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 "Dune" debuted at the Venice
Film Festival on Friday and will hit theaters
and the HBO Max streaming service on Oct. 22.
The movie is adapted from Frank Herbert's 1965
novel about an intergalactic battle to control a
precious resource.
The book was made into a heavily panned 1984
film directed by David Lynch. Fans hoped that
the new movie from Denis Villeneuve would
capture more of the spirit of Herbert's work.
Starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, the film
"earns five stars for world-building and about
two-and-a-half for storytelling," said Variety
film critic Owen Gleiberman. "It's not just that
the story loses its pulse. It loses any sense
that we're emotionally invested in it."
Eighty-five percent of 27 reviews collected on
the Rotten Tomatoes website were labeled
positive as of Friday afternoon.
Some predicted that the movie would compete for
Oscars in cinematography and other technical
categories.
Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph called it
"science-fiction at its most majestic,
unsettling and enveloping" and Xan Brooks of The
Guardian lauded the film as "blockbuster cinema
at its dizzying, dazzling best."
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 Entertainment Weekly's Leah
Greenblatt awarded the movie a "B" grade.
"If you're already knee-deep in Herbert
mythology, you'll thrill to every whispered
word; if you come in not knowing the difference
between a Holtzman shield and a hole in the
floor, it's a longer walk," Greenblatt said.
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also said
the "arcane" details might delight "Herbert
geeks, but will have most everyone else zoning
out."
"It doesn’t quash the frequent claim that the
book is unfilmable," he added. "At least not in
part one of what is being billed as a two-part
saga."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Mark
Porter)
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