The reaction to the recent premiere of the first trailer for Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune has been overwhelmingly positive. Still, there are detractors like filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who attempted to make the first adaptation of Dune in the 1970s but ultimately failed to raise the necessary funds.

It was David Lynch who eventually directed the first adaptation of Dune in 1984, which was a box office and critical disaster. In contrast, it's clear that this new adaptation will get it right, even from just the few minutes of footage we've seen.

Lynch has been vocal about the failings of his adaptation, claiming the process was "75 percent a nightmare" and an experience he is still haunted by today. It's because of his personal experiences with the property, that he has stated he has no intention of seeing Villeneuve's Dune. Nonetheless, the 1984 Dune has achieved cult status as a campy, B-grade sci-fi flick that is not entirely without merit, despite Lynch's feelings on the matter

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Dune

The problems with Lynch's Dune are plentiful, but mostly come down to two factors. First, Lynch was denied the final cut of the film, something he had never before (or since) allowed, and the studio attempted to make sense of Lynch's vision without his input. Second -- and this is not an attack on his talent as a filmmaker -- Lynch was just not a good fit for the source material.

The novel, Dune is immense, complicated and precise. Author Frank Herbert had very specific philosophical concepts he was attempting to convey in what some critics of the book consider an overly dense fashion. But Lynch is an avant-garde filmmaker, who revels in metaphorical imagery and ambiguity. The collision of these two styles led to a confusing, clunky film that relied far too heavily on voice-over exposition while Lynch's trademark weirdness derailed the narrative.

Thankfully, Villeneuve has been given the room to properly tell the massive story of Dune across two films, as opposed to one. Beyond simply being a long book, the language and ideas conveyed are incredibly complex and need time to be properly digested and understood.

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Telling the story over two films will help Villeneuve avoid the biggest issue of the 1984 version: it's lack of purpose. When the final cut of the film was released, it was presented as a stereotypical hero story in the vein of Star Wars (which ironically, Dune served as an inspiration for). But that's not at all what Dune is about. On the surface, the story is about Paul Atreides avenging his family and becoming a messiah in the process, but in the novel, Herbert makes it clear this isn't necessarily a good thing.

The "crusade" mentioned in Villeneuve's trailer is a war that will be waged across the cosmos in Paul's name, which terrifies the young Atreides. His prophetic dreams grant him glimpses of this bloody future and Paul spends most of the novel actively fighting against his visions in vain. He learns that prescience is a trap, that by dreaming the future he ensures it will come to pass.

It's unclear how much of this will make it into Villeneuve's adaptation, but in an interview with Stephen Colbert, the director stated that his intention was for his Dune to be an exploration of the power of change. This sentiment is very much in-line with Frank Herbert's book. He uses Paul to to convey the message that people shouldn't wait to be saved, that savior figures are dangerous. Dune is meant to inspire us to have the agency to save ourselves.

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Given the current state of world affairs, Villeneuve seems to be looking to use Dune as a sort of rallying cry. In the same interview with Colbert, stars Timothée Chalemet and Zendaya drew parallels between the struggles their characters face and those of young people around the world. Lynch's Dune was a self-admitted cash grab, but even if Villeneuve's film flops financially, it's already better. It's coming to us with a valuable message at a time where we need more than simple entertainment.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script he co-wrote with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts, Legendary Pictures' Dune stars Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Zendaya as Chani, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Dr. Liet Kynes, Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Dave Bautista Glossu Rabban, David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Stephen Henderson as Thufir Hawat, and Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck. The film arrives in theaters Dec. 18.

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