Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

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https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimagese rve%2F61116cea2313e8bae55a536a %2F-Dune-%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale

Discussion here!

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67/100


Just consistently, relentlessly oppressive, with no leavening humor and only rudimentary hand-holding, which is nice for a change (seriously, the number of people asking pointless questions like "Why does that fat dude float?", "What is with that spider thing?", "Where did character X go?", "Why does the fat dude hang out in a tar pit?" after seeing the movie just illustrates how much modern mainstream multiplex films overexplain everything so that everything is neat and justified. Sometimes, it is nice for shit to just BE there and be WEIRD and you use your imagination about what is going on. Try it sometime - it's fun!), but it also has weird pacing issues - it is far too in love with the premonitions, for example - that curdle the oppressiveness into tediousness for brief periods.


But overall, I'm on board for more of this bleak, dark, kind of horrific universe.

[Skitch]

I'm a half hour in and agree with everything you said so far.

[DavidSeven]

Solid. Villeneuve is the best craftsman working. That Zimmer score though… kind of an assault on the ears, IMO, and did not greatly complement the film.

[Idioteque Stalker]

It's half the story at most. Maybe that's a spoiler -- also maybe it's false advertising to not say that up front. Zendaya fans will be disappointed.

[DavidSeven]

The pacing did feel off. Kind of felt like half of a miniseries that was cut up into a movie.

[Ezee E]

Kind of... loved this??

It'll be such a bummer if the rest of the story doesn't get made. I was completely in for everything Villeneuve was doing here. I didn't realize it was so committed to a "Part 1", but loved that it really allowed us to see everything about the desert planet. And the scale of the worms was unlike anything I've seen from other monster movies. (I haven't seen the latest Godzilla movie)

The theater I in was the new AMC-Dolby partnership where a ticket would normally be $20 alone. Thank you Stubs A-list! My seat was vibrating through the whole thing.

[Morris Schæffer]

Chapter 2 officially announced

[Yxklyx]

I had no idea this was just a part 1 - was it advertised as such?

[megladon8]

I had no idea this was just a part 1 - was it advertised as such?

No, because WB has had no fucking clue what they're doing with anything for about 10 years now.

[Yxklyx]

Villeneuve should remake Eraserhead next :) A thread for movies least likely to be remade might be interesting.

[Wryan]

Safe to say I liked it a lot.

[Ivan Drago]

The latest attempt at adapting Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel does feel like the first half of one movie, and the expository dialogue can be clunky at times, but the strength of the ensemble's nuances, charisma and statures keeps the story engaging, Hans Zimmer's score is as bombastic and driving as it is minimalist and dreamy, and Denis Villeneuve's direction succeeds in blanketing the more ridiculous beats of the story in a movie watching experience that truly feels equal parts meditative and otherworldly. Audiences are transported to a bleak, vast world where they feel the ominousness that comes with their small place in the universe, as the characters in House Atredies often look like ants next to the giant machinery and creatures they encounter. And yet, the use of silence leaves room for viewers to ponder about the potential of humanity, the potential of nature, and their own spiritual potential within the movie's subtext. It doesn't come to a concrete thematic idea at the end, but as Zendaya said, "This is only the beginning," and Dune: Part One gets this film franchise off to a solid start.

[Wryan]

Terrific design and effects work. Ferguson is phenomenal and terrifying. Loved what they did with the Voice. The world-building is overwhelming, utterly convincing. Didn't care whatsoever that it's half a story, except that many of the characters feel similarly half-formed at times. I, too, hope the next part doesn't rely as much on the gauzy premonitions. Interesting that neither crusade nor jihad is mentioned--something that many people were fretting over. Although the camera certainly loves him and his doe eyes, Chalamet might do well to ignore the cavalcade of people blowing smoke up his ass about him being the next big thing and refocus on his craft--he's lost a bit of the naturalness and ease that so defined his performance in Call Me, even if the characters are obviously quite different. Isaac and Skarsgard do good work with less. More could have been done to emphasize the moisture, tho likely next part will delve deeper. I look forward to second part and even an extended version of this, if it's coming.

[Skitch]

I didn't care at all that it was a part one. I had to wait three years for LotR, and thats one book.

[Ezee E]

I didn't care at all that it was a part one. I had to wait three years for LotR, and thats one book.

With MCU, multiple trilogies, and so on out there, I'm kind of surprised that this has been a criticism of the movie itself.

[Peng]

I liked this way, way more than Mockingjay Part 1, but that held my previous record of having a most clear feeling of a source material being cleaved at one point, and Dune surpasses it (at least it's from having too much material, not from stretching it out like that one). It's a legitimate criticism.

Re: LOTR. Considering TFOTR the film moves the beginning of book two to its ending, to fashion a more converging event climax and (if I may say so) stirring endpoint for a film, it means imo even though the story is not complete, Jackson finds a more natural stop-point, in term of film medium's flow, than Villeneuve. TTT tries this too, to a bit more strained and less successful effect in my opinion; still, my point is Jackson fashions the first two parts of one complete story as more distinctly individual films than Villeneuve does in his first part. Again, in *execution* if not in story.

[Skitch]

It's a legitimate criticism to discuss where and how he ended the part one (even if I disagree), but I don't think it's legitimate criticism to criticize that they split up such a big book translation (not saying you're saying that, but some critics are).

[Peng]

I find Sicario Villeneuve's best, most complete work (especially on second viewing), but I have had a "yes, but..." reaction to the director's subsequent three films in a row now, even if I consider all of them very good and tremendously crafted: Arrival's backhalf emotional payload eluded me despite Amy Adams's best effort; I was considering Blade Runner 2049 a seminal sci-fi masterwork until Harrison Ford shows up with franchise baggage (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?6963-Blade-Runner-2049-(Denis-Villeneuve)&p=578869&viewfull=1#post578869); and now find Dune the best kind of spectacle until it comes to a sudden cutoff rather than a natural stopping point. As I previously commented on, the first two LOTR films leave even more things up in the air plot-wise, but Jackson manages to fashion the first two parts of one complete story as more distinctly individual films than Villeneuve does here.

Before that though, man what an experience. Dune the book is a magnificent feat of world-building, with the planet Arrakis one of the most tangible and impressive sci-fi creations of all-time. Villeneuve sweepingly translates that into a major, majestic audiovisual correlation, with less exposition than I expected going in. I may have one minor quibble that the characters spends a bit too little downtime in this surrounding before everything goes to hell, but mostly the world comes alive as fully formed and faithful as can be. Another pre-viewing fear is that I might find the director's somberness too oppressive for this story, but he also manages to elicit a variety of character types and performance styles that believably exist in the same world, and not mere book translations as plot points to be moved around. MVP: Rebecca Ferguson, investing a character observing the Chosen One path with tangible emotional conflicts and crushing heartbreak, which is even more impressive since her character unfortunately gets more scaled-down in prominence on screen here than in the book. 8/10

[StuSmallz]

I finally watched this a couple of days ago (not on HBOMax, but in a theater as God intended), and as far as its (moderate) flaws go, I'd say the biggest one is with the movie's slightly unwieldy overall structure, where the first half spent a ton of time on character introductions, table-setting the central conflicts, and general world-building and exposition with the various cultures and technologies of the "Duniverse", while the second half was essentially an overlong extended climax, with the number of false endings used proving to be even more egregious than those of Return Of The King.

That being said though, I still liked the movie a good deal on the whole, and speaking of Lord Of The Rings, like that series, I think part two of this will be even better, now that part one's done a lot of the hard work of introducing us to this particular universe. For now though, I'll just say that, even as someone who's never read the book (or even watched the reportedly abbreviated Lynch adaptation), this Dune still did a good job of acclimatizing me to the iconic world that Frank Herbert created, as, despite the overall complexity of the story, I was still quite engaged throughout, and rarely at any serious loss as to what was going on, and besides that, it feels like a movie tailor-made for Villeneuve's (https://letterboxd.com/stusmallz/tag/villeneuve/reviews/by/entry-rating/) strengths as a director, as both an overwhelming sensory experience (an attack by a massive sandworm on a Spice harvester stands out in particular), as well as a bold work of Science-Fiction, full of big, ambitious ideas, the kind that's made the genre a favorite of mine; bring on part two, baby!


Final Score: 8.5

[StuSmallz]

67/100

Just consistently, relentlessly oppressive, with no leavening humor and only rudimentary hand-holding, which is nice for a change (seriously, the number of people asking pointless questions like "Why does that fat dude float?", "What is with that spider thing?", "Where did character X go?", "Why does the fat dude hang out in a tar pit?" after seeing the movie just illustrates how much modern mainstream multiplex films overexplain everything so that everything is neat and justified. Sometimes, it is nice for shit to just BE there and be WEIRD and you use your imagination about what is going on. Try it sometime - it's fun!), but it also has weird pacing issues - it is far too in love with the premonitions, for example - that curdle the oppressiveness into tediousness for brief periods.

But overall, I'm on board for more of this bleak, dark, kind of horrific universe.It's nice that the movie didn't stop to explain certain aspects that didn't really need it, but I still feel that the level of exposition could've been toned down some more, like when Liet-Kynes immediately launched into a full explanation of the stillsuits to the Atreidens with zero prompting from them (so did they just put on these strange pieces of alien technology on this hostile planet without having any idea what they did first?). I mean, I know they're off-worlders, but the filmmakers still could've found more elegant ways to explain them to us as an audience without literally just having a character just do that. Still, it certainly wasn't as clunky as Nolan at his worst, so it still could've been worse in that regard.
It's half the story at most. Maybe that's a spoiler -- also maybe it's false advertising to not say that up front.I thought the initial title card said Part One, unless I'm remembering that from the end instead? At any rate, I really don't care; I know going in that it was just going to be half the story, and people should probably do just the bare minimum of research prep going into a movie like this anyway, IMO.

[StuSmallz]

By the way, has anyone noticed anything unusual about the "Reviewed" icon for every other movie on Letterboxd versus this one?:

https://i.ibb.co/bjVKL3W/FB-IMG-1635721584883.jpg (https://ibb.co/JWTs2dB)
https://i.ibb.co/HX2gSVS/FB-IMG-1635721590133.jpg (https://ibb.co/yVRs9X9)

[Idioteque Stalker]

Haha, that's cute. I hadn't noticed.

This one too:

https://i.postimg.cc/1XGb1KFF/Screenshot-2021-10-31-7-54-33-PM.png

[Skitch]

Blue eyes from the spice? :D

[StuSmallz]

Blue eyes from the spice? :DYou know it! :D

[Skitch]

You know it! :D

That's friggin great lol. I delight in tiny stupid things.

[StuSmallz]

The Style and Substance of Villeneuve’s Dune: Is the actual drama in Villeneuve's sci-fi epic as rich and satisfying as the universe he's created? (https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-current-debate-the-style-and-substance-of-villeneuve-s-dune?utm_source=letterboxd&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=letterboxdhq_note book)

[Grouchy]

Awesome visual spectacle, I feel so bad to have missed it on theaters. Otherwise - I don't know. I tried reading Dune a bunch of times, never even got to the part where this installment ends, and I've never felt any desire to revisit the Lynch movie. It might just not be the franchise for me.

But Villeneuve is such a great director and he obviously has a knack for imaginative science fiction spectacle. I just wish people more talented than Chalamet or Zendaya played these roles, but what the hell, they're the 'it' people of the day.