Ask Lemmy

Lord of the rings comes out

"Oh look, another movie about elves and dwarves."

I fear the Greeks around two thousands years back already had the cookies which inspired Frank Herbert. ;-)

I think the biggest issue with the current films is excluding the internal monologues. There's so much going on that gets lost. That said, I like them

TL;DR: Dune is a novel packed full of culture, intrigue, and philosophy, and Denis tosses basically all of that out the window in favour of style and atmosphere.

As a massive Dune fan who has also only seen part 1, I'm very conflicted. It's obviously the most faithful adaptation but that's a pretty low bar to set. There are so many little changes from the novel that it's hard for me not to feel Denis doesn't really get Dune. I also have tons of small complaints with the script just in a general sense, weird moments that are distracting and pointless even ignoring their relation to the novel.

My biggest issue with the script is that it feels like Denis is focused on creating this super epic atmosphere. We have many beautiful shots of space ships or terrain accompanied by booming music. It's cool, but it feels like a massive waste when the movie also has rushed scenes that could have been so easily adapted to film.

For example Stilgar meeting Leto. In the movie, Stilgar walks in, Leto says something along the lines of "I respect you" and Stilgar immediately spits on the ground to indicate his respect for Leto.

In the novel that scene has Duncan explaining how he tried to save a dying fremen but wasn't able to and that the fremen gave him his crysknife before he died. Stilgar then dramatically interrupts saying something like "Do not unsheath that knife!". What follows is an interaction between Stilgar and Leto where Leto deftly shows his respect to Fremen and their culture without capitulating or showing weakness. Only then does Stilgar spit on the ground giving us the dramatic scene where Duncan has to quickly intervene to prevent violence.

I don't think I'm doing a great job of making my case but the difference to me is stark. The book uses this one scene to feed the reader knowledge about Leto, Stilgar, Duncan, and the fremen. But the movie rushes the scene and we learn next to nothing.

I could go on but I'm just ranting at this point. Dune is a novel packed full of culture, intrigue, and philosophy, and Denis tosses basically all of that out the window in favour of style and atmosphere.

Yes, sorry about the acting, but IMHO Chalamet's acting is quite wooden.

I totally agree that the movie looks very good, that's part of the high production values I mentioned.

Concerning the characters, we seem also to be in agreement: I would have loved to see more of the non Femen factions, their motivations and pressures.

Anyway, thank you very much for your input, as mentioned somewhere else, I'll have to watch the first Dune again, perhaps I'll find a liking for it in the second try.

Hear hear, I also agree even as a die-hard sci-fi fan! I never understood why it was so popular…

It is a long time ago, when I read the books, and I liked, that they where very political and changed the narrator often (if I remember correctly). To say, I kept them in good memory w/o the urge of reading them ever again. ;-)

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.

Thank you very much for your reply and the 'Trigun' tip!

I was not too impressed by the cinematography, the pictures are nice, but nothing compared to the like of 'Drive' (... and Drive has basically no story, but I will enjoy it from time for time for its beautiful cinematography and soundtrack), 'Pan's labyrinth' or the first season of True Detective.

Very much agree with all you write, though.

I loved the original book. I just think it’s unfilmable. A lot of it is about getting inside peoples heads to hear their thoughts and machinations.

I found the art direction, costuming, and casting of Lynch’s movies brilliant. Even the soundtrack was a nice surprise.

This!

I really enjoyed the first 3 Dune books for the peoples heads. For me, Dune loses its direction a little bit later, in the following books.

I also totally enjoyed Lynch's movie, quite bold and an experience.

Yeah, seeing Mr. God Worm Dude will have me rushing to the cinema! :-)

Yeah I loved the effects and the cinematography, I mean that's what makes new movies fantastic... it's a showcase of how real we can get things to look.

But the books were filled from cover to cover with worldbuilding that's a whole lot more than vistas. There's reasons and motivations that lead you to where the story begins and a failure to grasp at least some of those (Butlerian Jihad, Bene Gesserit, Guild Navigators and ofc the SPICE) leaves you with what @reddig33 said.

But the new movies seem very sterile, slow, and dull.

They are rote action movies that fail to evoke any real emotion, and that's a shame.

I’ve also never understood people’s fascination with Chalmet

twinks

An Andor-esque prequel with the Fremen fighting under the Harkonnen rule prior to the events of the movie.

He said hes only making book 2, so there won’t be a dune 4.

Also Paul’s son becomes worm man, I can’t imagine who they pick to be an even lesser chalamet. Not that I didn’t like him in the role, he’s just… a cute little twink who leads a galaxy spanning jihad!