Planet Dune

• Directed by Glenn Campbell and Tammy Klein
• October 29, 2021 (Poland)

A rescue crew finds themselves hunted by giant worms on a desolate planet.

Do you ever watch a movie because you don’t want to use your brains at all? Well if you ever do that then this is a movie for that occasion. Despite trying to piggyback off of the high concept Dune it has absolutely nothing in common with it. Not even deep thinking. It is not even a shallow rip-off of the film. Other than the story’s main threat anyway.

The plot centers on rule breaking pilot Astrid (Emily Killian) who has repeatedly been busted down for disobeying orders (yet it was always the correct decision). Is this the ‘80s because that is a plot element straight from that awesome decade though Planet Dune lacks the awesome that the decade had. Astrid is now at the lowest rung she possibly can be at which is working a rescue ship in a backwater area.

Astrid finds herself on her first outing heading to Planet Dune (not THAT Dune) to rescue a downed ship that sent out an SOS. There she and the attractive crew encounter giant worms on Planet Dune (not THAT Dune) and must defeat them in order to get off the planet alive and save the surviving crew members.

Maybe it was meant as a joke. Maybe nobody thought ahead on it, but we have Sean Young in the cast as Astrid’s commanding officer Captain Chase. In Dune 1984 she played Chani. In this movie she is the disappointed parental boss that watches over Astrid and is more plot device than character. Much like action bosses in ‘80s movies.

This is a mockbuster meant to get you to watch by tricking you into thinking it was somehow like the better/actually good product. Back in the day they leaned heavily into nudity and just sex. Such a lowbrow move would have only helped Planet Dune. The acting is mediocre at a good point and just plain bad at the rest. Then again this is a mockbuster and not a serious effort so they’re just trying to cash in on the better property. You make it for as cheap as you possibly can and that means the cheapest (and least talented) actors you can find.

Vasquez Rocks is a well-used location, having appeared in numerous shows and films. It has for example made a few appearances in Star Trek as various planets as well as Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and now here. And that is largely the only actual location with the cave shots (where too much of the story happens) appearing to be greenscreen. And it makes this look cheap. Or maybe you pick up on it because the acting is bad and the story is just an unnecessarily stretched out survival yarn done poorly.

In contrast to the crappy greenscreen, the pure space shots looked very good. They could give some of the best higher-end productions a run for their money but this is not a space based story. This is stuck on a planet tinted red at times by a lens filter.

At no point is there any tension in this story. Maybe it’s because the acting is not that good. Or maybe because you do not care about anybody or anything. It has all the elements to have at least an interesting story. This should at least be a guilty pleasure, but it cannot make it that far. Planet Dune doesn’t feel like a movie, but more like a two-part episode of a bad syndicated television series. Often we are expected to already know the characters and the general situation in large part.

Planet Dune is an actioner that never reaches its minimal potential. It doesn’t have tension and fails to hold your interest in the most minimal of ways. You should be disappointed but you will never have cared enough to reach that point. Skip!