Dune (2020)

[evilcommiedictator]

With that in mind, I took the line in this about killing someone else being like killing yourself to mean that Paul learned to be passive in the duel, that he'd get killed by trying too hard to kill your other man there. Is that the idea in the book?

It's a bit more complicated than that, with the visions Paul has been having (in the book), he can see that the fight with Jamis is a pivotal point in time - if he lives or dies, humanity has a vastly different outcome, and the better outcome is the one you get glimpses of in the movie. BUT.....

Paul is also used to fighting against shields, where your last blow has to be slow to get through them, whereas Jamis has no such inhibitions

[All Surrogate]

Yes, there's a lot going on in that fight. Paul has never been in a fight-to-the-death duel like that (when he draws first blood, he attempts to end it before a death, by asking Jamis to yield), and doesn't want to kill (his hesitancy is intially interpreted as cruelty by the Fremen). After his victory, Paul gets a verbal slap from his mother, to make sure he doesn't learn to enjoy killing, and winds up giving water to the dead (crying) at Jamis' funeral, which astonishes the Fremen.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

It's a bit more complicated than that, with the visions Paul has been having (in the book), he can see that the fight with Jamis is a pivotal point in time - if he lives or dies, humanity has a vastly different outcome, and the better outcome is the one you get glimpses of in the movie. BUT.....

Paul is also used to fighting against shields, where your last blow has to be slow to get through them, whereas Jamis has no such inhibitions

I think that's something that doesn't necessarily come across clearly in either film adaptation, that Paul's perceptive abilities aren't just him seeing the future that will definitely happen, he sees all possible outcomes that will occur depending on his current actions. Throughout the first book he can see himself heading down the path that ultimately leads to holy war being carried out in his name and is constantly trying to avoid this happening (spoiler:

Spoiler alert

he fails

[close]

).

[Old Nehamkin]

Sequel officially greenlit and slated for Autumn 2023:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dune-2-greenlit-movie-release-date-1235036655/

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Wow, they're finally making a film of the classic Amiga game Dune II!

[Shit Good Nose]

Wow, they're finally making a film of the classic Amiga game Dune II!

It was a great game wasn't it.  I remember some reviews of Lynch's film at the time went along the lines of "if you want to watch Dune, play Dune ll".

[Alberon]

Sequel officially greenlit and slated for Autumn 2023:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dune-2-greenlit-movie-release-date-1235036655/

Did not think that would ever actually happen. Excellent!

[Shit Good Nose]

Did not think that would ever actually happen. Excellent!

Despite being WAY off going into decent profit, it had a very strong opening weekend and has done a lot better than anyone thought it would (it's already made nearly as much theatrically as Blade Runner 2049 did in its entire run with roughly the same budget and when the world was normal).  I was amazed at how many people were at the first showing last Thursday me and Mrs Nose went to.

[The Culture Bunker]

I'm a little surprised as we went on a Saturday noon showing and there were about five other people there, but presumably the general numbers are positive. Also have a feeling a decent percentage of people who saw it would be ambivalent about a sequel, so they might need the hype machine to give it a lot "THIS is where it makes sense" type angle.

There could also be the angle of putting it out on Blu-Ray with an extra 30 minutes of footage that fills in some plot holes.

[13 schoolyards]

I reckon there's a pretty big market out there for Star Wars, only Disney messed up with their movies and now a rival's got their very similar (and possibly better) product out in front of audiences. You'd imagine there'd be a few very unhappy senior executives at Disney who are realising that they let the chance to basically sew up another big chunk of the blockbuster market (like they have with super-heroes) slip away, for the next few years at least.

[Steve Lampkins]

Where I live, vax rates are decent and restrictions have been lifted fairly recently -- people have really missed the cinema, and now a bunch of films have come out and numbers look to be way up. Being one of the first new blockbusters along with Bond might have really helped the box office numbers.

[Head Gardener]

[surreal]

There could also be the angle of putting it out on Blu-Ray with an extra 30 minutes of footage that fills in some plot holes.

I doubt he's shot much more, he's not a fan of Director's Cuts.  I guess there could be some footage shot as the flash-forwards which will be in the second movie and could be used for some bridging - but really I think the marketing needs to be on point to tie the two together.  Sort of "remember when this happened, this is where it's going".

Previously, on Dune...

[Mister Six]

I reckon there's a pretty big market out there for Star Wars, only Disney messed up with their movies and now a rival's got their very similar (and possibly better) product out in front of audiences. You'd imagine there'd be a few very unhappy senior executives at Disney who are realising that they let the chance to basically sew up another big chunk of the blockbuster market (like they have with super-heroes) slip away, for the next few years at least.

You mean Dune? It's nothing like Star Wars at all, except I guess there are some deserts and some spaceships. Disney undoubtedly fucked up with Star Wars, but I don't think Dune will land on their radar at all, except as an indicator that maybe audiences are still receptive to non-superhero sci-fi.

[Goldentony]

I was amazed at how many people were at the first showing last Thursday me and Mrs Nose went to.

hordes of motherfuckers who looked like they'd waited forever for Dune piled into the other screen when I went to see Venom the other day, leaving it another week til I bother so everyone properly calms down

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I am certainly more interested in watching this now that the second half has been confirmed. Fucked if I'm going to pay 50-odd quid[nb]including train fare[/nb] to see it in imax though. If it doesn't work in a normal cinema, it just not very good.

You mean Dune? It's nothing like Star Wars at all, except I guess there are some deserts and some spaceships. Disney undoubtedly fucked up with Star Wars, but I don't think Dune will land on their radar at all, except as an indicator that maybe audiences are still receptive to non-superhero sci-fi.

I don't know about the new film, but Lucas obviously cribbed a bunch of stuff from the novel. What is the Jedi mind trick if not a blatant rip off of The Voice[/i].

[Mister Six]

They're two different things. The mind trick is basically magical hypnosis. The Voice compels people to physically do something, but it only works in the immediate moment and doesn't alter their perception. Obi-Wan is basically a Merlin-type wizard, worlds away from the elaborate pseudo-scientific guff in Dune.

But in any case, I was thinking more in terms of tone. Star Wars is a big, bright crows-pleaser with broad characters and comedy sidekicks. Dune is a self-serious affair and much of the book is dedicated to the inner workings of the characters, not whiz-bang space action.

[Famous Mortimer]

audiences are still receptive to movies where normal people turn into giant fucking worms

ftfy

[SweetPomPom]

ftfy

I'm not sure normal includes wrapping your cock and balls in trout but each to their own.

[Mister Six]

God (emperor) I wish they'd do that one, but I doubt they'll mange to do Villeneuve's planned Dune 3 (adapting the second book), much less get around to adapting the fourth book. Especially as book three is so long and tedious - you'd have to be quite liberal in your adaptation to get it down to one film, and you wouldn't want to risk two.

[MojoJojo]

After I posted that I did suddenly think that on their home planet they'd have a much bigger army, so yeah, attacking them when there's a lot less of them and they're new to the place does make sense.

Just to add to the stuff that was in the book, but apparently not in the film - the Harkonan attack is astonishingly large, with the atreidies mentant calculating that it would take years of the complete output of arrakis to pay the guild shipping fees.

Spoiler alert

this is all part of the political manoeuvring though - the Emperor putting Leto on arrakis makes him threat to the guild so they are supportive of the invasion - which means the massive invasion is just really expensive instead of unfeasibly so

[close]

[Old Nehamkin]

I liked the evil army planet with the weird throat singing guy that was cool.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I liked the evil army planet with the weird throat singing guy that was cool.

Yeah that ruled, they had upside down lads with all blood coming out. Excellent

[Chollis]

I liked the evil army planet with the weird throat singing guy that was cool.

yeah that bit was cool, but I found the Sardaukar quite underwhelming, their suits looked kinda cheap and crappy while I always imagined some Space Marine lookin motherfuckers

[SweetPomPom]

God (emperor) I wish they'd do that one, but I doubt they'll mange to do Villeneuve's planned Dune 3 (adapting the second book), much less get around to adapting the fourth book. Especially as book three is so long and tedious - you'd have to be quite liberal in your adaptation to get it down to one film, and you wouldn't want to risk two.

Should do God Emperor as a West End musical, big chorus line finale for Siaynoq.
Hits include "My Golden Path", "Just Another Duncan" and "Cheer up, Moneo".

[buzby]

Saw this at the weekend on Imax. Loved it - visually and audibly stunning, managed to get the plot across in a relatively straightforward way and didn't feel anywhere near it's length. The screen was pretty much at socially-distanced capacity too.

Visually I think it shares quite a bit with BR2049 - the design of some of the ships, for instance (the Atreides troop carriers look very similar to the San Diego garbage carriers, for instance), the flyover of Arrakeen as the Atreides fleet arrives evoking K's flight bakc to LA and the sequence with the Ornithopter in the sandstorm and it's subsequent crash were shot in an extremely similar way to K's spinner getting shot down. Probably not a conicidence, considering a lot of the same crew worked on both films (Kamen Anev the concept artist, David Dolan the art director for vehicle design and the editor Joe Walker, for instance).

After all, the Zendaya character easily got the drop on Paul ("I wouldn't let you hurt my friends") in the previous scene.

I saw this as a callback to Paul being told by Gurney not to stand with his back to a door. She sneaks up behind him from a passage in the rocks.

[Shit Good Nose]

Visually I think it shares quite a bit with BR2049

Absolutely agree.  I also think it shares the same tone and atmosphere, to the point where it could be in the same universe albeit even further into the future.  They would make a very fitting double bill.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Oh, plops!

[greenman]

Absolutely agree.  I also think it shares the same tone and atmosphere, to the point where it could be in the same universe albeit even further into the future.  They would make a very fitting double bill.

Although I felt BR 2049 benefited from being a merger of his normal grey/brown minimalism and the look of Scotts original film, I felt this film was a bit lacking in a sense of history/culture  in that respect which is a big part of the book and something I think Lynch's version did very well at some points with its set designs.

It did feel suitable epic in its big set peices but honestly by the last hour I was looking at my watch, it felt both strangely exposition heavy but also lacking in most of the more interesting detail of the setting in the book or again even in Lynch's film. I don't think it was helped by a rather bland set of characters, the various Atreides retainers did hint at more but didnt really get much chance to show it. For a film that seemed to be focused on being inclusive as well I felt it rather wasted Jessica as well ending up feeling rather passive.

[The Culture Bunker]

I saw this as a callback to Paul being told by Gurney not to stand with his back to a door. She sneaks up behind him from a passage in the rocks.

Maybe, though yer man was still savvy enough to sense Gurney coming up behind him amongst all the chaos when the worm attacked the harvester, albeit he was off his bonce on spice at the time, I think. But I still had trouble buying Paul being expert enough in hand-to-hand combat (esp without shields) to defeat the fremen bod without some kind of trickery.