this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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You are correct. But the movies did indeed make a poor introduction to the shield technology. I think it was just a short mention when Gurney is training Paul and is easily missed. They even have to train for a specific fencing style that involves slow movements as a fast swung blade can still be stopped by the shield. And I don't remember them talking about the interaction between lasers and shields at all, which creates a huge explosion.
My bigger issue with the movies was the typical hollywood charge. No tactics or strategy involved at all. Just screaming and running.
The shield-based fighting style was also a small note that was missed in the duel between Paul and Jamis in the movie. Paul was missing what they thought were clear cuts and as a result they believed he was cruelly toying with Jamis, but it was because he was slowing his blade at the very last moment due to shield training.
Also a slightly weird moment for me as a book fan was when the thopter Duncan escaped in clearly showed that it had shields with a rock crashing off of it, but then he was being chased by lasguns immediately after.
Glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought that was a bit off-putting. Same where the Sardaukar try to use a laser to get to Paul, nobility is almost guaranteed to wear a personal shield, so that felt like a very bad idea. Although you could argue that Sardaukar are fanatic enough to not care about getting wiped from existence in a nuclear explosion.
From what I remember the movie ignores the lasgun and shield interaction completely, which I think is a reasonable tweak to keep things simple and allow them the to use the nice aesthetics of lasers.
My biggest gripe with the movie currently is that when a Crysknife is drawn it must draw blood before being sheathed again. If you don't use it on someone you must cut yourself. This is explained to the reader in the book, but in the movie it includes the scene where it would be explained but isn't mentioned. It's not a huge deal. They can just ignore it. However, at the end of the movie the Fremen have their knives drawn and it focuses on them cutting their hands to sheath them. I'm sure people who didn't read the books before seeing the movie would think it's really weird, especially for a culture so obsessed with water (although I don't recall if they've discussed recovering water from blood yet).