I also hate sci-fi/fantasy as a general rule, but enjoyed Dune for the same reasons – it’s incredibly well done for what it is, and is enjoyable solely on the basis of being so masterfully rendered.
Although I did laugh out loud when Jason Momoa and Timothee Chalamet squared off for a mock fight. I know Chalamet is a heart-throb, but he makes Kodi Smit-McPhee look butch in comparison.
Dune without Sean Young is like La Dolce Vita without Anita Eckberg or Casablanca without Ingrid Bergman, Some Like It Hot without Marilyn Monroe or Bladerunner without, yes, Sean Young. Why watch it? (And don’t get me started on Kenneth “Bannon” McMillan’s replacement.)
Mar 25, 2022·edited Mar 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
May I clarify if this is a Best Picture nominee? SMDH
The sci-fi brethern will want to come to blows over this, but Dune always struck me as dull & pretentious. Therefore Lynch's adaptation was perfect -- why take it any more seriously? _Why keep fucking re-making it???_
It's White Savior nonsense, pushing the idea of the Good Colonialist & the fantasy that an outsider can come into a native spiritual system & Just Be Better at It. Plus its ham-handed appropriation of Islamic mystical terms.
For fuck's sake, it's 2022 -- white America hasn't gotten over this delusion yet?
Despite this write-up, I am reluctant to see this movie. The books were delightful when I was in college, but Herbert's writing doesn't hold up as the years go by. And by their very nature, the books do not lend themselves to being made into movies. The previous attempts were obvious flops (though Jose Ferrer did astonishing work in his role). Maybe I catch this on cable?
Dune - I mean the movie was ok, but the book is probably the only Sci-fi epic I really liked. The Bene gessuits are def not concubines and I don’t like how they were depicted. - The OG Secret Mystical Sisterhood are the supernatural bad asses and basically rule the entire Dune universe with their power. Die hard Dune fans have conflicting perspectives on the remake. I admit, it was closer to the storyline of the book.
My reaction to Dune was similar to that of West Side Story: I enjoyed both well enough, both were gorgeously shot, had great scores/soundtracks, solid performances, beautiful sets and costumes, etc. all the big screen bells & whistles. But…at the end of the day…they were remakes of remakes of stuff I’d read ages ago, and I walked out feeling, “meh.” Nothing really wrong with them, but I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to dedicate two or three hours to reruns.
Mar 25, 2022·edited Mar 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
I watched this last night - I loved how it looked! You are exactly right about it though.
I enjoyed the casting and the performances. ( special shout out to the No Country for Old Men reunion. Though they surely could have found something for Tommy Lee Jones to do) Much more than I expected.
It was still Dune though. Interesting ideas tied to a clunky plot .(Meanwhile back on Arrakis...) Man did it ever look great though.
They are shooting a lot of the sequel in IMAX. I get a huge headache just thinking about IMAX but I might risk that to see some of this imagery on that big a canvas .
I read Dune in like 1974 . I remember it was a big trade paperback and on the back cover it said" a towering Masterpiece of Science Fiction"
And" perhaps the greatest science fiction novel ever written!"* I remember it being a big idea book for people who didn't really like science fiction
("Arrakis is like, Vietnam man and Spice is like, LSD")
What ever. I read "Gravity's Rainbow about the same time. Dune was insignificant compared to that.
* "Stars My Destination" takes that prize . Third the length of Dune and 10 or 12 times better.
Gotta admit, having a problem with the whole "sci-fi and fantasy are inherently childish" thing. Agree that, like any other genre, they need interesting, fully developed characters.
Mar 25, 2022·edited Mar 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
Hold it, hold it, wait for it: I see... a mashup of /Dune/ and /Lawrence of Arabia/! Peter O'Toole rides a giant sandworm through the desert to carve out the boundaries of the post-war Arab world, and the natives ululate in full Dolby-powered approval! Then there's the crisis, as one of O'Toole's Arab friends pursues an enemy across the sacred wormline, and O'Toole has to have him sentenced to be eaten by the worm. Then all the natives start waving their scimitars, and everything falls apart, it's like the end of Camelot!
Hold it, hold it: a mashup of /Dune/ and /Lawrence/ AND /Camelot/! We can have grand scenery AND political commentary AND singing and dancing! It can't miss! It'll be bigger than /Scott of the Sahara/!
'It made me wish I’d seen it in a theater and still took drugs.' Yeah, those were the days.
I know it's passé in an Oscar context but 'No time to die' was the 5th film in a quietly marvelous series of Bond films and Dan Craig did a fabo job of rebooting the series.
A shame there's no recognition (apart from nearly 4 billion dollars in ticket sales) for Craig's probably 8-10 years work and fairly fine performances, especially in Quantum of Solace and the last film.
Exactly! Is there some rule that says "Thou shalt NOT enjoy both SF/Fantasy films AND Scorcese, et al"? This is a false dichotomy. I like movies and pretty much everything that inspired directors to make movies.
The new Dune is fun and looks amazing but can never replace the inexplicable bizarreness of Lynch's. Imagine if he'd gotten ~5 hours across two movies to do his thing. But my point is I really wanted the new one to be weirder. (It's possible I'm too accustomed to the outlines of the basic plot to appreciate what weirdness is there.)
Small thing, but wondering if the robot bug assassin is an assassin bug: (Warning--bugs) https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/landscape/others/ent-1003/
I also hate sci-fi/fantasy as a general rule, but enjoyed Dune for the same reasons – it’s incredibly well done for what it is, and is enjoyable solely on the basis of being so masterfully rendered.
Although I did laugh out loud when Jason Momoa and Timothee Chalamet squared off for a mock fight. I know Chalamet is a heart-throb, but he makes Kodi Smit-McPhee look butch in comparison.
Dune without Sean Young is like La Dolce Vita without Anita Eckberg or Casablanca without Ingrid Bergman, Some Like It Hot without Marilyn Monroe or Bladerunner without, yes, Sean Young. Why watch it? (And don’t get me started on Kenneth “Bannon” McMillan’s replacement.)
May I clarify if this is a Best Picture nominee? SMDH
The sci-fi brethern will want to come to blows over this, but Dune always struck me as dull & pretentious. Therefore Lynch's adaptation was perfect -- why take it any more seriously? _Why keep fucking re-making it???_
It's White Savior nonsense, pushing the idea of the Good Colonialist & the fantasy that an outsider can come into a native spiritual system & Just Be Better at It. Plus its ham-handed appropriation of Islamic mystical terms.
For fuck's sake, it's 2022 -- white America hasn't gotten over this delusion yet?
Despite this write-up, I am reluctant to see this movie. The books were delightful when I was in college, but Herbert's writing doesn't hold up as the years go by. And by their very nature, the books do not lend themselves to being made into movies. The previous attempts were obvious flops (though Jose Ferrer did astonishing work in his role). Maybe I catch this on cable?
Dune - I mean the movie was ok, but the book is probably the only Sci-fi epic I really liked. The Bene gessuits are def not concubines and I don’t like how they were depicted. - The OG Secret Mystical Sisterhood are the supernatural bad asses and basically rule the entire Dune universe with their power. Die hard Dune fans have conflicting perspectives on the remake. I admit, it was closer to the storyline of the book.
Bunch of Grumpy Olds in these parts!
I mean, I'm an Old and I'm Grumpy in many ways. But, c'mon.
My reaction to Dune was similar to that of West Side Story: I enjoyed both well enough, both were gorgeously shot, had great scores/soundtracks, solid performances, beautiful sets and costumes, etc. all the big screen bells & whistles. But…at the end of the day…they were remakes of remakes of stuff I’d read ages ago, and I walked out feeling, “meh.” Nothing really wrong with them, but I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to dedicate two or three hours to reruns.
"Dune"
"Children of Dune"
"Alimony is a Bitch Dune"
"Do You Know How Much It Costs To Put A Kid Through School Dune"
"I'm Taking Over Dad's Franchise Dune"
I watched this last night - I loved how it looked! You are exactly right about it though.
I enjoyed the casting and the performances. ( special shout out to the No Country for Old Men reunion. Though they surely could have found something for Tommy Lee Jones to do) Much more than I expected.
It was still Dune though. Interesting ideas tied to a clunky plot .(Meanwhile back on Arrakis...) Man did it ever look great though.
They are shooting a lot of the sequel in IMAX. I get a huge headache just thinking about IMAX but I might risk that to see some of this imagery on that big a canvas .
I read Dune in like 1974 . I remember it was a big trade paperback and on the back cover it said" a towering Masterpiece of Science Fiction"
And" perhaps the greatest science fiction novel ever written!"* I remember it being a big idea book for people who didn't really like science fiction
("Arrakis is like, Vietnam man and Spice is like, LSD")
What ever. I read "Gravity's Rainbow about the same time. Dune was insignificant compared to that.
* "Stars My Destination" takes that prize . Third the length of Dune and 10 or 12 times better.
Gotta admit, having a problem with the whole "sci-fi and fantasy are inherently childish" thing. Agree that, like any other genre, they need interesting, fully developed characters.
On the other hand, if one's a superficial nerd-with-issues like me...
Hold it, hold it, wait for it: I see... a mashup of /Dune/ and /Lawrence of Arabia/! Peter O'Toole rides a giant sandworm through the desert to carve out the boundaries of the post-war Arab world, and the natives ululate in full Dolby-powered approval! Then there's the crisis, as one of O'Toole's Arab friends pursues an enemy across the sacred wormline, and O'Toole has to have him sentenced to be eaten by the worm. Then all the natives start waving their scimitars, and everything falls apart, it's like the end of Camelot!
Hold it, hold it: a mashup of /Dune/ and /Lawrence/ AND /Camelot/! We can have grand scenery AND political commentary AND singing and dancing! It can't miss! It'll be bigger than /Scott of the Sahara/!
'It made me wish I’d seen it in a theater and still took drugs.' Yeah, those were the days.
I know it's passé in an Oscar context but 'No time to die' was the 5th film in a quietly marvelous series of Bond films and Dan Craig did a fabo job of rebooting the series.
A shame there's no recognition (apart from nearly 4 billion dollars in ticket sales) for Craig's probably 8-10 years work and fairly fine performances, especially in Quantum of Solace and the last film.
"just don't think too hard about it"
Exactly! Is there some rule that says "Thou shalt NOT enjoy both SF/Fantasy films AND Scorcese, et al"? This is a false dichotomy. I like movies and pretty much everything that inspired directors to make movies.
The new Dune is fun and looks amazing but can never replace the inexplicable bizarreness of Lynch's. Imagine if he'd gotten ~5 hours across two movies to do his thing. But my point is I really wanted the new one to be weirder. (It's possible I'm too accustomed to the outlines of the basic plot to appreciate what weirdness is there.)