There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!
You mean the Tleilaxu? That wasn't that much later in the series, they first appear in the second book. If Villeneuve brought any of that element in the film, it's likely to set up a 3rd film (That is, if the franchise succeeds, financially, and sequels are actually made).
I enjoyed the movie but I couldn't fully comprehend what was going on. Might have to give it another watch.
It felt oddly cold and I struggled to connect with the characters (except for Lady Jessica, Rebecca Ferguson always brings her A-game).
It was ok. It wasn't great but I think i need to watch it again.
Just saw it. Here are some thoughts.
WOULD IT HAVE BEEN BETTER AS A STREAMING SERIES?
I want to say this would have been better as a television series. If this was a television series we wouldn't have the excellent casting and we wouldn't have Denis Villeneuve directing.
So no, I don't really think this would have been better as a streaming series. Since we got that out of the way...
SHOULD YOU SEE IT IN A THEATRE?
Unfortunately, yes. It's at It's best in a theatre.
DID I LIKE IT?
Well, like Villeneuve's Blade Runner it is visually stunning and works hard when it comes to world-building, but I'm not "all in" and I can't tell if that is due to any decisions that the film is making or the fact that so many franchises have ripped off Dune that nothing is hitting me with the same force as it hit the people who were originally exposed to it. One person said "Oh, they are doing a Jedi mind trick!" When a character uses mind control. Also it's...kind of cold. Watching Denis Villeneuve's Dune is like watching someone create a really cool ice castle which is really amusing because the majority of the movie takes place on a desert planet You appreciate what it took to build it. It's stunning. It's still an ice castle.
YOU MENTIONED STAR WARS
Sigh...yeah. I would love for Denis to do Star Wars but it would no doubt lead to a monkey's paw situation, so I'll just wish for him to do Star Trek because that franchise can't possibly get any worse.
Last edited by Anthony W; 10-23-2021 at 08:49 PM.
"The Marvel EIC Chair has a certain curse that goes along with it: it tends to drive people insane, and ultimately, out of the business altogether. It is the notorious last stop for many staffers, as once you've sat in The Big Chair, your pariah status is usually locked in." Christopher Priest
The lack of the dinner scene could be forgiven if they at least played up Gurney thinking Jessica killed Leto. Like her getting the ring from Me to in the hall when he's paralyzed would have been a change to the plot I would have like.
"Always listen to the crazy scientist with a weird van or armful of blueprints and diagrams." -- Vibranium
Knew nothing about Dune beyond its existence. Thought the movie was super rad.
I doubt I'll watch this one. My copy of DUNE sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I bought it shortly before the Lynch movie came out. I saw that movie and I tried to crack the novel but I couldn't get very far. Always meant to read it. If I ever do then I might check out this movie. But I don't see that happening for a long time, if ever.
Herbert wrote twenty Dune books, so even if a second movie gets made, that will only finish the first book in the series. That's what's so off putting--that's a lot of reading and a lot of movies. My best option would be a comic book adaptation--I think that's something I could get through.
There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!
I liked the Wheel of Time books (hoping the show is at least decent), and I was honestly sad when I got to the last book. Have reread the series twice now. Haven't read Dune though, not sure if the quality kept up.
Yeah ... Herbert wrote 6 books. Up till Chapterhouse the quality maintains. The Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert books are real up and down.
And the first is a complete story.
I very seldom recommend reading the book to people. It is a slow burn political and religious epic. Not everyone's cup of tea. If you like the OT Star Wars, you probably would enjoy the first book because Lucas homages Dune a lot.
"Always listen to the crazy scientist with a weird van or armful of blueprints and diagrams." -- Vibranium
Lynch wanted almost double the runtime he was given (and was told this AFTER filming) - that's a large part of why he was so dependent upon exposition in his film. Fun trivia fact - the Baron's disfigured face in Lynch's Dune was because the actor came down with something on set and they just used makeup to make it look worse, writing it in rather than replacing the actor.
The good for Lynch's Dune is that the feel of it being another world is truly captured. The talent on screen is truly top notch, with many of the actors going on the be science fiction staples later on - Patrick Stewart, Dean Stockwell, Brad Douriff....and while not well known outside Germany, Leto is played by the sub captain from Das Boot.
Dark does not mean deep.
My bad. I just looked at the list of books and saw there were twenty and didn't bother to check who wrote all of them.
My edition of DUNE is from 1977 and inside that book it lists the "Dune Trilogy." And that's enough to scare me. I've read LORD OF THE RINGS and the Deptford Trilogy--that's about all the trilogies I've been able to get through.
The good thing with the Dune series is that the first four don't really need to be continued past each individual book - each of those ends with a natural stopping point that reads like a complete story. I don't know if that makes it easier for you or not, but that's the way I felt when I read them for the first time.
Dark does not mean deep.