Dune - dir. Denis Villeneuve

[Wilf]

Spoiler

the Fremen's belief system is manufactured by the Bene Gesserit. It's not even native to them though they are meant to originate from islamic/buddhist colonialists. I'm sure there's a commentary about colonialism in there

Yes - and I won't spoiler this because there's no need - I believe there has been a longrunning discussion about the politics of the book, since publication (anti-imperialist v essentialist portrayal of Arab peoples kind of thing).

 

[Orang Utan]

Mika Hakinnen bathing in oil was a bit on-the-nose in making clear the analogy, I felt

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Just watched the lynch version again. My mate has a TV that does that high frame rate thing. It made it look even more like an episode of classic Dr who.
Still love it though. There are things that I prefer for this one.

 

[Gromit]

Spoilers in article about black and white scenes.

Dune 2: Why The Harkonnen Planet Is Black & White Explained By Denis Villeneuve

Dune: Part Two is now playing in theaters.

screenrant.com

Did anyone get any of that at the time?
Special cameras making it seem truly alien.

Or did you like me just think the director was repeating a tired old cliche?
I was expecting someone in a red dress at any moment.
That special camera BS is just dumb camouflage. It’s still just black and white whichever way you produce it. In the studio with Photoshop express or with a special (lol) camera.

Remember when all cameras were this special?

 

[mentalchik]

Don't know what to say....had silent tears a couple of times....couldn't speak for about 10 mins afterwards......got home and went outside on the balcony for a fag and just cried...(i spect some will find that pathetic but it is what it is)

Fucking awesome imo...have great affection for the David Lynch one but this knocks it so far out of the park it's in orbit

 

[Crispy]

Saw it on a large, loud screen last night. Overwhelming visual and sonic experience. Didn't feel long, and was very enjoyable. They did not fuck about with the "charasmatic religious leaders are bad mmkay?" angle at all. Blimey.
I was underwhelmed by the character development though. Chani, Stilgar, Jessica are all firmly set in their ways from the early scenes (sceptic, true believer, schemer respectively) and don't really change or grow throughout. They could easily have written an arc for those characters where they come to hold extreme positions by the end, but instead the knobs are just turned to 10 from the off, which makes a lot of their lines very on the nose. Christopher Walken is stunningly miscast. He's Christopher Walken in everything he's ever in, and is no different here.
But that's about all I have for negatives. Everything else was fantastic. Some of the imagery is burned on my brain.

Seems all but certain that part 3 will be made, and that will be a weird one. It's basically a palace intrigue story, with no worm riding, atomics, or massed armies.

 

[ska invita]

 

[Idaho]

Just seen it. Bit underwhelming tbh

 

[Idaho]

I thought the film was quite incoherent and didn't flow very well. There wasn't really a sense of the fremen being a secret and detailed culture. The battle for arakeen seemed like some brief noise then the duel with feyd.

The pacing of the lynch film was better. This one was sort of forgettable IMO.

 

[Winot]

Saw it yesterday and agree with criticisms expressed above wrt pace/editing. The 'desert test' scene was odd and the 'Paul drinks the Water of Life' rushed. Some amazing cinematography/scenes though and I like the fact it takes itself seriously and presents a coherent universe.

I was slightly distracted by how much Rebecca Ferguson looks like a young Diane Keaton. Please would someone do a Bene Gesserit/Annie Hall mash-up.

 

[Kaka Tim]

saw it tonight at the everyman big screen - truly epic in every sense of the world. Brilliant filmmaking. Not read the books - but i alongside the breathtaking visuals - (and sound) its a powerful, immersive and thought provoking piece of epic storytelling. fucking wow to be honest. bring on part three.

 

[Kaka Tim]

fun detail - sting apparently still has the power pants from the david lynch movie when he played harkinens evil nephew and according to Austin butler (who plays him in the new version)

. “I met him last night, he came to the premiere, it was so surreal, my mind was blown.”

“He’s the best, he’s so cool. He came up to me afterward and he was so lovely and debonair. I asked him about it, and he said he still has the codpiece from the original one. He said he’s gonna dry clean it and let me wear it if I want to.”

Sting still has the codpiece he wore in David Lynch's 'Dune'

Sting still owns the famous blue codpiece that he memorably wore in David Lynch’s 1984 film version of 'Dune'.

www.nme.com

 

[Idaho]

The ambiguity of Paul and Feyd's "goodness" or "evil" was kind of botched imo. An example of why the story is unfilmable. The book gives lots of time to show Paul's move from compassionate atreides, to ruthless fremen, and Feyd's disgust at the usual Harkonnen excess.

The whole "he's psychotic" was kind of cringe tbh.

Also Stilgar was a pretty weak character. He's much more pivotal in the book.

 

[ska invita]

The ambiguity of Paul and Feyd's "goodness" or "evil" was kind of botched imo. An example of why the story is unfilmable. The book gives lots of time to show Paul's move from compassionate atreides, to ruthless fremen, and Feyd's disgust at the usual Harkonnen excess.

The whole "he's psychotic" was kind of cringe tbh.

Also Stilgar was a pretty weak character. He's much more pivotal in the book.

(i havent read the books and only seen the Lynch film so no idea what im posting )

 

[seventh bullet]

I saw it during a matinee this lunchtime at my local cinema (usually wait 2-3 weeks after a film's release and pick a showing in the morning or midday to minimise the risk of phone-using, partner-talking, food-chomping wankers).

I really enjoyed it, an improvement on the first part, was never bored and the nearly three-hour runtime breezed by. Highlights included the longer visit to Geidi Prime. The design of the Harkonnen world reminded me of the most garish of 1970s sci-fi paperback book covers but in a good way, only this time in black and grey. The Harkonnen elite were on the right side of cartoonishly evil, complete with disposable wenches, cannibal concubines and Feyd's very own gimp manservant.

The action scenes on Arrakis were lovely to see on the big screen, too. The Fremen thwarting a Harkonnen squad of troops near the beginning in the eery red light of dusk (or dawn?) and the guerilla raids on the baddies' spice mining. The sandworm riding scenes didn't evoke sniggers or laughter as in the 1984 adaptation and are put to good use during the short climactic battle. Before the halfway mark, Stilgar rationalises his own fundamentalist beliefs with other true-believers in a small scene that had myself and others laughing. Was the director paying homage to Monty Python or was it accidental?

Christopher Walken was Christopher Walken... Shit.

I'm really not as invested as some here in terms of longstanding love for the source material, but I get why you're happy you've got to see that thing you love adapted properly into film. I want to return (booked another ticket for tomorrow).

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Saw it at the IMax tonight. We got given a souvenir bit of 70mm film
Preferred the first one but still some stunning scenes.
Music , like Elgar's Enigma time -stretched....

 

[xenon]

I haven’t caught up with the thread yet but I saw part two on Monday. My thoughts are thus. I preferred the first half. I had lots of issues with the second all be it overall I liked it.
It’s been awhile since I read the book so this is probably in source material but.
One. Too much ceremonial stuff the drinking water of life. The ritualistic Gubbins. Yeah yeah, just get on with it.
Two. The Emperor’s Army was rather easily defeated. I mean they know about the worms surely. Despite the crack Sardika troops present in force. Yeah I know spelling whatever.
3. The Emperor just meekly gave up in the end. I was expecting a suicide or something.

 

[xenon]

Also why would the other great houses take the Emperors’ side. They’ve seen what was done to the Atrades.
Just sit back and see what happens. Why faul in with the Emperor, considering he got defeated relatively easily in the end.

 

[xenon]

No, we need to move away from the godawful trend of having dialog buried in a mix of sound FX and musical score.

I was watching it with audio description. I generally love Hans Zimmer as a film composer. But I did have to keep adjusting the volume. To hear dialogue various points. The sound design was great though. I recently watched part one at home with the volume up loud just to reacquaint myself with it.

 

[seventh bullet]

I usually dislike getting Zimmered.

 

[Orang Utan]

, Stilgar rationalises his own fundamentalist beliefs with other true-believers in a small scene that had myself and others laughing. Was the director paying homage to Monty Python or was it accidental?

“He IS the messiah AND a very naughty boy”?

 

[seventh bullet]

“He IS the messiah AND a very naughty boy”?

Yeah. When he's acting all humble (partly because he's disturbed by these fragmented and terrible visions but more so because he wants to get inside a deeply sceptical Chani's stillsuit). He isn't the One. He just wants to fight alongside the Fremen and avenge his father that way. Hit their enemies where it hurts: access to spice. Atreides and Fremen have a common enemy in the bald, black-clad BDSM people but he won't assume leadership. Afterwards, Stilgar is still convinced when chatting to his mates (despite this continued reluctance from pretty boy), so unshaken in his need to believe, that he takes it as yet another sign that this show of humility and denial means he is the One.

 

[Kaka Tim]

the python referance is surely deliberarate - its not exactly an obscure film. And of course it makes exaclty the same point.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

the python referance is surely deliberarate - its not exactly an obscure film. And of course it makes exaclty the same point.

Terry Jones as lady Jessica would have been fun.

 

[Orang Utan]

A Muppet Dune would be a fine entertainment

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

A Muppet Dune would be a fine entertainment

Muppets anything is usually fine entertainment.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Muppet dune fan casting

I'm picturing this as being mostly based on the Lynch version.

Kermit was always going to have to be Paul
Fozzie for Baron Harkonnen

Ms Piggy would be good as lady Jessica but also fits Chani and even the princess. I can just imagine the movie opening to her floating in space.

I was wondering what to do but then decided she should play all three roles. There will be obvious split screening or body doubles in scenes where more then one of them are present. Also hurried wardrobe changes.

 

[ska invita]

(Frank Herbert's DUNE Reimagined with Jim Henson's Muppets — GeekTyrant)

 

[seventh bullet]

Animal as Shai-Halud is the better pic.

 

[redsquirrel]

The ambiguity of Paul and Feyd's "goodness" or "evil" was kind of botched imo. An example of why the story is unfilmable. The book gives lots of time to show Paul's move from compassionate atreides, to ruthless fremen, and Feyd's disgust at the usual Harkonnen excess.

I call rubbish on that. Where in the book is this?

Weaker than the first one. it has its moments - like Thora I liked the wailing, and the visuals are good, but unlike part 1 where the pacing was good, here it jars, veering around. I don't blame film makers from changing stuff from the source but the removal of the guild ends up meaning things make less sense. Likewise I'm not Sur the super sped up timeframe from the books helps.

Decent enough trip to the cinema but somewhat disappointing after part 1, which I thought did work, and certainly no masterpiece.