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Why are Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies loved by audience and critics? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When watching movies, I always try to differentiate between my personal enjoyment and the inherent merits of the movies. There are a lot of bad movies, which I totally and thoroughly enjoy watching, and some really great movies, which I don't enjoy that much, but still can respect/appreciate.

With this prelude, I totally do not get the positive reactions to Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies. At the time I am writing this question, part two has 94% critique and 95% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, 9.0 at IMDB.

In my opinion, Dune 1 and Dune 2 have obviously high production values and good special effects. What I do not like is the acting, the pacing, the total flat/simple characters and the whole narration, which is for me a trivial love story between Chani and Paul, plus becoming a leader and get some revenge. I could simply replace the 'Dune' theme with a standard war theme and a few tribes, and I would have exactly the same movie. Also the battle scenes at the end of part 2, they are for me totally cookie cutter war movie/battle aesthetics. (Total waste: There are big Sandworms after all, and combat with personal shields etc.).

My question is, especially if you very much enjoyed watching the Dune movies:

Why did you personally enjoy the movie?
Do you think this movies have some inherent merits?
How do you like the acting/plot/pacing?

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[–] vermyndax 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Anyone that thinks Paul is a hero is completely missing the point. Paul is not a hero, and as a matter of fact, pretty much turns out to be the universe's most terrible villain. He, along with Jessica and the Bene Gesserit, turn out to be responsible for more than 61 billion deaths.

Dune is a story that warns against trusting charismatic heroes, along with warnings against mixing politics with religion. The only hero in this story would be Chani, and I felt that the movie's portrayal of Chani was dead on perfection and actually an improvement on the book.

Dune seems like a tropish story of "The Chosen One," but in fact it's a story about warning us against these figures.

EDIT: Paul is the most terrible villain until his son, that is.