Dune

The extensive world in Lynch's hands turns into a depressive and simplified pseudo-saga. After just a few minutes, fateful decisions about the future of many people are thrown at me, allowing previously completely unknown main characters to utter heroic wisdom and emphasizing the atmosphere with exaggerated bizarre elements. In other words, Lynch precisely "lynches" his viewer according to the clearest assumptions, but in the sci-fi genre, it is noticeably less functional than in mysterious thrillers or dramas. And the detached and questionable sublimity is saved by the perfectly fitting ideal hero Kyle MacLachlan and, above all, by Dune itself. Visually hypnotic Arrakis, with its huge specters, can completely absorb everyone and, at least for a moment, make them feel that what is happening on the screen actually makes sense. (12/02/2007)

It wasn't so bad until the attack on the base... after that it was. Although I liked the seriousness with which David Lynch and Co. tried to shoot Dune, the often unintentionally ridiculous result of their efforts unfortunately does not quite match. However, I want to add a little gleefully that it is a faithful adaptation of the book after all - the book bored me quite similarly. I prefer not to talk about the confused story and annoying all-explanatory inner voices, nor will I criticize Sting, for example, and I will try to forget about his role. (02/26/2017)

Dino de Laurentis would probably be rolling in his grave if he saw what his daughter put all those millions into. Lynch's version is hard to digest, it's a non-conceptual drivel that doesn't capture the spirit of the brilliant source material at all, it gets bogged down in irrelevant nonsense and takes shortcuts on important things. But there are some great moments. The scene when the Muad´Dib swallows the living water is excellent, here Lynch showed his visual imagination to the fullest. Brian Eno also deserves an accolade for the impressive central musical motif Prophecy Theme. Otherwise, ignore it, because this is not worthy of Frank Herbert's legacy. The little known TV miniseries from 2000 is several orders of magnitude better. (10/19/2003)

If you are familiar with Lynch's newer films, you are probably surprised that he would even try to make something like "Dune". First of all, it is an incredibly interesting material that has not yet been successfully adapted to the screen. And probably never will be. It's too extensive, too complicated, too demanding, and the outcome is uncertain. This applies to Lynch's case. There are beautiful scenes that are clearly his work, but as a whole, the film doesn't work and can't work. I don't know how it would have turned out if the version he wanted had been released, but it's already evident how outdated the film is. If you're not familiar with the source material, it's quite easy to get lost in the story, as well as to not understand it. Lynch tried, but eventually he had to understand himself that this is not something he wants to do, and how he wants to do it. It's not a huge disaster, but it doesn't fit Lynch's style. Moreover, despite the huge budget, it often feels incredibly intimate and cheap. This doesn't suit such a sci-fi film. (03/04/2014)

David Lynch is one of my favourite directors and I love science fiction, but this is awful. I haven’t read the book and in the first hour I was unable to grasp who is who, who does what and what is going on… and then I didn’t even bother. One of the very few films where I needed fast-forward to get to the end. A star for the amazing sandworms. Lost Highway, Eraserhead and other Lynch’s films are hard to understand and it’s their strength, but in this case the story should have been more clearly told. Fail AF. (08/25/2011)