So why, for all of its unparalleled immensity, does watching “Dune” amount to the cinematic equivalent of being handed a novelty-sized check made out for six dollars? Why is the scope of Villeneuve’s dream betrayed by the dull shallowness of its reality to the point that his film’s most astounding effects - which are every bit as tactile and transportive as those in “Blade Runner 2049” - feel more like optical illusions? Why does this “Dune” feel so small? Even yoked kings Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista look like tabletop miniatures when placed against its backdrops, as if cinematographer Greig Fraser discovered a way to shoot deep focus and tilt-shift at the same time.

How big is “Dune”? We’re talkin’ slabs upon slabs of angular concrete as far as the eye can see, spaceships that seem to displace entire oceans when they emerge from the seabeds of Caladan, and sandworms so large they could eat the Graboids from “Tremors” like bar nuts.

New Movies: Release Calendar for December 22, Plus Where to Watch the Latest Films Such are the pitfalls of making a movie so large that not even its director can see around the sets. For all of Villeneuve’s awe-inducing vision, he loses sight of why Frank Herbert’s foundational sci-fi opus is worthy of this epic spectacle in the first place. Likewise, no story - let alone the misshapen first half of one - could ever hope to support the enormity of what Villeneuve tries to build over the course of these interminable 155 minutes (someone mentions that time is measured differently on Arrakis), or the sheer weight of the self-serious portent that he pounds into every shot. In the end, Denis Villeneuve was all too right: Your television isn’t big enough for the scope of his “ Dune,” but that’s only because this lifeless spice opera is told on such a comically massive scale that a screen of any size would struggle to contain it.

will release the film in theaters and streaming on HBO Max on Friday, October 22. Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2021 Venice Film Festival.

Dune remake