logo Sign In

Dune - Denis Villeneuve — Page 5

Author
Time

I finally got to see this… Also, new to this thread.

Cast in this is phenomenal, visuals are the same. I read the novel a very long time ago. Seems pretty faithful, though I agree with another poster that more plot could have been added. Maybe by trimming a few extraneous Zendaya perfume commercials. I get it. He’s dreaming of the future, let’s move on.

Felt a bit sleepy in parts, but I’m invested and ready to see more.

Author
Time

Didn’t like it. Don’t hate it either. In my opinion it’s way to long and doesn’t have anything to say really. It touches upon multiple difficult topics, sure, but it either doesn’t follow through with them or it just straight up fails them. For example, take the spice mining thing about exploitation of both the people and the land. The people are introduced as warriors fighting for their freedom from the oppressors, but we don’t know what they are fighting for. Nothing is said about their culture apart from fighting. Also we don’t see in which way they are oppressed, they are shown to be the aggressor attacking a farming ship right in the beginning. In fact the Harkonens don’t even know how many of them are on arrakis, which makes it look like they just ignored them? Hardly what I would call criticism of colonialism. If they would have been enslaved by them or imprisoned or rounded up and killed in large numbers by the Harkonnens, that would have been criticism, but we aren’t shown any of that.
Now on to the exploiting the land trope. This is much better supported by what is shown in the movie, but its just feels so artificial. This planet might be exploited for its natural resources, but we aren’t shown the scars that this endeavor caused. The Planet is a wasteland, but not BECAUSE of the spice mining, but because it was a desert to BEGIN WITH!? WHYYYYY, there is so much potential flushed down the toilet, its infuriating.

Anyways there are other things that bugged me, like the confuse political landscape and the nonsensical plot, (why take care of the astreides, via luring them to Arrakis and buffing the herkonnten, if the harkonnen, the wipe the floor with them and are the much more obvious thread to this emperor?) or the ever repeating color palate. I get that desert are beige, but please give some contrast every once in a while. For example give Pauls vision some visiual distinguishability or give the few natives that we see more colorful cloths or give the city on Arrakis some bright colors to show that it doesn’t belong to this world. Anything to break the everlasting dullness of it all.

So to round things up after a more thorough rant than intended, I am disappointed, I expected more, good night.

P.S.: Is it just me, who thought that the water animation after the astreides ship took off looked awful.

“Vader! Hologram, now!”

Author
Time

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Author
Time

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

George?

Author
Time

Rodney-2187 said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

George?

I’m sorry, I don’t follow.

Author
Time

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Author
Time

StarkillerAG said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

George Miller commented on this when making Mad Max: Fury Road, saying he deliberately went against the trend of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic movies having drab, muted colours by making his latest entry in the Mad Max series as colourful as possible.

Author
Time

StarkillerAG said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

Especially since that’s not the sense you get from the book.

Author
Time

Peter Pan said:

Didn’t like it. Don’t hate it either. In my opinion it’s way to long and doesn’t have anything to say really. It touches upon multiple difficult topics, sure, but it either doesn’t follow through with them or it just straight up fails them. For example, take the spice mining thing about exploitation of both the people and the land. The people are introduced as warriors fighting for their freedom from the oppressors, but we don’t know what they are fighting for. Nothing is said about their culture apart from fighting. Also we don’t see in which way they are oppressed, they are shown to be the aggressor attacking a farming ship right in the beginning. In fact the Harkonens don’t even know how many of them are on arrakis, which makes it look like they just ignored them? Hardly what I would call criticism of colonialism. If they would have been enslaved by them or imprisoned or rounded up and killed in large numbers by the Harkonnens, that would have been criticism, but we aren’t shown any of that.
Now on to the exploiting the land trope. This is much better supported by what is shown in the movie, but its just feels so artificial. This planet might be exploited for its natural resources, but we aren’t shown the scars that this endeavor caused. The Planet is a wasteland, but not BECAUSE of the spice mining, but because it was a desert to BEGIN WITH!? WHYYYYY, there is so much potential flushed down the toilet, its infuriating.

I don’t know that exploiting the planet or colonization were really what the book was about to begin with… It was an element, but I think it has a lot more to do with Paul’s development as a “hero”, political intrigue, etc. I could be mistaken, but I just didn’t get a sense that colonialism was supposed to be a big part of it all, so I’m a bit curious as to why you think the handling of it is a problem.

Author
Time

Frank Herbert stated in multiple interviews that the whole point of Dune is “beware of charismatic leaders”.

Author
Time

fmalover said:

Frank Herbert stated in multiple interviews that the whole point of Dune is “beware of charismatic leaders”.

And never put Slug like worms in charge either 😉

Author
Time
 (Edited)

StarkillerAG said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

Has it? BR 2049 is pretty colorful, depending where they are of course. But yeah, color grading is one thing that can really put me off even though a movie was good. If I see even a glimpse of a movie/TV show with teal/orange thing going on, not going to watch it.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

Author
Time

LexX said:

StarkillerAG said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

Has it? BR 2049 is pretty colorful, depending where they are of course. But yeah, color grading is one thing that can really put me off even though a movie was good. If I see even a glimpse of a movie/TV show with teal/orange thing going on, not going to watch it.

The orange/teal colour contrast has given way to most movies having a yellow tint in recent years.

Author
Time

LexX said:

StarkillerAG said:

fmalover said:

So the movie premiered on HBO last night, and I tuned in and cranked up the colour saturation to its maximum, and even though it’s just a minor detail, the viewing experience was a much improved one for me.

Seriously, this movie looks waaaaayyy better with boosted colours.

Yeah, the extremely desaturated dead-looking color grading is probably one of my biggest problems with the movie (along with the pointless spaceship montages). I don’t get why “real is brown” has become such a big thing with sci-fi and fantasy: pretty much the only modern show of that genre that actually looks alive is The Expanse (and even then it only looks half-alive).

Has it? BR 2049 is pretty colorful, depending where they are of course. But yeah, color grading is one thing that can really put me off even though a movie was good. If I see even a glimpse of a movie/TV show with teal/orange thing going on, not going to watch it.

I guess that movie was pretty colorful, although it was more because of heavy tinting than because of high saturation in general. But besides that movie, my point about most sci-fi looking way too dull still stands. Also, it’s pretty ironic that the same person who directed BR2049 also directed Dune, the movie I was complaining about in the first place.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Author
Time

Christopher Walken is Emperor Shaddam IV.

Nothing against Walken, he’s a great actor, but why can’t we ever get an accurate portrayal of the Emperor?

Author
Time

fmalover said:

Nothing against Walken, he’s a great actor, but why can’t we ever get an accurate portrayal of the Emperor?

Can you remind me how he’s described in the book? I remember something about looking both young and old which is ridiculously difficult to cast.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

Author
Time

In the book the Emperor is described as being in his early seventies yet looks no older than 35.

I hoped Villeneuve would finally cast an actor in his late thirties to early forties or least one who looks deceptively young (Jared Leto comes to mind, as he’s 50 years old but can easily pass for a much younger man) so we could have a book-accurate Emperor Shaddam IV. Alas, Villeneuve has chosen to continue the tradition of casting much older actors in the role.

IMO Walken would’ve been much better suited to play Count Fenring.

Author
Time

fmalover said:

In the book the Emperor is described as being in his early seventies yet looks no older than 35.

Yeah, I genuinely think this is just an unreasonable casting expectation. Personally I’m glad Denis/the casting director is ignoring this and just focusing on who is the best actor to bring the right qualities to the role.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

Author
Time

jedi_bendu said:

fmalover said:

In the book the Emperor is described as being in his early seventies yet looks no older than 35.

Yeah, I genuinely think this is just an unreasonable casting expectation. Personally I’m glad Denis/the casting director is ignoring this and just focusing on who is the best actor to bring the right qualities to the role.

Why is it unreasonable?

We’ve had plenty of actors in their mid twenties playing beings who are centuries or millennia old (vampires, LOTR elves, etc), so this wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

I will never watch the Dune adaptation I want, that is a fact.

Author
Time

Yeah but then they just look like young people. Looking for an actor who conveys to the audience that the Emperor is old, while also looking young, really shortens the list of who you can cast. The priority should absolutely be whether an actor can be menacing, can emanate authority, ruthlessness, coolness, whatever qualities Denis is looking for in his version of the Emperor. That’s what helps the story, not stressing over a description from the book just for the sake of it, whenever it makes the role so much harder to cast.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

Author
Time
 (Edited)

fmalover said:

I will never watch the Dune adaptation I want, that is a fact.

I feel the same way. But as disappointed as I am with the final product, there’re still elements of Villaneuve’s Dune I happily incorporate into my mental Dune mosaic.

“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution… There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

― Leo Tolstoy