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.
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.
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.
Presume the pitch meeting guy will have so many open goals for this movie
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I read the first 3 books - are the last 3 worth reading? I needed a break as I read the first 3 one after another and i was going spice mad ;-p
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are probably out there on their own with the general public but Dune will certainly be in the level down. I'm talking about Terminator, Alien or Independence Day level following.
Enjoyed it and liked the fact it got a bit more weirder than the first one. But some of the story progression is a bit all over the shop and also highly rushed. For example, too much time was spent making an eegit out of Bardem's character it was hard to take his few non-eegity scenes seriously at all. Looks amazing and all that but the story progression let it down a good bit. I get they have to try to fit all the stuff in from the books and nobody really wants to be looking at a desert for 5 hours, so there is that. Been hearing all this noise from the likes of Christopher Nolan, putting this on par with "The Empire Strikes Back" though, Shtap, shtap, shtap.
went again today with my wife. I very rarely rewatch a film I’ve already seen and the last time I took a repeated trip to the cinema was The fellowship of the Ring. But I jumped at the chance to see again. It’s glorious. That opening line “he who controls the spice controls the universe”, sang in those vocals… man, it gave me goosebumps. It’s like a battle cry. It’s peak cinema.
Timmy C is so perfect as Paul, he’s exactly that charismatic type you genuinely believe in. For the 2nd time I walked out of the movie and had to remind myself this guy isn’t a protagonist. We’ll be looking back in years to come wondering how this film packed in so much talent. Butler, Chalamet, Zendaya, Pugh, Taylor-Joy… every one of them will be huge.
In terms of sequels, I think it’s up there with The Dark knight and Godfather Part 2.
Can totally see Tim Blake Nelson as Hasimir Fenring. Had he and McKinley both been kept in the cut? The aftermath of the Paul V Feyd fight would have drawn more out of Walken.
I'd also hazard that had McKinley been kept in the cut? That much more could have been made of Atriedes honour and fealty, they care for their own.
Yet again (IIRC), Villeneuve has said there won't be a directors cut at all (not that that has stopped studios from pushing out "alternate" cuts under directors' noses), but interestingly cut scenes involve Tim Blake Nelson, who had been announced as cast but disappeared from the theatrical cut - no clue who he was meant to play - and Stephen McKinley Henderson, who remained a character in the back half of the book.
Dune: Part Two – 8.5/10
I think there are three levels on which one can enjoy this film:
1. As a piece of narrative story-telling. Being into the characters and being emotionally invested
2. As a piece of world building and atmosphere driven sci-fi
3. As a cinematic spectacle and shining example of progressive technical achievement
For me, it’s almost entirely 2 & 3.
I’m shocked by how much George Lucas plagiarised the original novel(s). Star Wars is basically this but with a few specifics tweaked. The reason I bring this up as I think it is a great comparison in terms of characters and how much they resonate with the audience. Star Wars hit every one of the three levels I set out, especially number 1. You just believe the characters and you root for the rebellion from start to finish. When you find out that Vader is Luke’s Father you FEEL the impact etc…
Dune doesn’t reach that level at all imo. I have a great admiration for Timothée Chalamet, but I can’t help but feel like I want him to be a better actor than he is. When I’m watching Dune, I’m not seeing Paul Atreides. I’m seeing Timothée Chalamet. Instead of rooting for Paul and his character within the Dune story, I’m rooting for Timothée and hoping he proves his acting chops. When I say that Rebecca Ferguson is the best thing in these films, I mean the actor rather than the character of Lady Jessica.
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy jumped into my mind immediately after seeing it. Much like LOTR, Dune is a film that will be loved by many but despised by a vocal minority. It’s the sort of production that doesn’t come along very often. It will have huge longevity and its own loyal fandom who will utterly adore everything Dune related. I’ve been to the cinema over 100 times in the last 2 years (since it opened) and I’ve not seen anything like this. Despite that lack of ‘level 1’ enjoyment, it still resonated with me for a day or so afterwards. The world building and level of spectacle on show is just way too immense. I’m fully expecting my second viewing in iMax to blow my bloody socks off.
Where most are enthralled by the spectacle, others won’t be able to get past their lack of connection to the story. Which is understandable. To not feel for the characters shows that there’s is something that isn’t working, and no amount of technical wizardry is going to solve that.
Perhaps with further viewings and a deeper understanding of some of the rushed plot points, I will eventually connect with the story a bit more, but for now 2 out of 3 is more than enough for me.
With Villeneuve reportedly story boarding Dune since his teens, I'd hardly think you could say it wasn't for him.
The art direction was great and you can see Villeneuve borrowed a fair bit from it too.
My introduction to Dune was Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis. I still say "battle of Arrakis" in my head every time I hear someone talk about Dune pt.II
Oh it's a completely superficial treatment of the story, and as you said the Weirding Modules was an odd choice, but it's a film whose appeal lies solely in its baroque, utterly sensual aesthetic. In some ways it front-loaded the more philsophhical, surrealist nature of the later novels.
Notable that the Westwood Studios video-game adaptations of Dune would use the 1984 film's aesthetic as its cue; man I do nostalgically miss those days of FMV cut-scenes, especially in the RTS genre. Commander Worf as Duke Atreides? Yes please.
His take on "the voice" as the trigger to fire Wielding guns was a massive mistake on his part. That and his panto Harkonnen's (not that Villeneuve isnt guilty of similar) made the movie look a bit silly. He also doesn't really tackle the deeper themes of Dune.
Yeah I saw Lynch’s Dune in the cinema a few years ago and it felt like a fever dream. So loud and odd. It’s all over the gaff narratively, but it’s very similar to this movie - to the point I got Deja vu as it hits so many similar scenes and narrative beats. This one just has space to actually develop scenes and ideas, whereas that crams everything into an unwieldy whole 😅
But as far as production design goes, there’s something viscerally weird about Lynch’s Dune, which the new version loses in favour of narrative coherency.
I have no shame in saying I absolutely love Lynch's Dune. Between the soundtrack, set design and cast it definitely has a lot going for it. After watching almost six hours of Villeneuve's Dune I'm also amazed Lynch managed to fit so much of the story into under two and a half hours.
I think there's actually a great film in there somewhere that Lynch could bring out if he were to do a properly edited directors cut. (not that he'd ever go anywhere near it! 😥)
It is ... quite something how well that fits into the vibe of Lynch's Dune!
I still maintain a fondness for that 80s version, even if its plot and faithfulness to the book was threadbare, it was a fabulous fever dream of a thing.
And it was about as close as we're likely to get to seeing a Navigator on the big screen; methinks Villeneuve's version will stay clear of those (not sure if we maybe saw them in part 1, at the start, behind the Emperor's spokesperson).
Alternate cut...... [PAC]
Indeed the films only go so far. He did an excellent job of adapting the book into films that worked for both readers and non-readers, but if you haven't read the book you are missing out, a lot more will make more sense if you know the backstory.
