Dune New Dune Movie (2020)

Sir 1000

Shitlord
Watching it right now and it seems pretty good. I never read the books or watched the old movie so i don't know if it's loyal to the source material or not. Oh i also learned the meaning of the sites name😂 The admin might want to take advantage of this and advertise or do that thing that makes a website come up in search more. This would be a good opportunity to gain more normie members i would think.
 

Yinko

Well-known member
Movies out. Thoughts?

Personally, I thought it wasn't as good as the Sci-Fi version from 2000. Visually it was way better, obviously, but it failed in the a handful of key places regarding how they chose to present the plot and interactions.

  1. They don't tell the Baron's joke to Yue, explaining how he is keeping his promise to him.
    1. Why does Yue speak Mandarin? What's up with his Wuxia medical skills?
  2. They don't explain why the Emperor set them up to get killed (only the films from the 80's and the books do this. The main family were trying to overthrow the emperor with a secret army and secret political alliances, they got what was coming for them).
  3. The Fremen are shown very weirdly. They're supposed to have been a group of ethnically homogeneous fringe Muslims that got kicked from planet to planet for centuries before finding Dune, but about half of them are black and half of them are Arab. Even if that was how they were then they walked off the ships, it still wouldn't make any sense, as the inter-breeding would homogenize the gene pool.
    1. That's not the only political BS going on. There's also the intro with the colonialism complaint and how Liet is a black woman.
  4. Fade Harkonen is mysteriously gone, Rabban takes on both roles.
  5. The Thopters are incorrect. These are powered by a giant snail that eats air molecules, in the film they are jet powered.
  6. Chaney isn't hot at all.

Good things:
  1. Best Baron Harkonen ever. The one from the 80's was too pustule'y, the one from the 00's was too overly dramatic. I like this one. I could totally see this guy actually being a genius under a Bene Gesserite curse.
  2. They didn't fuck up the hostage scene between Jessica and Stilgar like the version from the 80's did.
  3. Best visuals of any of the films.
  4. Probably the best actors of any of the films.
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
The Sardukar war prayer being "Bing, bong, Bing Bing bing" was the funniest fucking shit ever.

Duncan Idaho actually lives up to his hype for once and Harkonnen was awesome.

Assuming the sequel gets greenlit, whose playing the Emperor do you think?
 

Sir 1000

Shitlord
Also might draw some unwanted attention depending on how woke the audience of the new movie is...
That will come anyways and to a degree already has with the sb fiasco. More numbers can't hurt when fighting them off(more donations,word of mouth,etc).
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Kinda sounded like Tuvan throat singing to me. I thought that scene was pretty awesome, actually. Amazing sets and costume work throughout the whole damn movie.



Yeah I know it's supposed to be Tuvan throat singing in space but I mean the gibberish lyrics seem to be just that.

The scene itself was cool but it fits the Fish Speakers better than the Sardukar.
 

Sol Zagato

Well-known member
The Fremen are shown very weirdly. They're supposed to have been a group of ethnically homogeneous fringe Muslims that got kicked from planet to planet for centuries before finding Dune, but about half of them are black and half of them are Arab. Even if that was how they were then they walked off the ships, it still wouldn't make any sense, as the inter-breeding would homogenize the gene pool.
Logically, what they did doesn't make sense, and at some level this is diversity-casting. But this is done because the director is French and therefore has some knowledge of Algeria, which would be relevant for Dune.

It's clearly a call-out to the Tuareg of the Sahara, who are exactly like that. And it happens with the Tuareg for very non-PC reasons.

That's not the only political BS going on. There's also the intro with the colonialism complaint and how Liet is a black woman.
Emperor toady #1, the guy who announces the handover, appears to be from a Nilotic ethnic group, IE NOT Bantuoid. The other direct servant of the Emperor, Kynes, could also be a Nilote. I like to think in Villenvue's universe, the Emperor has a Nilotic ethnic group or planet where he gets his educated servants. Could also be done for visual distinctiveness at court: IRL nobles did this sort of thing.
Best Baron Harkonen ever. The one from the 80's was too pustule'y, the one from the 00's was too overly dramatic. I like this one. I could totally see this guy actually being a genius under a Bene Gesserite curse.
I appreciate some of this, and especially how he escaped the poison, but I generally don't like this Baron.

Now, my thoughts. This was the most impressive movie I've seen in years. Almost perfect. I'll start with nitpicks:

1. They talk and TALK about how the Harkonnens are terrible, but they never show it. The Baron feels like a bloodless schemer, not the bright spark of evil that corrupts everything around him we've had in other productions. He feels more like a designated opponent that's differently abled, ruthless and has a weird dress code for his minions. There are a few subtle bits, but I'll get to those later.

2. Whither Feyd?

3. Thufir glossed over far too fast.

4. Paul spends too much of his hallucinations on Chani.

5. Much of the time when the characters were speaking English, I either couldn't hear or understand them. I desired subtitling.

6. Wanted moar decadence and more population visible.

7. FTL travel status: SKIPPED

And now for the things I found particularly impressive:

1. Ornithoptors. Such beautiful birds.

2. Carryalls

3. The anti-shield munitions used against the Atredies landers.

4. I notice your job title is cinematic hero, Duncan. He casually rattles off the plot to an adventure film as the assigned mission he just finished.

5. Hints of Gedi culture in the Baron's oil bath scene. Most Harkonnen civilians are viscerally, uncontrollably afraid of Rabban, happens in multiple scenes.

6. The Sardukar do it for the Emperor. They're clearly portrayed as a divergent culture.
 

Typhonis

Well-known member
I'm surprised they didn't harvest spice at night to avoid the heat of the day but then again they need to look for sandworms.
 

ATP

Well-known member
Good movie.And they have good idea to split it - they made one movie in Dune 1984 and it cost it,becouse they try show too many things.
Black Fremen - why not? but,why not all? making them 2 type of different races made no sense,like somebody here said earlier.
Aside from that - good thing.
 

ATP

Well-known member
ATP: I explained why. It's a reference to IRL Tuaregs.

Thanks.But ,according to what i read,blacks among Tuaregs are descendents of slaves and have lesser status,when Freemans had no such problems.
And,when Harkonnen attack was made much more logical,it was far less epic then Dune 1984.In Dune 2020 i simply said good work,in Dune 1984 i wonted go and die for Atrides.
P.S Desert mouse was funny.They are real deal,but not as good in desert as ones from book.
 
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Lord Sovereign

Well-known member
So I've seen some clips of the new movie, and it seems to have the most badass portrayal of the Imperial Sardaukar out of all the adaptions. I've been made to understand in the battle scenes they are vaguely unstoppable, which is very fitting for these guys.
 

Sol Zagato

Well-known member
So I've seen some clips of the new movie, and it seems to have the most badass portrayal of the Imperial Sardaukar out of all the adaptions. I've been made to understand in the battle scenes they are vaguely unstoppable, which is very fitting for these guys.
I've listened to the Sardukar throat-singer clip at least 40 times. Villenvue nailed that scene.
 

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Dune is, I dare say, very good in my opinion.

With the caveat I've not read the book in a decade (and never did get into the sequels just because of time/lack-of-having-them..though I understand things kind've go bonkers) the movie introduces the universe and Arrakis really well--and without resorting to blobs of information-narration or text-crawling or such. I'm not sure how well someone who was completely new to the series would track things because there is a lot of background left unfilled while it throws Bene Gesserit and Sardukar and all the various factions and their scheming about* (and implies but never really expands on Harkonnen and Atreides histories except to a limited, necessary degree), but to my much-forgotten mind that remembered the big points of lore and universe-building it all tracked well. I think someone could come at it cold and still understand the prevailing shittery of everything going on. Though I might be biased in that respect because I also always appreciate movies that don't constantly hand-hold with explanation and--similar to Villenuevue's Blade Runner--Dune fills more run-time with environmental vistas and people staring or emoting than explanation. It's refreshing.

*I was surprised at Mentats only getting a bit of screentime/showing and no telling of what they are or what they're doing (or why) whatsoever. I don't think there's a reference to the Butlerian Jihad or computers being forbidden once through the film...but then we circle around to not hand-holding and I think it still works. Perhaps more surprising is the Navigators and centrality of spice to interstellar travel itself not being lingered on or shown as much as it perhaps could/should have considering how central that is.

Chalamet seems well-cast and performs well--which was something I was a bit skeptical/questioning of. He pulls-off a pretty good progression from lanky & awkward, precocious-nobleman-teenager with a heart of gold to something a bit more experienced. Leto as the Duke is solid, and Brolin as Gurney Hallek I think was a shining performance for how little he's actually in the film. Unlike the obvious contrast-character Duncan Idaho who was kind've just presented via Mamoa as a generic friendly big-bruiser, Hallek gets just enough time and dialogue to pique interest in him as a character who has clearly seen some shit. I would've loved more of him popping up in this part of things, suppose I can hope for part 2 to do more justice to him.

The weakest link of the entire film I can confidently say is Zendaya. That might just be because I don't think she's a good actress (because she's not) and her character in the film is literally just the same 'I'm spunky and intelligent' cliche she 'acts' like any other time she tries to act. She's inoffensive and unbothersome when she's just the haunting snippet in Paul's visions, because even she can't bugger up 'stare into the camera with blue eyes' (though, really, there's probably 2 or 3 visions too many of this), but every spoken line she had on-screen (which were thankfully few) had me trying not to roll my eyes because it's just Zendaya being Zendaya. Painful.

Boils down to I enjoyed it a lot. Seemed a well-done adaptation to my mind and unlike some films that hit that 2.5-hour length (Avengers), I never felt uncomfortable and wishing things would hurry-along. Heck, if'n the second part were already out I felt like I could've done a fifteen minute break to walk and hit the restroom and then sat down to watch it as well.
 
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The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
Yeah I've never got the appeal of Zendaya beyond its clear she's a product of Hollywood desperately looking for another Halle Berry.

Which, I can understand because she is a phenomenally talented actress and one of the last great Hollywood beauties.

But Zendaya is neither of those two things and she never will be because she's fucking lazy as hell and you can see how little of a damn she gives when you watch her movies.
 

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