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Dune Universe Thread

Jeremy said:
Good points, thanks all. I had never read the books so didn't have context to much of it going in and expected something a little different. I do agree the cinematography of it was wonderful and could be a great adaptation of a book to movie that is very difficult to pull off.
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The book is fantastic but long ~800 pages. I thought the movie was great, read the book, and then rewatched the movie. I was able to pick up on so much more the second time. Dune Part 1 is basically setting everything up for Dune Part 2 where a majority of the action and reveals will happen.
 
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Jeremy said:
Good points, thanks all. I had never read the books so didn't have context to much of it going in and expected something a little different. I do agree the cinematography of it was wonderful and could be a great adaptation of a book to movie that is very difficult to pull off.
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If you want a real trip go watch David Lynchs 1984 version of Dune. It's even more out there and confusing IMO. It was not done well, but I still loved it as a kid. As I heard someone else put it "I didn't really understand what I was watching, but I knew I liked it."
 
CascadeClone said:
Read the book. It's incredible on so many levels. Just one part of it is "your mom wants you to pretend to be Space Jesus to convince a bunch of oppressed people to follow you, so you can avenge your father and gain power. But it turns out you actually ARE Space Jesus. " And that's only like 25% of the story.

The movie is great because it does a good job at capturing some of the immensity of the book. Without having read the book, though, I can understand your response.
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You forgot the part where the oppressed people come to commit a genocide in your name.

And the skyscraper-sized sandworms that produce the best ******* drugs in the universe.

And the what amounts to nuns who know kung fu and secretly control galactic politics.

And how Herbert put Henry V, Hamlet, The Tempest, King Lear, and Macbeth in a blender to come up with the plot.

I could go on for a while here. Dune is incredibly weird. I love it.
 
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NorthCyd said:
If you want a real trip go watch David Lynchs 1984 version of Dune. It's even more out there and confusing IMO. It was not done well, but I still loved it as a kid. As I heard someone else put it "I didn't really understand what I was watching, but I knew I liked it."
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I had short time girlfriend who had read the book and I hadn't at the time the '84 film came out. I went to see it with her and she took my hand and walked me through it. I can't imagine how lost I would have been if she hadn't.
 
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Sigmapolis said:
You forgot the part where the oppressed people come to commit a genocide in your name.

And the skyscraper-sized sandworms that produce the best ******* drugs in the universe.

And the what amounts to nuns who know kung fu and secretly control galactic politics.

And how Herbert put Henry V, Hamlet, The Tempest, King Lear, and Macbeth in a blender to come up with the plot.

I could go on for a while here. Dune is incredibly weird. I love it.
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And you haven't even gotten to the weird parts yet :).
 
So finally got around watching part 1 this last weekend. Beautifully shot, score was great, no real bad CGI to rant against, performances were mostly fine, but man Dune is incredibly boring. And most of the characters I found interesting died in the first film. I have no history with the books and only ever caught bits and pieces of Lynch's version. Basically I felt the way that some non-book readers of LotR felt watching FoTR.

I'll still watch the second one eventually and maybe even in theaters if my son wants me to go with him., but another 2.5 hours of brown sand with everyone wearing black or gray outfits is going to be a challenge.
 
houjix said:
So finally got around watching part 1 this last weekend. Beautifully shot, score was great, no real bad CGI to rant against, performances were mostly fine, but man Dune is incredibly boring. And most of the characters I found interesting died in the first film. I have no history with the books and only ever caught bits and pieces of Lynch's version. Basically I felt the way that some non-book readers of LotR felt watching FoTR.

I'll still watch the second one eventually and maybe even in theaters if my son wants me to go with him., but another 2.5 hours of brown sand with everyone wearing black or gray outfits is going to be a challenge.
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The Lord of the Rings isn't a bad analogy. Herbert was strongly influenced by Tolkien.

The "first half" of each is relatively languid in pace... slowly building the world and the characters though with a sense of impending doom behind all of it. The "second half" is a brutal war story where that doom is faced. In Tolkien, it is defeated and a golden age begins. In Dune, well... it's more complicated.

So, don't expect the second one to have the same tone as the first.

It will be more like The Return of the King as an action film.
 
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houjix said:
So finally got around watching part 1 this last weekend. Beautifully shot, score was great, no real bad CGI to rant against, performances were mostly fine, but man Dune is incredibly boring. And most of the characters I found interesting died in the first film. I have no history with the books and only ever caught bits and pieces of Lynch's version. Basically I felt the way that some non-book readers of LotR felt watching FoTR.

I'll still watch the second one eventually and maybe even in theaters if my son wants me to go with him., but another 2.5 hours of brown sand with everyone wearing black or gray outfits is going to be a challenge.
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The second movie should be pretty action packed. First movie did a good job of setting up the world. I watched part 1 before reading the book, read the first book, then rewatched the movie. There's a lot of stuff that you don't really pick up on. But I can definitely see how the first movie is slow.
 
GMackey32 said:
The second movie should be pretty action packed. First movie did a good job of setting up the world. I watched part 1 before reading the book, read the first book, then rewatched the movie. There's a lot of stuff that you don't really pick up on. But I can definitely see how the first movie is slow.
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Our brains are wired to demand that Marvel formula of an action set piece every ten minutes or so nowadays, too, even if I think that's to the detriment of the story and characters much the time.

It's not like the first one lacks for tense scenes or action set pieces...

Paul and Mohiam with the gom jabbar
Gurney and Paul have a brief but intense fight scene
Kynes, Leto, Gurney, and Paul meeting a Maker for the first time
The Harkonnen/Sardaukar attack on the Arrakeen keep
The long escape/chase sequence with Jessica, Paul, and Duncan (RIP)
Paul's duel with Jamis

It's just not BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM with it every ten minutes.

More like every 20 minutes.
 
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Sigmapolis said:
Our brains are wired to demand that Marvel formula of an action set piece every ten minutes or so nowadays, too, even if I think that's to the detriment of the story and characters much the time.

It's not like the first one lacks for tense scenes or action set pieces...

Paul and Mohiam with the gom jabbar
Gurney and Paul have a brief but intense fight scene
Kynes, Leto, Gurney, and Paul meeting a Maker for the first time
The Harkonnen/Sardaukar attack on the Arrakeen keep
The long escape/chase sequence with Jessica, Paul, and Duncan (RIP)
Paul's duel with Jamis

It's just not BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM with it every ten minutes.

More like every 20 minutes.
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I enjoyed it even without reading the book, but I like in-depth stories like Dune.
 
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I can handle a slow burn and have watched plenty of slow movies and TV shows and have read plenty of ponderous book series (LotR, Wheel of Time, ASoIaF, etc), but there is something about Dune that clearly shows it was from a different era of Sci-Fi. The themes felt much more simplistic than more modern stories, tropes that it had a hand in creating loom large, and there are elements of the story that, while clearly new to readers in the 60's, have become old hat now.

Unfortunately that becomes the challenge adapting something from close to 60 years ago with an ocean content since then. Do you update it and take some liberties or present it mostly as is knowing that it may feel dated. If the latter, then to me it comes down to performances of the actors, which were fine, but hardly memorable.
 
houjix said:
I can handle a slow burn and have watched plenty of slow movies and TV shows and have read plenty of ponderous book series (LotR, Wheel of Time, ASoIaF, etc), but there is something about Dune that clearly shows it was from a different era of Sci-Fi. The themes felt much more simplistic than more modern stories, tropes that it had a hand in creating loom large, and there are elements of the story that, while clearly new to readers in the 60's, have become old hat now.

Unfortunately that becomes the challenge adapting something from close to 60 years ago with an ocean content since then. Do you update it and take some liberties or present it mostly as is knowing that it may feel dated. If the latter, then to me it comes down to performances of the actors, which were fine, but hardly memorable.
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Funny you should say the themes are more simplistic than modern stories. The themes in many of today's popular sci-fi/action genre are dumbed down in comparison in my opinion.
 
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