Dune may finally get its proper film treatment

Maybe I am in the minority but I saw it twice and have read the novel 3 times. I thought it was visually amazing but they should have called it Chani's Dune. Way too much of her at the expense of nearly nothing about the Guild. No Thufir Hawat , Alia not even being born in their 4 years on Arrakis . Back to Chani . So the Messiah that shall know the desert as if born to it has to have Chani guide him later in the movie. Then she sulks the whole second half of the movie which is not what she did in the novel. Jessica had to use the voice to get her to revive him after he drank the water of life. The Freman were polyamorous and he already inherited Jamis wife after he killed him so this whole jealousy thing really took away from the film. I mean real historical events that will affect the known universe are happening and every scene is panned to see what Chani thinks. She believed in him and knew his path already. Really heavy handed altering of the story by DV. The novel has some amazing world building and intrigue to turn it into how does Chani feel really turned me off. I guess if you didn't know anything about Dune it would be fine but what a wasted chance to be the definitive Dune movie. I know that they had to make cuts to get under 3 hours but remove all of the Chani sulking scenes and replace them with important things from the story would have made all of the difference

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Originally Posted by Ski to Be

. The novel has some amazing world building and intrigue to turn it into how does Chani feel really turned me off. I guess if you didn't know anything about Dune it would be fine but what a wasted chance to be the definitive Dune movie. I know that they had to make cuts to get under 3 hours but remove all of the Chani sulking scenes and replace them with important things from the story would have made all of the difference

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I agree, Villeneuve sort of misses the point about what distinguishes Dune from the thousands of other science fiction stories. Herbert was THE GUY who approached the genre with the attitude of "the more things change, the more they stay the same". He wanted to build a world 21,000 years in the future that would be recognizable to a medieval person. And he succeeded. Feudalism, religious fanaticism, crusades, guilds, monastic orders, combat with swords, trial by combat, etc....Herbert figured out some great explanations for why his distant future would be full of anachronism. At a core level, that's the heart of Dune.

Villeneuve toyed with some of that in the first film but pretty much ignored it in the second so we could have an extra 20 minutes of Chani being woke. Which is doubly lame because Herbert's Fremen aren't woke. They're brutal, blood feuding fanatics who make the Harkonens look soft. They kill 60 billion people and exterminate entire planets in Paul's name.

Let the Dune memes flow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_7HEQOGiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uLs4Ow6UF0

Life of Brian fans will appreciate the similarity to a certain scene in Dune Pt 2. LMAO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo36RTn-B2c

I thought Dune I was pretty good and Dune II was terrible: hours of gratuitous violence that overwhelms the odd lazy attempt at profundity and trite critiques of colonialism that amount to little more than pandering.

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Originally Posted by Ski to Be

Maybe I am in the minority but I saw it twice and have read the novel 3 times. I thought it was visually amazing but they should have called it Chani's Dune. Way too much of her at the expense of nearly nothing about the Guild. No Thufir Hawat , Alia not even being born in their 4 years on Arrakis . Back to Chani . So the Messiah that shall know the desert as if born to it has to have Chani guide him later in the movie. Then she sulks the whole second half of the movie which is not what she did in the novel. Jessica had to use the voice to get her to revive him after he drank the water of life. The Freman were polyamorous and he already inherited Jamis wife after he killed him so this whole jealousy thing really took away from the film. I mean real historical events that will affect the known universe are happening and every scene is panned to see what Chani thinks. She believed in him and knew his path already. Really heavy handed altering of the story by DV. The novel has some amazing world building and intrigue to turn it into how does Chani feel really turned me off. I guess if you didn't know anything about Dune it would be fine but what a wasted chance to be the definitive Dune movie. I know that they had to make cuts to get under 3 hours but remove all of the Chani sulking scenes and replace them with important things from the story would have made all of the difference

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I finally had a chance to see Dune 2 now that it is on streaming. It is one of the most cinematically beautiful films in a very long time, and as someone who read the books I mostly agree with your take.

The plot line of Paul and Chani having a child that is murdered by the Harkonen is taken out. Alia killing the Baron with the Gom Jabbar after voluntarily being captured is taken out. No Thufir Hawat plot line, etc etc. These are all very important plot lines that have an affect on character development and plot in the next book. The movie universe is creating technical debt by departing so far from the books.

YES!!! :yourock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaaJRGYSyGo

Finally saw part II.

Same criticisms. So much left out that I'd have loved to see. Been a big fan of the books since reading the first one @ age 12. Visually awesome. Story? Not so much.

Giving the same treatment as the big movies but in a multi episode mini-series would be excellent. All the history, ecological bits of the planet/worm/spice relationship, so much more of the political landscape, so many other plot bits (i was irritated by the way Lady Fenring was shoved into part II)

A bunch of co-workers have now watched them, but not read any of the books. I've given up trying to explain things and have just started telling them to go read the fucking book.

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Originally Posted by scrublover

Finally saw part II.

Same criticisms. So much left out that I'd have loved to see. Been a big fan of the books since reading the first one @ age 12. Visually awesome. Story? Not so much.

Giving the same treatment as the big movies but in a multi episode mini-series would be excellent. All the history, ecological bits of the planet/worm/spice relationship, so much more of the political landscape, so many other plot bits (i was irritated by the way Lady Fenring was shoved into part II)

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Absolutely. HOWEVER, being that Pt 2 was tough enough to get greenlit from the studios as it was, asking for a proper series but with the same technical spectacle we got treated to is nothing but a pipe dream. We can't have it all, so I'll take what I can get. Knowing the constraints placed on these sorts of things, I'm pretty damn happy with the results.

And 100% yes, read the freaking book, people!!! THAT'S what we can always resort to for the story. The movie's there to help us with the director's "vision" of it. At least Villeneuve is an OG fan of the source material and gave it a pretty loving treatment IMO. It's not without its flaws (like some of the story stuff) BUT it's a great effort overall and far better than I was expecting in a world full of puked up MCU garbage.

This piano cover is SSOOOOO good! SOMEBODY's been practicing their arpeggios. Dayum!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-AOFsGWpqs

they did that 20 years ago on sci fi channel
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/
I have it and Children of Dune follow up on DVD


I still love these movies

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Originally Posted by Woodsy

they did that 20 years ago on sci fi channel
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/
I have it and Children of Dune follow up on DVD


I still love these movies

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Yes, I've got both those and Lynch's version.

I like all 3 versions warts and all.

Just finished dune2. I have only read Dune as a child. I need to reread Dune and read the entire series. Dune 2 is a very difficult movie to follow as it clearly leaves out critical parts.

It was, however, visually awesome.

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Time to fire up this old thread again! Got around to seeing the first episode of Dune: Prophecy and despite the criticism out there, I honestly enjoyed it. I think people's expectations were set WAAAAAAY too high thanks to Denis Villeneuve's masterpieces setting the bar. Remember, folks This is a TV series with an entirely different director, budget, production, etc. I find the backstory (way, WAY backstory) intriguing. Interesting seeing some of the great houses like the Harkonnens before they evolved, or rather devolved due to the environmental effects of Giedi Prime along with their technofused society. I believe it takes place some 10,000 years from our future, and something like 10,000 years before the events in the Dune movies. {Did I get that right, Dune experts?)

I always thought Game of Thrones reminded me of Dune with all of its feudal political flair, and I am here for this one too. We'll see how it ends up playing out as the series moves forward, but judging by the previews of upcoming episodes, it looks like they're going to be ramping up the action and stuff down the road for sure.

I'll reserve judgment and a full critique until I watch the entirety of the season, BUT I at least enjoyed episode 1, so I for one am looking forward to the next installment.

I wasn't so pleased with the first episode but I agree - it needs time to display its true potential if it actually has it. Just for comparison's sake, however, I thought the first episode of GoT was excellent; much more intriguing and well-paced than D:P.

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Originally Posted by PB

I wasn't so pleased with the first episode but I agree - it needs time to display its true potential if it actually has it.

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Entirely fair. Will have to take a wait and see approach. TONS of potential with loads of source material to more fully flesh out the Duniverse, but it can also just as easily jump the shark too, much like many people believe the book series did later on down the road. One of the issues with GoT was how it had SO many plot lines, many of which we were into, that a ton kind of just got abandoned along the way. At least in the TV series that is. I don't know about the books. Like they'd spend an entire season building up some plot just for us never to hear about it again later. Haha.

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Originally Posted by PB

Just for comparison's sake, however, I thought the first episode of GoT was excellent; much more intriguing and well-paced than D:P.

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Absolutely true. GoT got off to a tremendous start with ALL of Season 1. Actually, all those early seasons were fantastic. I have a feeling Dune: Prophecy won't quite hit THAT level of greatness, but could at least be a good time. Or at least hopefully good enough to hold our attention.