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Dune Movie

I cannot wait. It’s so good to hear it’s getting a positive reception. I just hope it’s straightforward to follow for non-book people so it can do well and get a sequel.
 
I think CGI and "The Lord of the Rings" are the things that make movies like this possible. CGI because even though I love practical effects, there's just so much stuff--shield belts, for example--that CGI is the obvious answer for. And massive armies of costumed characters. And LOTR in the idea of a studio committing to sequels before the first movie box office results come in because there's no way to tell the story in 2 hours.
 
They seem to be following the book pretty closely. It's long and I started late so I only got through the first half. I didnt like Lynch version at all, but am enjoying this a lot.
 
Stayed up late to finish it and was very glad I did. I like how they stylized the violence so it wasn't gratuitous.

My wife's a big fan of the books and she thought it was tasteful and done very well. 4.5/5 stars.
 
It was a very faithful adaptation. Virtually everything was as I’d imagined it in the books, only more beautiful and inventively designed. It felt like an authentic and well considered world.

The cast was perfectly chosen too. Oscar Isaac has never stood out for me before (heresy, probably), but I thought he was really good. Timothy Chalamet too. Just the right balance of youthfulness but with purpose and strength. His breakdown in the tent with Jessica could’ve come off as whiny, but it was well done.

However... good god it feels long. And not particularly well explained in parts (the audio was quite bad in my cinema too, so whenever anyone whispered, which was a lot, crucial lines were missed). I’m actually surprised it’s getting such good reviews from people who haven’t read the books as I really think I’d struggle. I reckon it would have been better as a miniseries so it could be digested in smaller parts.
 
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I just sent that to the theater manager. He said he wanted to get a large size, print it up and sneak it into one of the poster holders and see how quick people notice. :D That would be hilarious.
 
Seen it. Very good. Very, VERY good. I could tell they changed some things and simplified others to streamline the story, but I couldn't necessarily tell what. They did a better job of making it fit the time and format than Peter Jackson did on "Fellowship of the Ring." And I enjoyed "Fellowship of the Ring." I had the same gripe about the sound in a few spots. I was glad I already knew the story because I couldn't tell what the actors were saying. But the place looked like a totally alien world and felt like the distant future. And everything looked pretty much how I'd expected it to from the book. Going to have to reread the book to see how close it followed.
 
I saw it today, I liked it! Everything looked nice and big, so definitely see it in the cinema if you can. Everyone was a good fit for their characters, I thought. I'll give Jason Momoa some special praise as I thought it was the best I've seen from him and not his usual "my man!" type stuff. I thought the actors playing Kynes and Stilgar also made very good impressions in relatively short screentime. Rebecca Ferguson as Jessica also excellent. I liked how they did The Voice and all the Bene Gesserit stuff. Paul's portrayal had to walk a fine line because he's kind of a weird lead character but they pulled it off I think. Zendaya is still Meechee.

The ornithopters looked cool as fuck.

I like how the Baron flies around, the lazy fucker.

I did miss some of the stuff left out, like the political intrigue at the start of the book. In the movie version it's really basically just "the Emperor sends the Atreides to Arrakis to betray them" without any of the finer details. But I guess that's all they really needed since the focus was so on Paul? I did wonder what people who haven't read the book thought of this aspect. Also hope they explain mentats in the sequel because they weren't touched on at all here (Hawat is just a guy who rolls his eyes back sometimes.)

As everyone has said, the biggest probablem is that it's not a complete story and the endpoint didn't totally feel like a proper endpoint. Not sure what else they could have done. I mean, I would have watched a four or five hour movie that told the whole story of the first book but I can understand why that wouldn't be commerically viable.
 
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I talked about it on Facebook and asked the same question. Turns out I have a friend who saw it and hasn't read the book. She said she enjoyed it and could follow it but she had to concentrate 100%--especially in the beginning--because so much is going on and they're setting so much up that if you aren't paying attention she thought you'd get hopelessly lost.

On an unrelated note, I think a 1990s/early 2000s Ron Perlman would be the best actor for Gurney Halleck. But since that really isn't possible, I'll allow Josh Brolin. He really isn't ugly like Gurney is described in the book, but such is life. He got the job done.
 
Oh. I wonder if, at any point they though about having either an opening card like "Star Wars" or "The Road Warrior," or an opening narration like the beginning of "Conan" Or even a narrator. Herbert uses excerpts from Princess Irulan's writing at the start of each chapter. I wonder if they could've had a Princess Irulan doing voiceover to set up some of the things like why people don't use projectile weapons and mentats and such.

It probably would've been clunky and pretentious though. And the way they did it worked well enough.
 
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