Poll Dune (2021) Spoiler/Rating Thread

Nah, Enterprise was always trash, but I have always liked the Lynch film and so did a lot of people. It’s not called a cult classic for nothing. Talk about robots, Chalamet only has one mode in this film: emo mumbler. The kid is wearing a black trench coat on a lovely spring day like it’s 1998 or something. I liked him in Little Women, but here he’s just awful. Everyone who isn’t Jason Momoa has the personality of plaster. And my god that droning music. Give me Brian Eno’s operatic guitars any day of the week.

 

IMHO Lynch's Dune is kinda like the Star Wars prequels - it's a big mess, but it's bad in ways in which the typical movie is not, which makes it at least interesting in its failure.

I believe this is actually true to the book though.

 

It’s not fun to sit through for two and a half hours, though. It wasn’t really fun to read either, but in the book there’s enough entertaining description of what’s going on that it kind of makes up for it. I think what Lynch adds to the story is a kind of eccentricity and weirdness that makes otherwise flat action and dialogue intriguing. There’s nothing eccentric about the new version.

 

I do think it would benefit from a lotr extended edition, as a complementary vision. I think he has made mistakes in the editing which come across quite clearly in the shallowness of much of the film outwith Paul and Jessica.

 

This is essentially what Richard Brody presents in his comparison of the two adaptations in The New Yorker - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ne...ront-row/review-a-dune-sanded-to-dullness/amp

 

The only part of the sound track from the Lynch's Dune performed by Eno was the Prophecy and definitely no guitars there The rest was all Toto (who on occasions have played the Desert Theme at concerts).

 

Ha! I don't always agree with Richard Brody's crotchety old man schpiel, but this time he nailed it. Lynch's film really hangs heavy over this one. Villeneuve seems to purposefully leave out famous lines from the book because they're so linked to the Lynch version. He's really systematic about stripping away all the color he can.

 

It's definitely a matter of perspective - what some of you call dull and colorless, I call grounded and realistic. YMMV & IDIC.

 

Part 2 officially a go.

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1199025-dune-part-two-announced-by-legendary-release-date

 

YAY!

 

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

 

I love that they have to state it will be exclusive at cinemas. We get it Denis. You don’t like the HBO Max deal.

 

From The Hollywood Reporter.

 

What you call "realistic" I call the overdone trend of desaturation.

 

That's pretty standard Hollywood talk.

 

I'm glad someone has the guts to say it. I'm over the hazy desaturated look that a lot of cinematographers seem to love. Soft and muted images don't suit every movie and I feel they did a disservice to this one.

 

You can like it, but I wouldn’t call it “realism”. The real world has always been fantastic and colorful, and those with means have always wanted to show off their wealth in gaudy ways. Look at any military uniform pre 20th century or what Greek and Egyptian temples looked like before 19th C archeologists scrubbed them clean. And they were working for people living in Versailles. I bet Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have toilets as gold as Trump’s. Only the fascists were restrained in their architecture and palette, and that’s because Hitler sucked as an artist. But even they had Hugo Boss.

 

Hopefully we won't be dealing with COVID variant Gamma or something in 2023...

Like I said, YMMV. I am curious though - have either of you been to a desert? I live in one and some parts are very "soft and muted".

However, by "realism", I meant more that 1) they used real sets and practical effects, which look more "real" to me than most CGI, and 2) I found the character actions and reactions more realistic than in the Lynch version. Again, it's a matter of opinion. I haven't seen the 1984 movie in ages, but liked it. I see both movies as valid interpretations of the material.

 

Anyone who’s been to Dubai or Cairo or Marrakech or Algiers knows the desert can be quite colorful.

 

I feel like character reactions in general are more realistic in Hollywood, starting with the mid 90s or so.