For sure, we all do. I just never get the fanboy tribalism that has people attacking critics for having issues with a movie, especially a movie that the fan has not even seen. Edit to add:. I did complain about the I09 piece on the IMAX pre release event but that was because they were posting wrong info, not because they didn't like it/were judging it on its own merits instead of using supplementary material/future movie contents. Metacritic Page is now up. It debuts with 78% https://www.metacritic.com/movie/dune-2020
What did you expect from fans? Many don't take criticism well when it's about their favorite material. Most of what i've seen is very positive so fingers crossed the general audience sees it that way, paving the way for the sequel, if it hasn't been decided yet behind closed doors, which i think it has - productions like these take years and in case of sequels you have to lock down actors to a specific time so they're available when filming starts. Listening to the soundtrack now - wonderfully weird and energetic. Can't wait to see/hear it together with the movie.
Not being altogether surprised at some of the fanbase being a little toxic doesn't make it any less disappointing.
In fairness one review complained that the problem with the film was "too massive" which in fairness sounds like he doesn't get Dune
Damn.. Tickets are up for Wednesday, 15.09. at 20.30. ( hopefully i'll be on vacation by then or else i'll fall asleep over my work laptop the next day ). I've given friends notice to tell me who wants to come along or else i will go by myself ( last time i went to a movie by my own was when i was a Teenager, this is how much i want to see that movie ).
Still disappointed I couldn't do it as my birthday party, which I had planned for last year (my birthday is Dec 16th). I think you mean critic screenings? If public screenings aren't done nobody would ever see the movie.... Studios don't do critic screenings when they know the movie is going to be hated by them and don't want bad reviews prior to release. That's different from openings at film festivals/early public preview events, which have seperate screenings for critics and the public, but the public are there with cast/crew and have the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood party along with the specialness of seeing a movie early which trends to influence the overall reception of the movie by the audience.
I see some critics think Dune is basically a hero's journey when in fact, according to an interview with Frank Herbert in 1969, he intended it as a high-camp subversive parody of that type of narrative. Perhaps it is more akin to the tragedy of Faust when Dune Messiah is taken into account. Paul has effectively done a deal with the devil to defeat his enemies and unleashed a terrible force upon the universe that even he can't control. I hope Villeneuve gets to adapt that book. Children and God Emperor would be nice to see on screen but I doubt the box-office returns will fund sequels as far as those books.
I think it's less that critics think Dune is a white saviour/hero's journey and more that the movie, ending partway through the novel, is still establishing those tropes and hasn't had time to subvert them, and reviewers can only review the movie they are watching, not the source material. Most reviews I've read mentioning those issues have a wink wink nudge nudge line about how maybe in the sequel those will be subverted. They can't outright say it either because Lynch had Muad'Dib magically make it rain on Arrakis, and Jodorowski was having Paul turn into a hive mind God, so until the sequel is actually made who knows what will happen in it.
Even Frank Herbert didn't really subvert the narrative until Dune Messiah. Paul knows his victory will unleash a murderous jihad but it's only in the second book that we read that it costs the lives of 61 billion people.
It is in Dune though that we learn that Paul is utterly irrelevant, the Jihad is going to happen no matter what, and all Paul can do is try and limit its damage. But generally, yeah, it's Messiah and CoD where we see the fall out - Fremen living in suburbs bitching about leaving the door open so moisture escapes as their culture dies.
Yeah, it's something I often find myself pointing out; that Dune Messiah felt to me like Frank Herbert going back and rather emphatically underlining the subversive aspects of the original novel that people seemed to overlook (and indeed, continue to do so.) It was never a traditional hero's journey. Paul's accent to power was always intended to be a disastrous event for humanity in general.
Interview with Villeneuve on the making of Dune. https://www.thestar.com/entertainme...e-refused-to-be-deterred-and-this-is-why.html
Oh yeah, even without having Messiah, it was pretty clear where things headed after the end of Dune. Hopefully Villeneue and the rest of the movie team are brave enough to stick with Herbert's darker ending and don't give us a Hollywood happy ending.
Assuming part 2 ends like the book, a one-movie version of Messiah could make a fittingly tragic and moving end to the story told in Dune - Chani dies after giving birth, a blinded Paul wanders off into the desert to an uncertain fate, and Duncan is restored from his ghola Hayt (starting an existential eternal return-type nightmare). Children starts a new cycle that pretty much concludes in God Emperor with Siona, who is invisible to prescient vision, allowing humanity to scatter freely through the universe. Both pairs of books require extreme sacrifice by the main protagonist to try to set humankind on a path that does not lead to its extinction. It's perhaps appropriate as a metaphor to the sacrifices we all should make to ensure our future on this planet. Heretics and Chapterhouse are probably just too esoteric to be successful as movies. Children and God Emperor are borderline IMO.
I've been listening along while reading the book and it's a really good listen. Quite dark and has an almost horror story vibe especially in the Bene Gesserit song. I see it as a good sign and hopefully the movie has a similar tone