Dune

Just back from watching it with my wife and two teenage kids. Loved every minute of it and cannot wait for part two. Made to think Villeneuve has helmed FIVE of my favourite films of the last 10 years.

I'm really pleased Leo, my younger boy, loved it - with no real background or knowledge of the movie I thought he might find it a bit slow-paced and not so absorbing. He didn't at all, I underestimated him.

Mmm, the cinemas seem to have dumped it quite quick. I was glad I shelled out premium money for Xplus at the showcase near me, as the next week it was on a smaller screen with shittier sound and it made a huge difference. Even the projection was several times poorer and murkier.

It was in a smaller screen when I saw it a few weeks ago. Thankfully the sound was good, but I'd have loved to see it on a huge screen.

Only the second film I've watched at an Imax and I'm glad I did (Though it was fricken freezing in the cinema).

Like a lot of people I've been waiting for this since it was first announced so it was hard not to go in with very high expectations. Overall very enjoyable and I liked all the casting especially Chalamet, when I think about my criticisms they are hard to justify. There's just so much information to distil into the first film and that has to be balanced with making it enjoyable for a wide audience. if you haven't read the book or seen the 1984 version if you go too deep into the Weirding Way, Bene Gesserit, cat people and spice orgies well people are going to walk out!

I guess it would have been good to have Yueh's character developed a little more, less time flying about in Ornithopters and Arakis felt more like Dubai than an incredibly hostile desert planet but pretty minor concerns really.

Heh though someone did say on Twitter that 90% of Zendaya's scenes looked like perfume commercials which was impossible to unsee.

Is that this clip below?  I've only seen it on YouTube.  It reminds me of Tibetan buddhist chants (and Mongolian throat singing come to think of it)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nnKL87EwE

Just got back from the cinema after watching this, went into it blind after not having touched the books. Overall I thought it was fantastic, easily one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen.

My main criticism is the main battle seemed to appear out of the blue and the action itself didn't blow my socks off. The explosions where top notch for sure, but for styles of fighting based on martial arts, it all felt a bit WWE Royale Rumble.

That said I'm tempted to watch again and I'd absolutely adore some kind of LOTR style extended edition fleshing out the lore some more.

Liked Dune and feeling rich?

www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/54692/1/alejandro-jodorowsky-s-1970-dune-storyboard-is-up-for-auction

How is this possible? Recite your baseline!



You mean that coffee table book on the documentary was the only one?

Just got back from watching it. Visual and sound design were fucking stunning. First half of the film or up to the invasion felt incredible. Felt like they were spending necessary time to flesh everything out. Then it shit the bed to get to the end. Did they not have the confidence to go all the way with it and get a trilogy out if it or something?

That said, my only exposure to Dune is the old CD rom point and click adventure where you arrive on Arakis, start recruiting the Fremen and battle the Harkonans(SP).

Really enjoyed it, just wish they'd have taken their time with it.

They seemed to take the pace nice and steady then just fly through it. Again my only exposure is the old game where you go round Sietches recruiting Fremen, sending harvested spice to the Emperor, fighting Harkonnens along the way. I would love to see it again but just felt the pace was skewed.

I finally got to watch it, just before it exited the cinema. Saw it in medium Imax rather than epicly huge Imax, but it did look and sound stunning.

I posted about it in the Films You Watched thread so I won't repeat all that here.

I've only seen Arrival, 2049 and this by Villeneuve. Thought Arrival was so so, but loved 2049 and this, so I may have to search out his other stuff.

The ending did come earlier than I expected. I mean, Shani was a big part of the marketing and, other than the flash-forwards, we hardly even met her.

The music was insanely loud when I watched it, but seemed to be epicly good.

I was a bit surprised that with all the extra time, they didn't really go any deeper into many of the events or the politics. It actually felt like some things were less explained than in the 80s one.

I did think the flash-forwards/visions were a bit overused.
I also thought it was a mistake to intercut the 'gas tooth' scene with some random scene of Paul & Jessica unpacking a bag. I guess it's Villeneuve's style to underplay things, but it felt like that scene should have been a lot more epic, given its the culmination of the betrayal and the duke.

It did also suffer a bit from 40k syndrome, where every army is apparently the most elite unstoppable force in the galaxy. That's probably more of a flaw from the book. The Harkonen are terrible fearsome monsters, but they need help because the Attredies are the best warriors in the galaxy, so they have help from the Sardakur who are the best fearsome warriors in the galaxy, but the Fremen are the best fighters and we need them. I guess we have to wait for part 2 for the Blood Angels to show up.

This gets a bit weirder as it inevitably involves crypto bros and a decentralised autonomous organisation.

decrypt.co/87306/this-dao-bought-alejandro-jodorowsky-dune-bible-dao-doesnt-own

That's awesome, cheers Bill.

How many of the Dune books are good? I bought the first one on the 99p as I heard the series goes downhill? Are they fairly self-contained?