DUNE Movie: Thoughts, Opinions, and Impressions

[embee]

So, having watched Dune (2021), I'm not overly impressed with the writing or the acting. As pertains to the writing, enormous liberties were taken with the script. It's, at least in my opinion, a very dumbed-down version of Dune. The acting is fairly wooden as well, which is to be expected from Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. I've never seen any of Chalamet's other work but if this is his level of acting, well I'm not impressed. As to Josh Brolin, it was fairly standard gruff Brolin.

Visually, it was fine although there were still major problems - mostly due to the way Hollywood movies work. The stillsuits are designed to capture nearly all water lost through sweat, exhalation, and elimination. And yet the major cast goes around unmasked for most of the time. I know. I get it. The stars didn't sign on to have their faces covered up.

And finally, again minor but big, the accents. I know that serious sci-fi is supposed to have English accents because it's Fakespeare. It's faux gravitas and it's stupid. So what happens when you jettison the fake English accents and have epic scifi with flat American accents? Everything just seems, well, flat. Not to mention that it leads to jarring American pronunciations like "HAR-kuh-nin" and Beast "Rabbin."

Maybe I was "spoiled" by the David Lynch version or too many readings of the book in my youth but my thoughts on the movie are that it is "Dune, based on the book by Frank Herbert." And yes, many of these are little things. But little things add up.

But what did you think?

 

[Jmarso]

Doesn't open where I'm at until the end of this week. Been looking forward to it forever and going in with sky-high expectations and hope that they get to finish the book with a second movie.

 

[R_J_K75]

hope that they get to finish the book with a second movie.

I read the other day that its likely to happen depending on how it does on HBO MAX but the writer and director were pretty miffed that they released it on streaming as well. ICR where I read it, and the information in the article was kind of jumbled so it was hard to get an accurate time frame, but Im expecting it'll happen. I was looking forward to this too but also read that this movie ends abruptly. So considering I've tried reading Dune at least 5 times and never once finished it it would be just my luck that the sequel never gets made. I'll most likely check it out on HBO MAX this weekend, but Im not setting my expectations too high. For the record the 6 prelude to Dune novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson were great.

 

[Jmarso]

For the record the 6 prelude to Dune novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson were great.

I read a couple of those and didn't like them, although there may have been some bias on my part, as a) I've never liked Kevin Andersen, and b) the whole effort felt like a cash-grab on the part of the son. I may have judged them too harshly, I'll admit.

 

[R_J_K75]

I read a couple of those and didn't like them, although there may have been some bias on my part, as a) I've never liked Kevin Andersen, and b) the whole effort felt like a cash-grab on the part of the son. I may have judged them too harshly, I'll admit.

I knew nothing about them except that his son co-wrote them. I haven't read anything since then but think they wrote quite a few more, including finishing the OG series that his father started. So your cash grab claim may not be far from the truth, IDK. Seeing as I never finish Dune, I really wasn't all that invested in the those books so I may not have been biased as some people might have been going into them.

 

[Jmarso]

To be honest, for all its fame and importance in sci-fi, nothing in the Dune-verse grabs me beyond the first book. I read the first two sequels, and felt that each one was only about half as good as the one that came before it, so I stopped. For me personally, Dune is a one-shot: the first book. But oh man, how do I love that one book!!

 

[embee]

To be honest, for all its fame and importance in sci-fi, nothing in the Dune-verse grabs me beyond the first book. I read the first two sequels, and felt that each one was only about half as good as the one that came before it, so I stopped. For me personally, Dune is a one-shot: the first book. But oh man, how do I love that one book!!

That's pretty much the general consensus.

Dune Messiah is very good. Children of Dune is quite good. God Emperor of Dune is good but has really sort of lost the thread. And Heretics and Chapterhouse are drek.

 

[Jmarso]

Just looked and saw there are a couple Thursday night showings here, sort of like the old 'midnight release' but they do it at normal times. May have to jump on that train.

 

[Morrus]

And finally, again minor but big, the accents. I know that serious sci-fi is supposed to have English accents because it's Fakespeare. It's faux gravitas and it's stupid. So what happens when you jettison the fake English accents and have epic scifi with flat American accents? Everything just seems, well, flat. Not to mention that it leads to jarring American pronunciations like "HAR-kuh-nin" and Beast "Rabbin."

Well, from our point of view, that means the characters don't have flat accents! So it's a win for us!

 

[sgtnasty]

But what did you think?

No dialog for such an incredible cast. All the good dialog was cut.