Dune (2021) review

This is about the 2021 movie. 

My first opinion is, the movie was slow, but that's not a bad thing. It took the time to introduce me to Paul, his family, Duncan and more. I liked that. There wasn't a lot of action but the action there was I enjoyed.

When I checked Wikipedia I realized the story was serialized in 1963 so it had to keep people interested, but if it was included with other, faster stories it could continue on without dropping major bombshells every few chapters.

Back to the movie. I sympathized with Paul (even if I thought the actor was a bit dull). He wants his dream woman. His mother wants him to be a powerful creature, his father wants him to be the next leader. Duncan wants him to be himself. Everyone wants something from him, but he is unsure what he wants. The story builds up to his heroic journey ending on the incident that starts him on the path. The next movie should show how he goes down it. 

That said, it's not the kind of movie I want to watch again. It is a cross between The Warlord of Mars and Laurance of Arabia. An outsider heads to a strange world and is heralded as the saviour. He is, of course male and white. When I read those stories I am struck by how tired that troupe is. As I get older I find myself moving away from these heroic journey kinds of stories. I still enjoy them once in a while but not all the time. (Although that is basically all the Marvel movies are and I have watched them repeatedly.) 

In addition I considered reading the book. While the movie only covered about half of the first book there are apparently still two thirds of a story left. When I started watching the Wheel of Time on Amazon I kept comparing the TV show to the books. "This is wrong." or "No! They don't have sex." "Perrin is married? What??" If I read the Dune books I will probably have the same reactions. I don't want that. 

So my final opinion is Dune was a good story with great characters and a wonderful world, but ultimately I don't think I can get into it.