Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

[Drenk]

I've never liked one of his movies.

[Robyn]

Two quotes:

The biggest problem, though, is Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer's best score.

Anyway, I am excited about this one. Wasn't before but I am now. Hopefully it will be the first villeneuve that I'll love.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I unironically loved Zimmer's bombastic score in 2049. I hope this one's even louder.

[WorldForgot]

Hilarious photo shoot.

None of that deterred Villeneuve, who still remembers the moment he first found a copy of Dune in his local library growing up. He was so captured by it — by Paul's journey from noble privilege to finding true community with the Fremen people who inhabit Arrakis, by Herbert's scientifically-informed creation of planetary ecosystems, by the vividly psychedelic cover art by Wojciech Siudmak — that he even carved "Muad'Dib" on the inside of his school ring. That artifact has unfortunately been lost to the sands of time, but Villeneuve's obsession with Dune has never left him. As he became a film director, carving out a distinguished career with smaller films like 2010's Incendies and Enemy before moving on to big-budget sci-fi like 2016's Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve's answer to the question "what's your dream project?" never changed.

[...]

"Every room I was in with him, I'd try to put myself in his eyeline or just try to make him familiar with me," Chalamet, 25, recalls. "He hadn't seen Call Me by Your Name yet, but once he did he asked me to come meet him at the Cannes Film Festival where he was president of the jury, which did not feel casual at all. So I went out there and just had one of the coolest meetings ever with him, where I felt he was already treating me as a potential collaborator."

Chalamet had previously auditioned for Villeneuve's 2013 film Prisoners, but didn't make the cut.

I'm into this Hallmark Channel-esque mood considering the source material couldn't be farther from this 'basic tee' + autumn field aesthetic.

[Jeremy Blackman]

EW always manages to produce the wildest publicity photos.

[Jeremy Blackman]

https://twitter.com/davechensky/status/1448652239095021576

[Alethia]

Chalameh

[wilberfan]

We're not the only ones griping about posters.

New 'Dune' Poster Is Bad Art But Smart Marketing

[Jeremy Blackman]

Dune is a miracle. It's CINEMA with a capital C. It's also a Theatrical Experience. It's the best movie I've seen in years.

The film opens, it grabs me by the throat, and for an hour straight I'm weeping, almost shaking, my body unable to process the magnitude of the beauty that's being continuously infused into my soul. It's images and sound, but it's also a deep mystical feeling — perhaps a cinematic realization the type of thing Frank Herbert was trying to reach.

What movies have ever even done something like this for me? I think of Avatar, Fury Road, Titanic, The Last Jedi. But Villeneuve's DUNE does "the chosen one" better than any Star Wars movie. I'm not even one for prophecies, but this... this does prophecy like it should be done.

Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson are the beating hearts of this film, and they elevate it far beyond anything Villeneuve accomplished with 2049. This is not austere court intrigue. Ferguson and Chalamet are at all times boiling with emotion, anticipation, and longing for destiny.

The casting of Chalamet is absolute genius and works better than I ever could have imagined. His lanky eagerness and odd angst are precisely what the character needs. I so thoroughly respect their decision to not cast a Default Man in this role.

I know I'm setting impossible expectations, but I have to be honest. Dune is incredible.

[Robyn]

Yay! That makes me excited.

I'll wait for the VOD, so I can watch it on my phone.

[pynchonikon]

The film opens, it grabs me by the throat, and for an hour straight I'm weeping, almost shaking, my body unable to process the magnitude of the beauty that's being continuously infused into my soul. It's images and sound, but it's also a deep mystical feeling — perhaps a cinematic realization the type of thing Frank Herbert was trying to reach.

I didn't love the movie as much as you did, but this paragraph describes pretty close how I felt in the cinema as well 

[WorldForgot]

Hoping this wins the costume design Academy Award, but if not, I'll just have to print out screenshots or buy an artbook and chew into myself, I guess.

Still kind of sorting my thoughts out for this film because - having read the book - it feels like a faithful and earnest adaptation. Political dynamics from the novel are here re-interpreted to be nearly a coming-of-age thriller about what our family hides vs presents and the danger of destiny meeting you before you're ready.

Rebecca Ferguson iz gonna get a nom for this right? It sorta feelz like she's the mana here.

In themes surrounding Paul and prophecy, the edit and script are effective. In its representation of cultures, I'm not so sure right now. How does this feel to someone that's not read the novel? I expect that it's all too quick? But maybe that's okay because it will inspire people that dug into the aesthetic to read the source material? Its exposition is handled so well that I'm not sure it's 'handled' in so far as how the Freman are portrayed.

Putting in more work on that front than the script - Hans Zimmerman's score. Compositions, aesthetic and aural, feel like they accomplish what Jodorowsky was aching for in that original design. That iz, as JB put it, a translation of mystical sensation - doubt and epiphany both.

Spoiler: ShowHide

the bag pipes did make me laugh - though

Okay and the true elephant in the room:

Spoiler: ShowHide

It's disingenuous how they marketed this right? I won't be surprised if general audiences are frustrated by the loose threads and how little Zendaya truly interacts with the plot. From the marketing, they'd have you think that Zendaya is in this movie and not just part of the promo for the second part.

[jviness02]

None of my normal friends with lives even knew it was only half of the book.


The pacing is wonky as fuck, but I sort of give it a pass because it is only half of the book. The climax is anticlimactic and the third act is weird for the same reason.

Overall, good film with great visuals.

[polkablues]

The climax is anticlimactic and the third act is weird for the same reason.

That's the biggest deficit of the film, that it quite literally is only half a movie. The third act is weird because there is no third act; it ends midway through act two. Normally when you split a story up like this, you would structure it so that each individual part has its own three act structure within the greater narrative, but Villeneuve didn't bother, he just took the story as a whole, filmed half of it, and said bon appetit. Which will be fine if and when the second part gets made and people can watch the whole thing as one complete five hour ( ) movie, but for now we're left with the story of people moving vaguely in the direction of a goal and stopping halfway.

[HACKANUT]

I didn't quite feel that lack of third act like you guys describe. I totally get where it's coming from but I felt satisfied when it ended in the same way I didn't mind when Fellowship of the Ring was over back in the day.
Of course it's gonna benefit from part 2 being available in the future, but:

Spoiler: ShowHide

if the throughline is Paul finding his own way to being a leader and discovering "desert power"then it checked all the boxes for me.

Very much looking forward to a second viewing on this one. Just a beautiful, beautiful film.