too much like an action movie and adrenaline-pumping rather than weird and arcane, which is how it reads in the book. And I don’t think movies should copy the book, but the weirdness of shield combat is essential to themes of war in general.

Chaim: Right. It feels like they want to have some kind of Star Wars-is you fight with lightsabers, and this is what they decided. Definitely curious to see what it looks like in larger chunks outside of a short clip here.

Russell: It feels a lot like Villeneuve’s overall aesthetic: creepy, vaguely unsettling, but mostly to look cool. This was basically the vibe of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, who used it for very different purposes. I’m not too concerned about that here, but it also brings up what I’m most curious about. Do you think we will see a guild navigator?

James: I’d love to see weird browsers on screen, but maybe they’re saving it for later. The future evolution of the human race and the ways it can be twisted or redeemed is such an important theme in the series and the Navigators are one such example. But I’d understand if Villeneuve wants the first film to focus more on the classic Fall Of Great Houses theme. Separately, I must say that I was not actually a huge fan of scattered environments. I know it sounds like a stupid complaint for a story set on a literally desert planet, but many of my memories from the book are rooted in smaller spaces: the Fremen caves, the castle training rooms, and the Harkonnen lair. Not everything has to happen with minimalist austerity, and I still love David Lynch’s film adaptation for leaning toward that imperial baroque aesthetic.

Dieter: So how do you think the movie is going to address some of the cultural insensitivity (to put it mildly) present in the novel? I see the trailer used the word “crusade” instead of “jihad”, which are very loaded terms! Treating Fremen people and how the movie navigates adjusting them (or not) is going to be tricky.

Chaim: I have a suspicion that they will simply try to avoid problems as much as possible. Freman’s war isn’t until the second half of the book, and the real “jihad” is more of Paul’s vision at the end of the novel than the events described in the book. Add in the various comments from actors like Oscar Isaac on how the events of the movie are going to be about the rise of “exploited” cultures and I think they are looking to change the narrative.

James: If we talk about “problems” in Dune so I think the whole eugenics subtext is another to add to the pile. When I reread the first book relatively recently, I remember being amazed at how much people talk about things like innate genetic superiority and the importance of lineages. Now, obviously, those things are not presented in a completely uncritical way, but if Villeneuve really wants to capture some of the great scope of the series, he will have to address it. somehow. I’m curious how he’s going to do it.

Megan: As much as I like the book, he also treats all his women like dog shit. (Surprising for a book written in 1965, I know!) I’d love to see her, you know, give some of her characters and cast a more modern treatment.

Russell: In fact i think Dune he is more awake than we think. There’s definitely a bit of White Savior stuff going on with Paul, but the larger story is anti-colonial, about how native populations are exploited for resource extraction and how the occupants misunderstand the ecosystems they exploit. The “intergalactic jihad” issue doesn’t really kick in until Messiah of the dunes, potentially the third entry in a Villeneuve / Dune trilogy, but that could be getting ahead of ourselves.

Dieter: Russell, we don’t talk about any of the Dune aftermath.