It really should have had more intrigue and fewer explosions and mobs of men running towards each other.
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Soā¦youāre saying they Hobbitized Dune?
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While weāre talking about terrible things done to Dune.
I mean, come on. Even the film touched on it not being a wasteland. The book was literally about how the desert ecology is a foundation for an entire empire. Come on.
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True wordsā¦I like the eyegasmn but it could have been 3 minutes shorter to have 3 minutes of politics and intrigue in it instead
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You never read God Emperor of Dune? That was my favorite of the sequels. Itās bold but not off the walls nutty like the last couple.
I have not. I own it on Audiobook, but have not listened to it yet. I was always behind on my audiobooks.
Before the pandemic started I had a commute of an hour each way to work on the subway, which is when I did my āreading.ā But since the pandemic I have been fully remote and changed companies to a fully remote company.
So I need to think about carving out time to read again. But it eats into video game playing time.
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I would totally watch this as a movie. Itās too niche for Marvel to ever actually do, unfortunatelyā¦
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On a movie adjacent subject, I entered a competition when I saw free guy in the cinema. A week later my country went into lockdown. I wonder how few entries they got for the competition, considering the winner had to have bought a cinema ticket.
To make a long story short, after watching free guy I won an Xbox series S and a $263 gift card. Why $263 and not $250? Who knows. I received them both today.
I never win anything. My kids gonna be stoked when he sees what weāve won
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Awesome
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I hadnāt considered some of this.
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Somehow Iām not surprised you visit a website called unmitigated pedantry
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But true.
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Having finally seen Dune (on the small screen , alas), Iām going to agree with kennfusionās take about the lack of deep politics in the movie. I donāt have a problem so much with the screenplay but with the dialogue itself. The writers just dribbled bits of dialogue here and there but rarely did a scene take fire. I was very pleased by the two small scenes they added (they are not in the novel), but a LOT of time was wasted showing us vistas and flying things and visions, etc., when I think the audience needs the relationships nailed down first.
I was also surprised that the mentats had so little screen time. I loved the inclusion of the languages, but had difficulty understanding many of the principals, esp Paul, who mumbled as teenagers will, but come on, KH!
Definitely an improvement on the previous cinematic versions, but I hope the director picks up the pace.
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I also finally just watched it (also on the small screen) and agree with a lot of whatās been said here. Paul comes off (I assume intentionally) as much more of a teenager than Kyle MacLachlin did, and Iām ok with that take on the character because he was a teen. I found some of the dialogue, though, a little jarring in its unevenness. Some scenes lean towards the Shakespearean in tone, while others sound like they could be from the Top Gun remake (Paulās first scene with Duncan, for example, which was otherwise useful).
Rebecca Ferguson steals the show. Thereās other good acting, but she pwns everyone else. And I say that having recently seen the awful Reminiscence and never having felt like she brought very much to any of her roles that Iād seen. Her scenes are riveting for the most part, and her character is made very 3-dimensional. Paulās dad, Gurney, and even Duncan are mostly one dimensional to me.
Agree with @Natus that there was too much time on vistas and explosions and armies. More time on politics and relationships would have much better served the movie.
I did enjoy it, certainly, but more so because it was Dune and not due to the production itself. Iām in the minority, but I think I still prefer the Lynch movie. I mean, Dune is a strange, unusual book, and Lynch really captured that weirdness in the way that only he can. DV is creating Dune by way of Cecil B DeMille.
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Great analysis, and I entirely agree about Fergusonā¦she was the heart and soul of the movie because nobody else was allowed to be. I feel they almost got a great Leto out of Isaac, an actor I havenāt seen deploy his strengths. But as usual, Leto doesnāt get to blossom into a true tragic hero. Second standout performance was Rampling as the Reverend Mother. Astonishing acting, and I understood every word.
Itās funny that you mention the Lynch film. Iāve really loathed it all these years but my god the man packed a lot in. Look what an impression Dourif made as Piter in that time! Maybe all the acting was over the top, but we sure knew who these people were.
A number of people on various forums have mourned the lack of the Atreides banquet, and now I really agree with them. Get all the various characters in once place, pour the spice wine, and go to town. But that requires some dialogue chops, which the screenwriters clearly do not have.
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The Running Man. A very mixed bag. Some genuinely good touches and competent creation, mixed with aborted ideas and absolute shit. A series of very Strong Looks, if youāll pardon the pun, for Arnold, including a very fetching blacksmith outfit complete with beard, a builder outfit including braces and childās safety helmet, a rebellious gilet/shirt combo with, of course, the sleeves pushed up, and what I refer to as Hawaiian Pimp:
Where the film is at its best is in the depiction of a television studio, its sets, and audiences, and there are some great performances and dialogue, not least from serial kisser Richard Dawson, who is perfect as Killian. Maria Conchita Alonso is just another ethnic Arnold girlfriend and does the best she can with an awful role; the scene of her tied up on her exercise equipment is someoneās very specific fantasy, I think, and I find it disturbing no-one spotted that in the script, probably because the script was largely written on set, as the director, literally Starsky from Starsky and Hutch, was the third man thrown into the pit to deal with the film overrunning its budget.
The film has some odd scenes, including a very obvious insert to undo a twist that must have been too shocking in the Dark Ages of 1987, but also has some great acting even from actors in small roles, who are often the best thing (in fact, the only good thing) in otherwise disposable scenes. Jesse Ventura is an obvious candidate, but Jim Brown and Kurt Fuller make what should be very pedestrian appearances distinctive.
Not a good film by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot to enjoy and dig through. Shout out to what may be the most 80s soundtrack of all time, including Yaphet Kotto dying with what sounds like video game music playing softly in the background, and an ending song with enough cringe in it to kill a goth teen.
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Were you just listening to this, that just came out for free ? I have in the middle of it. They say a lot of what you said
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