5 ms·

I strongly agree with you. Dune is weird, insular, looped back on itself, and has had thousands of years to do so. They've switched from one "sin" (making a m

I strongly agree with you. Dune is weird, insular, looped back on itself, and has had thousands of years to do so. They've switched from one "sin" (making a machine in the likeness of the human mind) to another (thou shalt not deform the soul, by the creation of ultraspecialized humans such as Mentats). It's a nasty, paranoid place (the voice-overs helped with that), wherein you constantly had to think about how others would think, and on. The Weirding Way is essentially something that cannot be filmed (you would have to invent a martial art that looked unique, spectacular on screen, and was somehow wildly effective), and so it became the Weirding Modules, and that worked, too. Herbert like the "third stage" Guild Navigator idea so much he incorporated it into his later works. This later effort left me cold.

Apocryphon 4y ago
I found the new Dune to be solid but somewhat slavishly faithful, which prevented it from interesting innovations. And the visuals themselves, with the austere grey granite cyclopean edifices, were interesting but nothing we haven't seen before- Ridley Scott's questionable Prometheus really pioneered that art direction for sci-fi. It really could've used a better visual palette and color editing. Also now they're starting to stick Mongolian throat singing everywhere (it shows up a bit in Wakanda Forever) so we only have Dune to blame if it becomes overused.
- mnky9800n 4y ago
  The new Dune does what villeneuve does in all his films. Like go watch Arrival or Bladerunner 2049, they all have this big sweeping shots, every frame is a painting. Villeneuve sees films as a way to capture the visual feeling of something being bigger then you. All his films do this. In Bladerunner 2049 Villeneuve literally has the hologram girl as a giant hologram that Ryan Gosling's character encounters when he is deciding whether he exists as a person or not. She stands there demonstrating that the world has digitized and moved away from humanity so far that whatever humanness is left is whatever you decide for yourself. The best part of this movie I thought was that then this relationship between Ryan Gosling and the hologram girl becomes the most human relationship in the film. Because they chose it to be that way. Even though neither one is actually human.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Oh, I totally agree. (The austere grandeur also reminds me of Christopher Nolan's work, too). I just think in Dune he's reusing a good amount of his past visual language. Some of the ships look a lot like the Heptapod vessels from Arrival. The part when Arrakeen is on fire reminded me of the fighting in Sicario after the Juarez mob boss is arrested. Wish he had invented more novel elements, and again, more varied use of color. Your points about the giant Joi hologram in 2049 are valid. I wish he had done just a bit more of that. (That scene, with its neon blues and purples, was also distinct from the usually grey Prometheus palette that Dune dipped into too much imo.) Personally I felt a lot of the desert scenes looked a little artificial, maybe it was the color grading or lack of scale. The best desert scene imo is the second sandworm encounter where the rock mouse establishes the scale.
mnky9800n 4y ago
The thing the new movie did was capture the cruelty of the haves and havenots and the cheapness of life in Dune. Dune is a universe where a tiny select group of people matter and everyone else exists in their servitude. Not even as people, but as currency. The scene where they murder people to take their blood so that the Sardukur have war paint in the new movie perfectly captures this. They don't even dwell on what they are doing, it's just there in the background. This is a major theme in the book and what the Freemen fight against and live a life that recognizes each life as sacred. They do this by essentially subjecting themselves to a desert environment that actively tries to kill them every second. This visceral experience makes each life precious.

Apocryphon 4y ago

I found the new Dune to be solid but somewhat slavishly faithful, which prevented it from interesting innovations. And the visuals themselves, with the austere grey granite cyclopean edifices, were interesting but nothing we haven't seen before- Ridley Scott's questionable Prometheus really pioneered that art direction for sci-fi. It really could've used a better visual palette and color editing. Also now they're starting to stick Mongolian throat singing everywhere (it shows up a bit in Wakanda Forever) so we only have Dune to blame if it becomes overused.

mnky9800n 4y ago
The new Dune does what villeneuve does in all his films. Like go watch Arrival or Bladerunner 2049, they all have this big sweeping shots, every frame is a painting. Villeneuve sees films as a way to capture the visual feeling of something being bigger then you. All his films do this. In Bladerunner 2049 Villeneuve literally has the hologram girl as a giant hologram that Ryan Gosling's character encounters when he is deciding whether he exists as a person or not. She stands there demonstrating that the world has digitized and moved away from humanity so far that whatever humanness is left is whatever you decide for yourself. The best part of this movie I thought was that then this relationship between Ryan Gosling and the hologram girl becomes the most human relationship in the film. Because they chose it to be that way. Even though neither one is actually human.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Oh, I totally agree. (The austere grandeur also reminds me of Christopher Nolan's work, too). I just think in Dune he's reusing a good amount of his past visual language. Some of the ships look a lot like the Heptapod vessels from Arrival. The part when Arrakeen is on fire reminded me of the fighting in Sicario after the Juarez mob boss is arrested. Wish he had invented more novel elements, and again, more varied use of color. Your points about the giant Joi hologram in 2049 are valid. I wish he had done just a bit more of that. (That scene, with its neon blues and purples, was also distinct from the usually grey Prometheus palette that Dune dipped into too much imo.) Personally I felt a lot of the desert scenes looked a little artificial, maybe it was the color grading or lack of scale. The best desert scene imo is the second sandworm encounter where the rock mouse establishes the scale.

mnky9800n 4y ago

The thing the new movie did was capture the cruelty of the haves and havenots and the cheapness of life in Dune. Dune is a universe where a tiny select group of people matter and everyone else exists in their servitude. Not even as people, but as currency. The scene where they murder people to take their blood so that the Sardukur have war paint in the new movie perfectly captures this. They don't even dwell on what they are doing, it's just there in the background. This is a major theme in the book and what the Freemen fight against and live a life that recognizes each life as sacred. They do this by essentially subjecting themselves to a desert environment that actively tries to kill them every second. This visceral experience makes each life precious.