You need to watch 2021's most important sci-fi epic on HBO Max ASAP

But while Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One has a fair amount of detractors, critics largely found that the supposedly unmakeable movie works. (As long as you split it in two.)

Dune: Part One wrestles with these same concepts, but has one major advantage in that it can simply show viewers their effects, rather than needing to explain their particulars to readers.

That might mean you come away from Dune with a fuzzy understanding of sandworms or the Bene Gesserit, but it makes for a much less taxing experience.

What makes this light-touch approach work is Dune’s focus on its characters.

You don’t need to learn everything about the world of Arrakis to understand the journey of Paul Atreides and the Fremen.

Even with a muted color palette, Villeneuve delivers cinematic sights that need to be seen to believed (and still look great if you’re watching on a TV screen).

It’s not just empty visual calories, either. Dune’s incredible cinematic flourishes help sell the majesty of Arrakis and how its society functions much quicker than pages of exposition would.

Fantastic performances from Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, and Zendaya pull off a similar trick, fleshing out their characters without the need to dive into their inner monologues.