Denis Villeneuve’s Dune

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121860037#Comment_121860037

I dunno; I think Dune could well live up there with SW and LotR with the general public's perception of the Big Ones, purely down to it being a "star power" blockbuster epic that seems to have gone down quite well with broader demographics. For sure as you say it's gonna float around the top tier for the next few years.

Obviously it's all splitting hairs but as I saw with someone's review on letterbox, I suspect Dune will be one of those series that like LotR, for a small percentage it'll be something they just can't get behind. Which is obviously fine, opinions differ n' all that.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121860037#Comment_121860037

Yeah, I'm talking about the writing aspect for motion pictures such as this, not the thematic/visual 'brand' of it. Without going into spoiler territory, I think the first 20 to 30 minutes of this could have been cut in order to prolong the final third act. They didn't have to leap into this straight from the last one, in fact, I thought they hadn't done so, until I saw the body of yer man.

The final act is extremely rushed and clunky. It needed to be fleshed out more. It's not smooth in the way the story flows in Empire Strikes Back. Now, I don't have a biased fan complex trying to make out the brand of 'Star Wars' is better, sorry if that's how it came across. The majority of Star Wars is poor, but the writing/story execution of Empire Strikes Back is standalone brilliant, far better than this. This is technically brilliant, fantastic spectacle on the big screen and everyone should go see it, just for me, the writing aspect could have been better.

EagererBeaver

Enjoyed it but I'm trying to stay more loyal to the book I think he, knowingly or otherwise, sacrificed the pacing of the movie. A solid 30 mins could have been edited. I get they needed to set up Feyd but almost the entire Giedi Prime scenes could have gone and I'd not have missed it.

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121848339#Comment_121848339

I actually really enjoyed how it closed out. Some movies rely on having longer action set pieces at the end but it isn’t alway necessary.

I can’t put on spoiler tags so;

In the same way I accepted the Sardauker and Harkonnen could quickly dispatch the strong but unprepared Atreides in the first film, it works that the Sardauker could be steamrolled with a combination of atomic weapons, worms and basically being surrounded by Fremen. The duel also didn’t go on too long.

gmisk

Saw this morning absolutely loved it, proper epic.

Zendaya and Bardem were excellent, Butler was also really good too, proper scary.

Negatives Christopher Walken...was well himself, I would also say needed more Florence Pugh but I am guessing a lot more of her in part 3.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870621#Comment_121870621

Pugh was great but the character is just a prop in the first book. The amount of fleshing out Villeneuve managed to do for her was fantastic. What we saw was an Irulan that you really don't see till later on in the books.

She really makes you pay attention when on screen. Was also really impressed by Ferguson who I didn't really know. Another real scene stealer.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870641#Comment_121870641

Pugh was excellent but wanted more of her no idea on books tbh, Ferguson is always really good totally agree on that (if you want to see her on top form the TV show Silo is excellent and she is lead).

EagererBeaver

Had heard some negatives about Walken basically playing Christopher Walken (Mark Kermode) but tbh, he had so little dialogue that I didn't really get that.

Zendaya and Butler were the stars of the show for me. Pugh was terrific in her limited role.

Bardem started to annoy me a bit towards the end. Not sure they managed to really capture the religious fervour aspect of things

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870641#Comment_121870641

The moment Ferguson just stared at a bunch of Fremen women and children was such a wonderful moment of pure predatory instinct. She was sizing them up in such a psychotic way you saw early on just how tragic the whole story was gonna end up on a societal level.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121870692#Comment_121870692

Silo was one of the best TV shows of the last couple of years. Definitely deserves eyeballs and a lot of it was Ferguson, who played someone inherently spiky and unlikable with almost supernatural deftness.

breezy1985

I didn't watch Silo because it had that well worn post apocalypse bunker society plot but I'm gonna give it a go now.

Homelander

Really enjoyed it, the execution is absolutely incredible. It's just such a beautiful movie.

I feel the movies leave so many obvious questions unanswered but I guess there's only so much focus they can have given the scope of what's being portrayed.

My only negative takeaway from Part Two is Christopher Walken. Seriously, an awful choice, and he's neither good nor convincing in the movie. Everyone else is absolutely at the top of their game, flawless.

Foxtrol

Great movie. Visuals and score were fantastic and though there are flaws it is totally engrossing. Delighted Villeneuve managed to keep the movie into the runtime he did, some other directors can take note. Feel I would have stayed sucked in but much rather being left wanting more. Another 'must see in theaters' movie that should give it legs

As we chatted about it afterwards there seemed to a far more plot holes than the first one, or most movies that get the positive thumbs up from critics. Seemed to ignore all logic to set up the action set pieces they wanted.

• The use of swords against personal shields is explained in Dune but the Fremen don't have personal shields yet swords are chosen against them time and again rather than using projectiles at a distance. Every time guns are used against the Fremen they were slaughtered but no one decided to take on that strategy
• The power of Fremen weaponry swings wildly, being extremely powerful that could take out transports from a distance one minute and needing to hide in the sand for hand to hand combat the next
• The Emperor lines his infantry to just stand around in the sun for no reason waiting to be attacked in the usual giant third act CGI fest
• No one bothering to try to locate the Fremen base and then being able to find it easily once the new boss shows up
• Sand worms built up as extremely difficult to catch and ride and zero evidence that they can be gotten to stop, yet children, old and injured people seem to be able to get onboard with no issues

Presume the pitch meeting guy will have so many open goals for this movie

EagererBeaver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121876877#Comment_121876877

Feyd rocking up and attacking Sietch Tabr had me laughing as well.

Also, the extreme difficulty for the Harkkonen of pushing south due to all the storms...while being a space faring civilization.

I texted a friend before going in saying how excited I was about the worm riding, and that I thought it was great, but I would be really, really annoyed if it didn't show us how they dismount. Apparently Villeneuve has said it's something for the next movie though.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877032#Comment_121877032

What I want to know is how they got Jessica's carriage on and off.

As for the Harkonnen's and everyone else that are actually not space faring because all ships are controlled by the spacing guild and they were payed off by the Fremen (but only the book explained this)

For a movie watcher it will become like how in Star Trek they could never just warp around an anomaly or why the eagles couldn't fly Frodo to Mordor.

Thargor

I didnt understand the Fremen attack strategy on the first spice harvester either, run down to it and crawl around under it in order to shoot down the thopters? But then just blast it with lasers from miles away on a random dune anyway? It made no sense.

Also the power of the Sardukar and the reverend mothers did not come across at all.

Christopher Walken absolutely abysmal.

Enjoyed it though, think that was my first time in the cinema since Top Gun, used to be a 1-2 times a week thing for me. Sad times.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877798#Comment_121877798

But then just blast it with lasers from miles away on a random dune anyway? It made no sense.

Because if they didn't shoot down the copters first, as soon as they fired the lasers those Fremen would have been shot at by the aircraft. The lasers are concentrated beams so you'd be exposed while firing it - unless the harvesters' cover was destroyed first.

CatInABox

This is one of those things that's somewhat explained in the books, with a laser hitting a shield resulting in a nuclear (or at least, very large) explosion both at the point of contact and at the laser source.

Why this isn't exploited as a military tactic is never really explained either, not beyond "that's not how we do things" or "the houses wouldn't like it".

With a book like Dune, there's always going to be a limit to the amount of history and world building you can get across and still make an enjoyable movie, so this is just one of those things that the director expects you to just brush over. I personally am totally ok with it when the rest of the movie is off a good standard, and this is a great movie, IMO.

Homelander

This was what I mentioned earlier. I think there's a million unanswered questions that nearly all have perfectly reasonable answers in the books but are just glossed over by the film and can be seen to create plot holes, illogical moments or inconsistencies.

A friend explained the worm riding to me as portrayed in the books and it makes sense but it's weird that the film didn't address this at all, even if just by having a character explain it as an answer to an obvious question.

breezy1985

The Lazer thing doesn't have much of an explanation in the book other than it being "science wiency sci-fi stuff"

Basically Herbert said it was just a plot device to not make the book a big sci-fi shootout.

odyssey06

They should have given the Fremen some cool weapons... like a weirding module...

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Twmc6jUrNw

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878358#Comment_121878358

And a war pug.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878365#Comment_121878365

That enhances the weirding effect, it is not just for show...

corks finest

I'd rather Dennis Waterman's Minded😯

Thargor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877922#Comment_121877922

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878143#Comment_121878143

I know that, Dune is my favourite series of all time apart from The Prince of Nothing but 10-20 of them got massacred anyway (and looked like they didnt expect the thopters to shoot them while they were doing it for some reason?), it just seemed a bit pointless running down there. Also the laser wasnt on for longer than 3 seconds before it had burned out both harvesters.

Shields didnt come into it btw, shields on the sand make the worms crazy. Harvesters are unshielded. If it had been a case that they had to go down there to disable the shields first then that would have made some sense.

2smiggy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878365#Comment_121878365

haven't seen Dune 2 yet, but you are telling me there is no War Pug ? what were they thinking

pixelburp

Quick question for those that have read more of the books than me BTW: I hear a lot of saltiness towards Brian Herbert's follow-up books; what was/is it about those books that are so bad? Is it just that the son's a bad writer in his own right, or did it just upend the "canon" and universe in bad ways? Always curious about the spin-offs but have seen so much negativity aimed at their writers I've stayed clear.

Osmosis Jones

I loved Bardem in this, very comedic and also profoundly sad performance of a leader so invested in "the prophecy" that he's abandoning all else he believes in. It's a real contrast to his presence in Part One.

And his hammy "Lisan al Gaib" shouts every time Paul did basically anything were both fitting and funny.

cnocbui

Finally managed to extract the digit and fire off a complaint to Odeon about the painful sound level, distortion and buzzing driver.

ixoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882460#Comment_121882460

If these hypothetical books existed, they'd be bad because they'd be very poorly written (with co-writer Kevin J. Anderson). Cash-ins to mine Dune stories that previously had an air of mystery but now are rendered bland and boring.

Fortunately no such books exist to set my teeth grinding.

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891302#Comment_121891302

Indeed, we're all very lucky that they didn't push out books like those. Always astonished that they didn't make a fourth Indiana Jones movie, or continue making Star Wars movies after the third one....