Dune

Great news. No more pandemics until this gets finished please.

I like the first 3. One is the highlight, 2 is okay. 3 is... a bit boring but some amazing ideas, world building and philosophy. I recomend those three then never ever ever touch the ones after.

The first four are, basically, the atreides story and four pays off the first three really nicely. Its self contained so you aren't missing anything if you leave it there.

I did the 6 when I got into it after the Children of Dune miniseries. Bad times. I thought the last two were a slog.

Glad they're getting part 2, the first one's ending would have been even more of a wet fart if nothing had come after it.

Spice diver redux is definitely worth a watch. But I wouldn't expect it to solve the problems of the film. I think (though my memory of the original cut is hazy) it slows the pacing earlier on to squeeze the additional scenes in which makes the 10 minute end montage and wrap up seem even more out of place.

I think the latest version has the removed bits put back in as you weren't the only one who was "somewhat agitated"  

Apparently Villeneuve filmed things like the Arrakeen banquet with the water merchants etc which would have fleshed out the background flavour somewhat, but he dropped everything he thought was superfluous to what he thought the main heart of the film was, ie Paul and Jessica, so gone.

He won't do a director's cut either, as he had final cut pretty much, so the theatrical version is his director's cut.

Bummer. I'd have been all over an extended edition. However I'm gonna give him the leeway here in the same way I gave Spielberg the leeway with Jurassic Park. I like the book at lot more than the film. But packing it full of backstory, techno babble and philosophising would probably have made it impenetrable, or least ways less watchable.

This is almost Butlerian Jihadish.

www.vice.com/en/article/wxdeay/the-dune-screenplay-was-written-in-ms-dos

I guess my feeling is that other films with multiple parts, still manage to be self-contained to an extent. This just felt like half a movie, without much of a climax or anything. Or a cliffhanger to get people psyched for the conclusion.

Anyway, it's a lot better now that we know part 2 is coming. And I did think it was (mostly) great; it's just weird that part 2 wasn't approved from the get-go.

Actually, yes, it was in doubt. The greenlight was only just publically announced and pretty much all the negative reviews have said that it is all set up for something we are unlikely to see. Supposedly, Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 was a massive flop (personally loved it), and the studio wouldn't say yes to part 2 unless 1 delivered the numbers. I expect all the positive buzz helped their projections and was enough to make them say yes though.

Just seen it this evening and it certainly is an epic. Very much designed for the big screen, so I would recommend anyone that feels safe to do so to go out and see it there.

Don't think it is perfect though and I wouldn't rate it as good as Arrival or BR2049. I found it sagged a little post the attack sequence in the middle, but it is still an overall spectacular experience.

This film blows Arrival out of the water for me my a mile. How it rates against BR2049 is a tough one. Overall I think I liked it more but it’s hard to judge when I thought both were so top top notch. 

BR2049 lost a fucktonne of money, like disastrous, so it's a minor miracle that a) Villeneuve was given that sort of budget ever again - he acknowledges this in a lot of interviews and b) it was for Dune, of all things. It may have been a while since Dune 84 lost a pile but it's still notorious for being a flop.