DUNE Movie: Thoughts, Opinions, and Impressions

[payn]

Might wait until (if?) Part 2 actually gets greenlit. From what I've heard this is an incomplete story, not satisfying, etc. Might be like other epics that are never completed (Eragon, John Carter, Golden Compass, etc)

Dune has made back its production budget so its heading in the profit direction. Part 2 will get greenlit soon. Go see it, its a good movie.

 

[Retreater]

Dune has made back its production budget so its heading in the profit direction. Part 2 will get greenlit soon. Go see it, its a good movie.

Well if it's on HBO I can. Not going to the movies just yet.

 

[Mallus]

The thing about Paul not being a savior figure has less to do with the Missionaria Protectiva propaganda campaign and more to do with Paul being a godawful savior.

 

[Umbran]

Well if it's on HBO I can. Not going to the movies just yet.

It is on HBO MAX. That's how I saw it as well.

 

[Marc_C]

Saw it this afternoon. My wife and I really liked it. The Lynch version has finally been erased from my brain. I screamed at the screen for more when the movie ended! Let's hope they make Part Two.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Might be like other epics that are never completed (Eragon, John Carter, Golden Compass, etc)

Golden Compass/His Dark Materials at least got a proper retelling as a 3-season TV series, so that is no longer a cliffhanger.

 

[aco175]

Watched the 1984 version Friday night and the new, 2021 version last night. I did not miss the self-talking dialogue, but think if I never seen the old one I would be missing some things having never read the book. The scenery was good and casting was fine. Not sure why they did not film both parts all at once.

 

[Mercurius]

Yes and no. In no way was it created as a holistic whole. Indeed, a great deal of it was published posthumously, edited by his son. Tolkien was not like JMS, with the whole arc worked out in most detail before he began.

Who or what is "JMS?"

And of course it wasn't created as a holistic whole. It was created bit by bit. But the world and story 'existed' before the LotR was written, and thus LotR grew out of an already existing, organic, and holistic world. And yes, he continued to work on it for another 30 years after he finished LotR, deepening it, fleshing out details that never made it into LotR. Actually, he wrote an excellent story, Leaf By Niggle, about his never-ending creative process, how perfection is never achieved.

But one of the things I'm trying to get at is that, from Tolkien's perspective, and I think from the perspective of most diehard Tolkien fans (or Tolkienistas, as I think Michael Moorcock called them, or was it China Mieville?), LotR was secondary to his larger artistic process. His magnum opus wasn't LotR or the Hobbit or even the Silmarillion. It was Middle-earth, and those were just expressions of it on paper. Whereas, to use your example, Fast and Furious is its own thing. Certainly there is a body of "lore" that has been accumulated from all the movies, and I'm guessing someone has made a F&F wiki (I've never even seen a single F&F movie, so have no idea). But all of the F&F universe was created to serve the story, the films being all that really matters; they are the prima materia. Tolkien's books--not to mention the films--were expressions of his artistic project, not the thing itself. And I think that's partially why Fall of Gondolin matters, at least if one wants to really experience the heart of Tolkien's creation, his own prima materia: Middle-earth itself.

 

[RangerWickett]

Who or what is "JMS?"

J Michael Straczynski, the show-runner for Babylon 5. He famously was the first person to write every episode of a whole season of TV.

 

[AtomicPope]

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.

God Emperor of Dune felt like Herbert was trying to close the main plot threads so he could move on. Not to mention, explore themes that were glossed over in the previous three books. I really liked GEoD for those reasons. It was really the end of a era for me.