Villeneuve’s fealty to the core ideas of the book and to the unique textures of Herbert’s universe exceeds Lynch’s, but at the same time he takes many more liberties with Herbert’s infamously ponderous dialogue: Here, actors like Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, and Josh Brolin (who respectively play Duke Leto Atreides, Paul’s father, and the warriors Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck, who serve as surrogate uncles to Paul) are given quippy, Hollywood-friendly lines. The trailers make this last feature seem like it might get annoying, but in the actual film, it serves to keep the audience grounded in an otherworldly universe.

Herbert’s protagonists, many of whom possess heightened mental abilities, frequently think to themselves