Go See Dune In The Theater

Ordinarily, impressed is about the best I can do, but I have to say I was blown away by this. Really, so well done. I had cautious optimism, but figured the chances of it getting a sequel were low. (Now it seems it will, yaaay!) I was gonna to see it no matter what, but figured it'd be at home. I saw comments about The Voice among other things, which wouldn't have been near as cool at home. I will say it was just a bit too loud, but there were only a few small occurences where that overtook speech. But all the little bits of sound detail, and the contrasting uses of loud and silent were just awesome. And it's so beautifully shot, too. Now Denis V is known for that, but this was Yet Another Level. Similar to sound, it used harder to see bits and perfectly clear gorgeous scenery to the utmost. Ironically, some of the cloudier or dustier bits made me look at the screen like maybe it was damaged or something, but it showed up great in other shots.

It starts off with room to breath, but steadily picks up the pace and tension. In the Jamis scene, I actually had to physically move and intentionally try to relax. Without giving anything away (I hope), the realization of what Paul has never done but needs to do was surprisingly emotional. That usually doesn't affect me, as I am more weak to the "losing a parent / child or losing that relationship" (side note: see About Time. It's tough, but wonderful, too. I had to split it up over a few nights.) Anyway, watching that scene was tough and intense and hit me like nothing I recall before.

I was aware of the plot beforehand, having read the book a number of times, if not recently enough, and seen Lynch's version when it came out. On that note, I felt like this version really illustrated a lot of the more esoteric concepts surprisingly well and stuck to the story really well. Some of my below comments might be explained by "cut for time" kind of stuff. I don't want to list them as complaints, if that makes sense.

Great Stuff:

-The actors were really firing on all cylinders.

-The combat choreography was great, specifically with Duncan and Jamis' scenes, but overall too.

-There were like, 2 moments of levity the entire movie. That only occurred to me like 2/3rd of the way through, after some mental expectations of quippage due to MCU poisoning. It was a surprisingly nice change, and fit well with the story. I don't recall Frank Herbert being funny at all.

-It was good that people had helmets. It was weird (but not bad!) that some people never showed faces at all, and sometimes it looked a bit strange, too.

-I liked the ornithopters. They were well visualized and made more sense than in my mind from the books.

-The Voice. Wow.

-No made up bullshit like weirding modules. Yaaay!

Things Could Have Been Better, But Aren't Problems:

-The Suk conditioning of Dr. Yueh never comes up, which lessens the impact of his storyline a bit

-I am not 100% sure, but I don't think they mentioned the lasgun vs. shield problem. Both of these were visualized quite well, though.

-I wanted Jessica to be Francesca Annis. Rebecca Ferguson did a great job, and I think is a better actress, but I found FA at the right time in my life, if'n you know what I mean.

-I wanted Kynes to be Max Von Sydow. I felt like him being older was important, and frankly wanted to hear his gentle curmudgeonly growling voice one more time. That said, Sharon Brewster-Duncan did a great job, and her last scene here was I thought even better than the book's. I don't know if the gender swapping changes anything for parts of the story not yet revealed. I think it should work with no issues.

-Shadout Mapes kind of had no real part, which is a minor shame.

-I thought that Timothee Chalamet was a bit too old to play Paul as written in the book. I didn't really buy him any time being referred to as a child, when he looks pretty early 20s to me. That said, playing someone learning his role in life worked perfectly fine with his age.

-I wanted Gurney to say "mood is a thing for lovemaking or cattle", but he didn't.

-Speaking of Gurney, it's not clear that he's anything other than the secondary weapons master, as opposed to a more well rounded teacher. He's just a Duncan Jr., but older. There is a passing reference to music, but blink and you miss it.

-Mentats, what are they? The word is never used, nor do by the juice of sapho do they put their minds in motion. It's clear they do math, but the background and their special talents are kind of missing.

-I kinda wanted to see a Guild Navigator, just 'cos.

-I think the hints of Jihad were probably a little confusing for people who hadn't been familiar with the story before. I think other bits of prescience might have been a bit confusing as well, not knowing he's seeing many different potential futures, not necessarily a single possibility.

Not Good:

-Gotta wait for Part Two.

-They let Brian Herbert and Whathisname Anderson be associated with this, though I don't think they had any influence on it.

Some Stuff Confused Me:

-Who was the gardener guy? He looked a bit like Jamis, but I don't think he was? It's been a while since I read the book last, but I can't offhand recall who this character should be. Is he the same guy who says "come with me" in the sense of being a guide of some kind?

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Holy shit, it's a screed! I didn't intend that, but I really was blown away by this, in a way I have been in a long time, and I think ever at all.

Submitted October 27, 2021 at 09:59AM by OzymandiasKoK https://ift.tt/3Eh9DC0