Dune Movie

[Cassie]

Finally watched it. Overall I think it was very good. The thopters were amazing, Arrakeen looked properly Harkonnen and out of place in the desert, like brutal and industrial and metal. The actors were all pretty great. The spice harvester looked good, too. I loved some of the weaponry, and the action.

Now I will be the Dune nerd and complain!

Because they skipped so much of the intrigue it made Jessica seem like a weakling. They didn't really convey how big a deal it was that she disobeyed the Bene Gesserit and gave birth to a boy. The most disappointing thing about the movie was that they skipped the dinner party. I don't know if people who haven't read the books will understand the politics driving all this.

I thought it was really weird that Paul had the spice vision at the spice harvester, and they flew off with Gurney and Paul hanging out the back. They didn't even show the Fremen properly being in awe of Paul thinking he is the Lisan al Gaib or the respect they had for Duke Leto for putting the lives of the men over the value of the spice.

At the end they were all walking around in the desert without their face coverings on. They were being very wasteful with their water, even the Fremen. I don't guess the lack of water is going to be such a focus of the movies.

I wonder if the Reverend Mother talking in Paul's head sometimes was confusing for people. I thought her growly voice was weird.

ONE LAST THING.
Paul and Jamis should have fought in their underwear.

Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles,
Victim of your folly.​

(is that still my signature? I can't even remember. I think I have sigs turned off)

 

[CaptainWacky]

At the end they were all walking around in the desert without their face coverings on. They were being very wasteful with their water, even the Fremen. I don't guess the lack of water is going to be such a focus of the movies.

It's like how Spider-Man's mask keeps falling off because they want to show the actor's face. Except Spider-Man wouldn't die without his mask, so not really!

I wonder if they'll cast an actor as the Emperor in part 2. I saw someone (who hasn't read the book) saying they thought the Baron was the Emperor.

 

[Cassie]

When Piter was demanding the Emperor give the Baron the Sardaukar he promised I thought, well that's a weird choice for the emperor. lol

 

[Volpone]

I will say, I'm rereading the book right now and they did a very nice job of streamlining and simplifying the story without butchering or changing anything significantly. In fact, either time and age (although I think I reread the book maybe 2 years ago) or watching this movie gave me a better understanding of the book. I suspect the movie gets credit.

Reading the book, I never got how much of a trap it was and how utterly hopeless Leto thought the situation was. It the movie they make it painfully clear that they're fucked--and it happens very quickly. Now that I'm rereading the book I'm getting a lot more of the references and wondering how I missed them up to now.

 

[Cassie]

Everyone who reads Dune over and over picks up things they missed before. I don't feel like the movie clarified anything. It was a good action movie, though.

 

[Cassie]

I hope everyone can forgive me. Dune is my Lord of the Rings. I've been reading it since I was a teenager. lol

 

[Volpone]

lol. As I think about it, it *could* just be that my life has changed enough that I get it now. Leto is a relatively powerful person who is on the verge of great things when he gets maneuvered into a dangerous place; a place that has the potential for great reward and power if he can just escape the trap set for him. I'm kind of at a place where I'm on the verge of being able to do what I want but I've also been maneuvered into a few things I don't really want but can't figure my way out of yet.

 

[Cassie]

Yes! Dune hits different depending on the time in your life. The first time I read it, I was a teenager. Even though Paul has these supernatural abilities, his reaction to all of it was relatable. Who wouldn't be freaked out over having visions of the future? Or being thought of as a religious prophesy, etc. It was also like the feeling of growing up, and becoming a responsible adult with duties in life. Then when read again, you start appreciating the other characters and what they're going through. Leto was a great leader, and the most popular in the Great Houses. He was a threat to the Corrino empire. I don't know if part 2 will go into it, but his fighting forces were trained up to almost a match for the Sardaukar, but he lead them with earned respect and loyalty, and not like the nightmare conditioning the Sardaukar experienced on Salusa Secundus.

 

[Cassie]

I just visited an old Dune forum I used to post on, the nerds are fighting! lol

 

[Charlemagne]

I plan on seeing it on Friday. After all these recommendations, I'll have to check it out now.

 

[Volpone]

It's interesting, rereading the book and comparing it to the movie. And my "Fellowship of the Ring" metaphor stands. They had to radically simplify and streamline a number of things to make it fit the length of time and work as a film instead of a book. So much subtlety had to go away. The Voice scene in the ornithopter. The Paul hallucination at the sandcrawler. For that matter, the carryall breaking instead of being shanghaied. The hallucination had to happen (IMO) because it was too hard and abstract to show Kynes' thoughts and Paul's increasing awareness they way they did in the book. So they had to throw in a big dramatic scene to cover a lot of ground that people's thoughts in the book span. The big dinner party...that got totally left out, didn't it? At one point I thought they had a very simplified version of it, but I'm pretty sure it was totally left out. Then there's the fun things from the Lynch movie that made it into this movie that I was surprised to see weren't actually in the book. Baron Harkonnen never actually flies around on his suspensors. He's just like, 400#. And his suspensors make him weigh more like 100#. He doesn't escape by flying up to the ceiling with a partial poisoning, he realizes what is happening and leaves the room--completely unscathed.

Shit, for that matter, the whole actual siege. We actually see it in the movie--as we should. In the book pretty much happens while all the key characters are unconscious. We only see the after-effects like the burning palm trees.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Kynes' movie death scene kicked ass.

 

[Cassie]

It was better than crawling around thirsting to death!

 

[Volpone]

I'm kind of in-between on the movie and the book. The movie is apparently going to be in 2 parts and the book is 3 parts. The first book basically ends at the still-tent. The movie goes on a little past that. But the part I'm reading right now depends a lot on a subplot they didn't have time for in the movie. But I guess Thufir Hawat has a a lot smaller part in the movie (at least so far).

 

[Cassie]

It would have been cool if they'd planned for a three part movie.

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

I just visited an old Dune forum I used to post on, the nerds are fighting! lol

DINO

not my liet kynes

 

[Cassie]

Actually they're not that kind of fans. They're fighting about KJA being in the credits.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I laughed (internally) when I saw KJA's name. I doubt he actually had any involvement, they didn't use anything from his shitty books, did they?

It would have been cool if they'd planned for a three part movie.

Villeneuve says he wants to make Part 2 and then Dune Messiah. Blind Paul walking off into the desert would be quite a good ending for the whole thing.

 

[Cassie]

I don't think they did use anything from KJA for the movie. His abominations are prequels and sequels. I wonder how much of his crap will make it into that HBO Sisterhood series, though.

 

[Cassie]