Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 14, 2025

If there's one thing that the inimitable The Power of Myth made abundantly clear, it's that there is in essence only "one story", albeit one that is seemingly infinitely "refractable". That may be why so much of Dune: Prophecy is so undeniably reminiscent of so many other properties. Probably jumping immediately to the forefront despite several admittedly huge differences would be Game of Thrones, though perhaps just as and arguably even more saliently a comparison might be made to House of the Dragon, since both that show and this show are putative "prequel" properties and both offer ping ponging timeframes that can jump back and forth giving newly revealed nuances about several key characters. It's also probably salient to note that the ping ponging in both instances can feature focal female characters, and in fact Dune: Prophecy is intentionally rather heavily weighted toward female characters, as one of its central plot conceits is providing a "back story" of sorts of how the Bene Gesserit came to be. It's also salient to note vis a vis Joseph Campbell's assertion about the "singularity" of a hero's quest tale that the original Frank Herbert novel Dune came out more than four decades before George R.R. Martin's first Game of Thrones tome, and so perhaps it would be more accurate in a way to say that Game of Thrones in its book form echoed Dune as much as these television adaptations did in reverse order years later.

Dune: Prophecy has a lot of narrative to wend its way through, and that may be why the series may actually take a while to develop some real momentum. Things may not be especially helped by some opening (and later recurrent) voiceover by Valya Harkonnen (played by Jessica Barden as a young woman and Emily Watson as an middle aged woman in those aforementioned ping ponging elements), which is obviously offered as relatively innocuous info dumps and segueing strategies, though the whole "narration" technique may imply "access" to Valya's inner world that is in actuality probably an illusion. What is kind of intriguing about the structure of the series is that it rather quickly (perhaps too quickly) introduces a supposedly nefarious younger Valya as an acolyte at a kind of nunnery (?), only to jump forward 30 years and reveal Valya to now be the leader of that secretive female society which is obviously the Bene Gesserit in nascent form.

The bottom line is that a "prophecy" delivered to the young Valya has made her convinced that the "sisterhood" is in danger and only placing a member of the clan on the throne can protect them. Alas, as they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it's probably fair to say Valya's intentions are anything but good, but one way or the other rather interestingly to quote a certain famous Irish poet, "the center will not hold", and all of Valya's scheming falls apart virtually as quickly as it's outlined in the very first episode. That then leaves the rest of the first season to "pick up the pieces", as it were, though the series, even more than House of the Dragon (which really only made a significant forward leap in terms of timeframe), keeps offering "little" tidbits about Valya and sister Tula (played by Olivia Williams and Emma Canning at different ages) by showing the "past" and "present" statuses of the characters.

Of course, the Harkonnens are only one family in this sprawling epic which takes place some 10,000 years before the events of Dune itself, though perhaps surprisingly (though "explained" more or less within the context of the series) the Atreides are not (yet) "major players" in the tale, albeit their influence on the story is undeniable and is actually mentioned more or less from the get go in that aforementioned opening voiceover narration. Instead, much of the focus is instead on the royal Corrino family, including Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) and his brood. There's also an interesting potential nemesis for the sisterhood in the mysterious character of Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), a guy whose first name kind of comically reminded me of another mysterious guy who suddenly showed up to throw Lost into disarray.

If the general outlines of this tale will indeed remind some of other properties, it's in the details, and there are many of them, where Dune: Prophecy manages to carve out its own identity, and at times a rather striking one. Watson is particularly effective as the older Valya, as is Williams as the older Tula, both of whom are schemers in their own ways. Tula's back story may in fact be even more riveting than Valya, and without posting overt spoilers another possible tether to Game of Thrones is what might be (probably in bad taste) jokingly referred to as a " brown (mud caked) wedding". The series does have the same (both figurative and literal) "cutthroat" sensibility that Game of Thrones did, and some of the same grandiose production design flourishes, all of which help the series to offer eye and ear candy in abundance.

Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: While this is a standalone 4K release without 1080 discs, I am offering screenshots from HBO's standalone 1080 release of Dune: Prophecy - The Complete First Season as I think it actually provides a better representation of the look of the palette in particular, rather than offering screenshots from the 4K disc which are by necessity downscaled to 1080 and in SDR. Because this release does not include 1080 discs, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

Dune: Prophecy is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of HBO and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with HVEC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfers in 2.00:1. Kind of surprisingly as of the writing of this review the IMDb doesn't have any significant technical information on the title, but a cursory internet search revealed the series was captured with Arri Alexa 35 cameras with a presumed 4K DI, though the most salient data point may be the use of Hawk Class-X lenses, which frankly may have introduced some kind of odd looking anomalies away from the center of the frame, where things can look at least a bit soft and maybe even slightly out of focus at times. This noticeable difference in clarity is probably only more noticeable in the increased resolution the 4K format offers. Otherwise, this is a pretty stunning looking presentation, and I was repeatedly struck by the really exceptional fine detail levels on all of the practical sets and costumes, and even at times on the CGI elements. HDR adds some really interesting highlights throughout, and that includes some quasi monochromatic moments like the very opening few seconds, but later some of the treks of Valya in particular. I'd probably argue that the series on the whole is not aggressively "over" graded, but there certainly large swaths that have been cooled considerably toward blue tones, and those scenes in particular have observable new highlights in the HDR grade.

Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dune: Prophecy features a really impressively immersive Dolby Atmos track, one that offers both regular engagement of the "traditional" surround channels courtesy of all sorts of ambient environmental and other sound effects, but which also offers some fun (if spooky) Atmos presence courtesy of (to cite just one very memorable example) Valya's use of her "voice" early in the first episode. Any number of aerial scenes can also provide some clear use of the Atmos speakers, but it was really in the sum total of the surround experience that the layered design of the episodes really continually engaged me as a listener. Dialogue (which can also be directional) is clearly and cleanly presented throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The supplements are all branded with Beyond the Veil, and I'm assuming many of them probably aired as promotional pieces on HBO.

Disc One

• Entering the Dune Universe (HD; 2:58) is a very brief introduction to the production.


• Houses Divided (HD; 2:47) is another quick look at the warring factions.


• Inside the Episode #101 (HD; 2:58) is the first of six featurettes offering insight into individual episodes.


• Inside the Episode #102 (HD; 5:24)

Disc Two

• Truth or Lie (HD; 5:38) is a (probably needlessly) two part piece with a "quiz" featuring several actors and crew members trying to divine whether "facts" about Dune are true or a lie.


• Expanding the Universe (HD; 2:32) offers various production staff commenting on integrating this series into the overall Dune franchise.


• Inside the Episode #103) (HD; 2:58)


• Inside the Episode #104) (HD; 4:51)

Disc Three

• Behind the Veil (HD; 34:45) is another multi-part piece, though this one gets into a good deal more detail about a number of things like VFX, scoring and production design.


• Building Worlds - Home Entertainment Exclusive (HD; 13:04) is another production design focused featurette.


• Inside the Episode #105 (HD; 4:20)


• Inside the Episode #106 (HD; 6:13)

Unlike the 1080 release, which features an insert features with an inner print with a list of contents on each disc, this release has none (the cover art for the 4K version is also different from that on the 1080 version). Also for those with an interest in how things are packaged, the 1080 release actually has a spindle so that each of the three discs has their own resting place. This 4K release stacks two discs on top of each other on the right side. Packaging does feature a slipcover, though like the cover itself it's different from the 1080 slipcover.

Dune: Prophecy 4K - The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly ended up liking Dune: Prophecy more and more as it went along, as it probably increasingly manages to escape the virtual clutches of any number of other similar properties (including Dune itself) as the story develops. There are some really fun and potentially intriguing developments, um, unveiled during the season (two in particular actually caught this inveterate "twist guesser" completely by surprise) which may augur well for the already announced second season. Technical merits are great, and while the supplements aren't especially bounteous, they're also enjoyable and informative. Recommended.