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Official thread about the movie you just saw

It seems like the people who like Dune the most are people who are most familiar with the source material and have been intimately engaged with it over many years. They are also the ones who seem confident in the direction of the film. If that’s the audience for the film, that’s fine. I’m not in it. I judged it based on what was presented.

Townie talks about how it’s so complex. I didn’t think it was complex at all. I had no questions to answer about it. It’s pretty straightforward. A young prince is part loyalty and the only male descended from a line of witches. His mom is pregnant again. He’s thrust into a political fight over important land inhabited by a mysterious people. Political rivals attempt to assassinate him and fail. He joins the native people.

Perhaps I would have more questions if anyone but the main character was more developed. It could have just been one complete film instead of a long drawn out part 1. This is apparently a common criticism of Dune properties that gets people bent out of shape when I say it.

A nerd of color can tell me Dune’s actually a criticism of white saviorism based on their long-standing knowledge of the source material. But I didn’t see that based on what was presented. There is a criticism of political land grabs and such in that it’s hard and leads to ruin for all but the most powerful. But I don’t see that as a sufficient criticism.
 
lol so the film needed more non-main character development but also should have fit in twice as much action from a plot perspective. ok.
 
The comic book comparison is actually kind of interesting in regards to Dune because of the sheer amount of content.

Given how much there is in the book (and the whole series) it is hard to imagine that Dune was ever conceivably going to be one movie.

And I don’t really get the criticism about it being half the story. I am not some huge Dune fan and read multiple articles in advance that said it was half the story. And as others have pointed out the opening credits said so also
 
I actually think comic book movies in general get hated on unfairly for the same reason. To be able to make a universe come to life with so much source material (without it becoming the same thing over and over again) is difficult to pull off. I think that is why Marvel has excelled over DC. They mix up genres and characters in a much better way to keep everything fresh
 
Fury Road is one of the greatest examples of movies I’m so glad I saw in theater.

Wind River is also up there.
 
Shooshmoo said:
I mean, the movie was nominated for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects, but, yeah, Strick says it looks "like shit."
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well if the oscars said so...

TownieDeac said:
I had unreasonably high expectations for capturing Dune on video this go-round; it is one of my favorite sci-fi stories. I really enjoyed it, thought it had enough fan service and canon for the die hards and enough plot and character for a global blockbuster to go around. Tough to also have to work in magic/witchcraft/mind control/colonialism/drugs/spacetime but I thought it all landed.

I personally think the Villeneuve-Vermette director/production designer team is an ideal fit for a desert/alien planet story line (think Arrival or Sicario for other examples of this success). Also, much of the film was shot on location in Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Norway, Canada, etc. and not on green screen, which accounts somewhat for the color story (the brutalist architecture is from the book too, needed to withstand 500 mph wind, desert, sandworms, etc.). Reading about the production design is pretty amazing. They constructed a planet's worth of sets, they actually built the ornithopters you saw them flying around in.

I don't anticipate Ph caring much beyond his initial read, and clearly he's entitled to it, but here's a decent blog post the white savior story question (and an interview with Villeneuve): https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2021/09/03/is-dune-truly-a-white-savior-story/
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I enjoyed this post a lot. Thanks for sharing. I'll watch Part 2 with the hope that I enjoy it more than Part 1, but was pretty disappointed in the flick. I also don't know many Dune heads, so I can't really understand the broader context of the adaptation, etc.
 
TownieDeac said:
Yea, apart from the settings, not much to compare in those movies. I fucking love Fury Road though. Action from the opening shot through to curtains. Rewatchable too.
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i just used it as an example of a movie with gorgeous cinematography in a similar setting

even the night scenes are just spectacularly filmed

anyway, the meta-takeaway is that it's cool to get psyched about things that we love!

we were all kids once, after all
 
Deacfan2009 said:
lol so the film needed more non-main character development but also should have fit in twice as much action from a plot perspective. ok.
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or maybe they should have adapted the material more skillfully to fit the medium?

i'm just not a fan of the twilight, harry potter, etc. model of doing two parters, i guess? that's for TV, imo, not film, but that's another conversation altogether i think
 
PhDeac said:
It seems like the people who like Dune the most are people who are most familiar with the source material and have been intimately engaged with it over many years. They are also the ones who seem confident in the direction of the film. If that’s the audience for the film, that’s fine. I’m not in it. I judged it based on what was presented.

Townie talks about how it’s so complex. I didn’t think it was complex at all. I had no questions to answer about it. It’s pretty straightforward. A young prince is part loyalty and the only male descended from a line of witches. His mom is pregnant again. He’s thrust into a political fight over important land inhabited by a mysterious people. Political rivals attempt to assassinate him and fail. He joins the native people.

Perhaps I would have more questions if anyone but the main character was more developed. It could have just been one complete film instead of a long drawn out part 1. This is apparently a common criticism of Dune properties that gets people bent out of shape when I say it.

A nerd of color can tell me Dune’s actually a criticism of white saviorism based on their long-standing knowledge of the source material. But I didn’t see that based on what was presented. There is a criticism of political land grabs and such in that it’s hard and leads to ruin for all but the most powerful. But I don’t see that as a sufficient criticism.
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Prob could leave it at the first paragraph where we agree.

But since you mentioned me again, I didn't say the film was complex, I said the book was complex. If you were on the Wikipedia you might have seen:

4 Themes and influences
4.1 Middle-Eastern and Islamic references
4.1.1 Additional linguistic and historic influences
4.2 Environmentalism and ecology
4.3 Declining empires
4.4 Gender dynamics
4.5 Heroism
4.6 Zen and religion
4.7 Asimov's Foundation

My copy runs about 700 pages with illustrated maps, family trees, linguistic charts, and a critical reading guide. The director and screenwriters had to make some choices about what to include and what not to include. Perhaps it wasn't for you.
 
i do love the enduring "why are we discussing things on a discussion board" post

you're always welcome to present another topic for conversation, such as photos of scantily clad members of House Harkonnen
 
nah, there are good discussions and bad discussions

it’s why the boards are better without rj
 
TownieDeac said:
Zendaya’s character will play a big part in the second movie, and the planet is very inhospitable, requiring serious adaptation to live there.

The story is very difficult to capture on film owing to the complex plot. Telling it without boring the shit out of your audience requires a lot. I reckon it isn’t for everyone even if they do get a lot of the design right. I’d take criticism of it seriously that isn’t about color when it takes place in a desert, or that you didn’t know it was part one of two when that’s in the title card and was part of the run up to the movie’s release.
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Sooooo, it's a movie that should have been left as a book. Got it.
 
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