My mini-review of DUNE. (See it in theaters.)

Short version: I understand that some people out there are bound and determined to pretend that there is no appreciable difference between watching a movie in theaters and watching it at home “with a good sound system*.” I feel a great and terrible pity for those people right now, because you need to watch DUNE in theaters for the first time.

Slightly longer version: it was a good movie. Good acting, excellent sets, the script was remarkably faithful to the book. Somewhat different aesthetic than the Lynch DUNE, but you knew that going in. As to which one is better: the question’s unfair. Lynch had to put the entire book into one movie, and Villeneuve is rolling the dice on whether he’s ever going to get to finish his story. I suspect that they probably would be content to sit together over a bottle of fine brandy, and toast each other for making good DUNE movies.

By all means, go see DUNE. In theaters. Save that HBOMax junk for the second viewings.