DUNE (Part 1 Spoilers and News)

[SpaceChampion]

You're both nuts.

I didn't think the first one was more than getting surface level details right, and left so much out.  This part 10/10 got the story correct, focused on the right things, and was incredibly immersive for the whole run time.

Edit:  I'm rewatching the first part, only managed to see half of it before watching part 2.  But part 2 does improve my appreciation for part 1.

Edited March 1 by SpaceChampion

[Relic]

1 hour ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Care to elaborate?

not really. see it for yourself.

[Relic]

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

This part 10/10 got the story correct

Story, maybe. Details that built the story? Absolutely not. 

[Relic]

Just want to add that the imax i saw this in prague was mostly sold out and deathly silent. i dunno whats going on in america anymore, but this shitty movie behavior ive been hearing about  doesnt happen here. 

[IFR]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

You're both nuts.

I didn't think the first one was more than getting surface level details right, and left so much out.  This part 10/10 got the story correct, focused on the right things, and was incredibly immersive for the whole run time.

I really liked the first part, and I agree with you that the second part was excellent. A+ for me, too. My favorite part of the books was the building religious fervor to the great jihad, and this movie captured that so well. There were quite a few changes from the book, and this is one of the rare cases where I think it benefited the movie.

Villeneuve continues his legacy as one of the great filmmakers of our time.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Relic said:

Just want to add that the imax i saw this in prague was mostly sold out and deathly silent. i dunno whats going on in america anymore, but this shitty movie behavior ive been hearing about  doesnt happen here. 

I'm in western Canada, not the United States. In terms of audience behaviour, my movie-going experiences in the USA have been good overall. Same for other parts of Canada, though it's been a while.

Maybe it's just people in this city, who kind of behave like selfish assholes at times. If I have to move off the sidewalk one more time because two people walking abreast toward me can't go single-file for a few steps, I'm going to punch one of them.

The IMAX audiences seem fairly well behaved here though. It's general audiences I'm talking about.

I'm not completely sure but I think when I saw Dune Dune today someone was getting text alerts on their phone. Something audible that I'm pretty sure wasn't part of the film soundtrack and I heard it more than once. This was in a theater that was maybe 20% full and there was still one asshole who couldn't silence their phone. 

Aside from that I was completely unaware of the rest of the audience for the entire film. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

 

[Kalbear]

I really liked it, and I am not looking forward to defending or arguing about the changes they made.

 

[Luzifer's right hand]

19 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

I really liked it, and I am not looking forward to defending or arguing about the changes they made.

 

Then don't. You are allowed to enjoy things without using energy on that. 

Part one is one of my all time favourite movies and apart from some minor things I enjoyed this one even more.

Just as with the first one I enjoyed it even more the 2nd time I watched it.

Spoiler

I'm really looking forward to the outside scenes on Giedi Prime in 4k from a disk on my TV.

I'm probably going to watch it at least one more time in cinema if a OV IMAX showing aligns with my work schedule.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

58 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

 

I saw the title and immediately closed the tab. 

What is it with film critics declaring a blockbuster du jour "the film we all need right now"? Did you know there was a professional film critic who said the same thing about Wonder Woman 1984? A film that literally no one needed and which fell down the memory hole the moment it left theaters?

Not for nothing, I saw the latest Furiosa trailer before Dune 2 and it's looking pretty good. Hemsworth's prosthetic nose is growing on me.  

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

4 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I saw the title and immediately closed the tab. 

What is it with film critics declaring a blockbuster du jour "the film we all need right now"? Did you know there was a professional film critic who said the same thing about Wonder Woman 1984? A film that literally no one needed and which fell down the memory hole the moment it left theaters?

Not for nothing, I saw the latest Furiosa trailer before Dune 2 and it's looking pretty good. Hemsworth's prosthetic nose is growing on me.  

Haha this guy is Critical Drinker and he said it in a sarcastic way, though he still liked the movie. If you see the video you’ll know what I mean

Edited March 1 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Kalbear]

Longer form thoughts and viewpoints. These should not be particularly spoilery.

• It's visually stunning; Villeneuve's best cinematographic work
• Surprisingly funny at times
• Absolutely does a great job of capturing the central themes and feelings of Dune, especially in setting up later stories
• Casting and acting is top-notch, particularly Chalamet, Bardem, and the Harkonnen
• Worth it seeing in IMAX if only to feel the sandworms rattling your seat
• Pacing and story flow was occasionally a bit weird, especially going from planet to planet

On spoilery stuff:

Spoiler

I was clearly wrong and Chani's arc definitely has changed, which is a huge departure from the books and I'm not entirely sure where they're going. But I like it. I like her arc of going from being one of the only advocates of Paul to seeing what he's become and opposing it. I like that there is a division between the Fremen who fight for their people and the Fremen who fight because they believe, and Chani being in opposition to Stilgar there is pretty cool.

But it also majorly fucks up the future with the kids and Chani vs Irulan vs Alia, and I don't know how to reconcile that.

Most of the other changes are minor and not particularly critical. Having fetus Alia talking to Jessica works in a surprisingly creepy way and made me not miss toddler Alia running around and stabbing shit. Plus the possibility of Anya Taylor-Joy doing Alia in the future is pretty fucking amazing. Losing count Fenryng is okay as well. I kind of miss not having the Jessica/Gurney betrayal plot, but it also isn't needed. Adding them recovering the atomics adds to the story in an interesting way for me. 

I also liked the emphasis on Paul not wanting to be the anointed white savior. Chalamet did a really good job for me in showing that conflict, showing the body language change in Paul vs Mahdi and how he presents himself, even in his voice.

Mostly I thought they did a remarkably great job in showcasing the religious angles. The iconography and design that went into showing how they worshipped, the symbols and clothing and writing and tattoos, the interpretations of the prophecies and even getting Chani to participate, the hilarious 'He's so modest it shows he's the Mahdi even more!' bit. It felt very weighty and powerful, even as (or possibly because) you know that it's all an invention of the Bene Gesserit.

 

Edited March 1 by Kalbear

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

 

  Hide contents

'He's so modest it shows he's the Mahdi even more!'

 

Spoiler

NGL, I immediately thought "Life of Brian" at that part. That's not a dig btw. 

 

[Mexal]

Love!

[Zorral]

15 hours ago, Relic said:

Just want to add that the imax i saw this in prague was mostly sold out and deathly silent. i dunno whats going on in america anymore, but this shitty movie behavior ive been hearing about  doesnt happen here. 

Yurp is civilized, except at/w sports. Most of the US these days, like much of our ancestor, the UK, is yahoo, tacky, ignorant, shabby, dysfunctional and violent. The antithesis of civiized.  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I'm going back over past comments in this thread. This one was spot on (though pretty obvious at the time so I can't exactly brag about it)

Spoiler

 

Something I loved about the film:

Spoiler

There's the idea of "self fulfilling prophecy" and prophecies that come true but in some twisted way but there are very few stories that have the idea of a cynical self-fulfilling prophecy. This is obviously something that features in the novel but Villeneuve really puts it front and center.

It's like "Hey! Hold on a second. 'Lisan Al Gaib?!?' We made that shit up! You don't get to have one. Don't make me use the voice on you young man! What's that? You'll destroy the spice..."

Even Paul's cynicism about it is still intact right up to the end, which isn't really there in the Lynch or Jodorowsky versions. I'm not sure about the miniseries.  

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

17 hours ago, Relic said:

6/10

Interesting.  I’m hearing “blown away it was so good” and “oh my God that sucked” more of the former than the latter?  Can you please elaborate on the mid level of enjoyment?

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Some nitpicks:

Spoiler

We get the Irulan prologue, then the main titles, then some eerie interior shots of Jessica's womb and the fetal Alia. Paul gives a voiceover where He's apparently chatting with his sister. I would have eliminated the dialogue from that scene. It gives us no information; and it's a voiceover that immediately follows another voiceover. It's clunky and unnecessary.

I would not have subtitled the Harkonnen troops speech in the following scene. Again, it gives us nothing but unnecessary information and it would have been nicer to let the scene play out visually. Especially since, in the following scene, we're in a Harkonnen command center in Arrakine and their speech isn't subtitled. 

Rabban-Halek-Bowl.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think the scene where the Barron is summoned to see the emperor only to see the severed head of Rabban at his feet and hear him ask, "Why have you summoned me here?" is a powerful visual and demonstrates that the emperor is not a man with which to fuck. I might have preferred that. I don't know. 

What I do know is that R-H-Bowl should have played out with no dialogue at all. Brolin's Manson lamps are more than enough. Or, if anything, a pithy "Ezekiel 25:17"  quote from the Orange Catholic Bible "that sort of fits the occasion". Y'know? Like he do? 

Instead we get the incredibly lame, "For my Duke... And my friends...." I rolled my eyes at that moment. 

Why does Paul ask for Jamis' guidance when he has a vision before going south? He wasn't at Jamis' funeral and we're two hours into the film and he hasn't mentioned Jamis once. He says this when his back is turned to the camera and you can't see his face, which suggest to me that it was a bit of ADR that was dictated by a production note.

Do fundamentalists refer to themselves as "fundamentalists". I always thought that was a derogatory term. "Faithful" or "devout" would have been better. 

Continuity Error:

Spoiler

In the still tent scene after the spice harvester attack, Chani's bestie calls Paul "Muad'dib" and accuses him of liking his own smell for some reason. Maybe he farted, I don't know. 

What I do know is that he hasn't been given his Fremen names yet. That happens later in the same scene 

Did anyone catch...

Spoiler

...the trap door spiders reference? I don't know if it was deliberate but that's where my brain went when I heard it.  

 

[polishgenius]

On the continuity error: 

 

Spoiler

No, she's referring to the actual mouse that was sniffing at his breathing pipe.

 

 

Anyway, I'll have fuller thoughts when I get home but  a really good film. I liked most of the changes, even if they removed some ambiguity.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

On the continuity error: 

  Reveal hidden contents

No, she's referring to the actual mouse that was sniffing at his breathing pipe.

 

Ah. My mistake then.