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Dune (2021 Film)
Back in Munich, where I have the chance to watch movies on the big screen (with masks etc.) in the original language: to be specific, the latest take on Dune. Aka Villeneuve filming the first part of the first, original novel. When a Dune unspoiled teenager sitting behind me realised this once the movie was over, she gasped in disbelief: "But they can't stop THERE!" Her mother told her she could always read the book instead of waiting a few years for the sequel. :)
The reason why despite a tight schedule I risked squeezing three hours in the cinema in is that the two movies I've seen from this director so far have led me to believe they lose a lot by the change of format and are made to unfold at several metres length. (Speaking of metres, for the first time I noted that the Duneverse counts in kilometres, not miles. Or is this a Villeneuve innovation? Anyway, good to know the metric system is alive and well millennia into the future.) And indeed, the visuals were as gorgeous as could be hoped for. The desert, naturally, but not exclusively; Villeneuve also milks the old Adreides home planet of Caladan and its vaguely Scottish/Norwegian exterior for what it's worth in stern watery beauty for contrast.
The actors were doing fine; Rebecca Ferguson's Jessica might be my favourite on screen take on her so far, showing both the steely core, the way Jessica can be incredibly dangerous and the vulnerability in terms of her strong emotions for her son and husband (which she shows mostly when no one else is in sight). For this reason, I very much regretted that as in Lynch's version, the entire subplot where Gurney believes Jessica to be the mole in the Atreides household is gone. I mean, in the book we know she's not because she's one of the pov characters, but in the movie the audience might have been uncertain for a while, because of that aura of power and secrets the actress projects. Oscar Isaacs as Leto is very sympathetic, noble and doomed, and has the kind of personal warmth which makes one believe all the people around him are this loyal and dedicated in response. Jason Mamoa as Duncan Idaho for the first time made me care for the character, which is a good thing if Vlleneuve will get to do Dune Messiah and God Emperor of Dune. Swashbuckling without being obnoxious about it.
As for the women not Jessica, the only one who really gets good screentime and meaty character stuff is Sharon Duncan-Brewster as genderflipped (a good decision, that) Dr. Liet Kynes, as opposed to Zendaya as Chani, who only shows up in Paul's visions until basically the last seven minutes of the movie when we meet her in person. (Oh, and she does get to speak first, introducing the audience to Arrakis and its history, which is a neat flip of Irulan doing it in the novel and in Lynch's movie.) She's at first enigmatic though also from the get go clearly passionate about her work, and I cared about her enough to hope against hope Villeneuve would depart from her canon fate.
As for our hero, to become our antihero in the sequels: I noticed the script mentions at no point Paul is supposed to be 15 when the movie starts. While Timothée Chalamet looks young, he definitely doesn't look that young anymore. (Younger than Kyle MachLachlan in his position, though, and way younger than Alec Newman in the tv series.) On the one hand, wise decision, maybe not, because everyone referring to Paul as a boy and treating him as such as well as his teenage brooding is, well, way different coming from a teenager than from a young man of 21 or so. What I thought worked really well was the being-tormented-by-his-own-future part - perhaps Chalamet's best scene was when he sees himself as leading something the script is careful not to call jihad despite the novel using that term for the first time, and it absolutely horrifies him, with the second best scene being the very last one in the movie when Paul makes the decision not to try and get a passage off world somehow but to stay with the Fremen. But this film reminded me again that in any incarnation of Dune, I find it hard to be sold on the Paul/Chani romance for the simple fact he dreams of her and their future so often before meeting her, and "falling in love because you've seen yourself in love in the future" becomes an anti-trope for me the older I get. Zendaya's brief out-of-vision appearance as Chani near the end is fine, I should add. But given this version lets her start the film with her narration, I wished Vlleneuve had taken the change one step further and let us meet her as a character in her own right in a few scenes instead of keeping us in Paul's pov re: Chani.
re: the Harkonnen(s), Stellan Skarsgard is appropriately creepy and menacing as the Baron, with perhaps the biggest change to previous incarnations made is that there is no indication of his homosexuality. (Probably a wise decision, since there is no way a gigantic fat sadist who also is gay wouldn't come across as a terrible stereotype.) His nephew Rabban doesn't get to do more than be a Faithful Lieutenant saying "Yes, uncle", which, well, true to canon. No glimpse of Feyd-Rautha, which means in addition to being evil, the (official) Harkonnen family members present all look grotesque, playing somewhat into the "good = beautiful" cliché. Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother is no Sian Phillips, but then, few people are, and she does well enough in the test scene, but I didn't quite believe everyone is scared of her and her abilities the way the script tells me to.
On to the story. Like I said, the film covers roughly half of the book, ending after Paul and Jessica have completed their escape and have been accepted by the Fremen while the Harkonnen have reassumed complete control over Arrakis. This gives it something of an "Empire Strikes Back" kind of ending, and also means more time to get to know Gurney and Duncan Idaho in addition to the Atreides family, though Thufir Hawat still has only cameos, and Dr. Yueh barely shows up before his betrayal; I regret this since it means both his scene with Jessica (where his wife is mentioned for the first time) is gone, and like I said, the entire hunt-the-mole subplot. Otoh: much more Kynes, which is a good thing.
Somewhat puzzling: the first time the fact Jessica and Leto aren't married comes up when he says, in the night of his death, "I should have married you". And then later someone refers to her as Leto's concubine, but since it was a Harkonnen soldier, it could have been meant as an insult rather than a differentiation from "wife". Now, I did wonder whether that means that in this version of Dune, space nobility doesn't have these differentiations and maybe Villeneuve is going to drastically alter the ending of the book accordingly, but then again, he had Paul already bring up the possibility of ending the entire feud by marrying the Emperor's daughter (though the idea isn't taken seriously when he tells it). Also either missing information or altered background: Jessica's reason(s) for giving birth to a boy despite her strict instructions by the Bene Gesserit to give birth to a girl. In the book, she has two - Leto wanted and needed a son, and she herself was hoping for the Kwisatz Haderach. The film only brings up the Kwisatz Haderach one,
Not sure about: on the one hand, the Spice/Oil parallels are much stronger to me now than they used to be when as a teenager I first came to know this story. And this film takes care to make it clear all the messiah legends on Arakis were in fact deliberate Bene Gesserit plants. And by ending it right after Paul's duel with Jamis and his and Jessica's acceptance by the Fremen, there is no actual white savior story being played out. (Not to mention that of course the way the story continues past Dune in the novels is one big deconstruction of the white saviour trope.) Otoh, by ending it at this point, we don't really get to know the Fremen except in bit and pieces and cameos. (Other than Kynes, who is an adopted Fremen.) Presumably the next movie, if it comes, will allow an in depth Fremen depiction), but so far, they're the mysterious noble Other.
In conclusion: I'm interested rather than passionate about, and I am/i> glad of having been able to see it on the big screen.
The reason why despite a tight schedule I risked squeezing three hours in the cinema in is that the two movies I've seen from this director so far have led me to believe they lose a lot by the change of format and are made to unfold at several metres length. (Speaking of metres, for the first time I noted that the Duneverse counts in kilometres, not miles. Or is this a Villeneuve innovation? Anyway, good to know the metric system is alive and well millennia into the future.) And indeed, the visuals were as gorgeous as could be hoped for. The desert, naturally, but not exclusively; Villeneuve also milks the old Adreides home planet of Caladan and its vaguely Scottish/Norwegian exterior for what it's worth in stern watery beauty for contrast.
The actors were doing fine; Rebecca Ferguson's Jessica might be my favourite on screen take on her so far, showing both the steely core, the way Jessica can be incredibly dangerous and the vulnerability in terms of her strong emotions for her son and husband (which she shows mostly when no one else is in sight). For this reason, I very much regretted that as in Lynch's version, the entire subplot where Gurney believes Jessica to be the mole in the Atreides household is gone. I mean, in the book we know she's not because she's one of the pov characters, but in the movie the audience might have been uncertain for a while, because of that aura of power and secrets the actress projects. Oscar Isaacs as Leto is very sympathetic, noble and doomed, and has the kind of personal warmth which makes one believe all the people around him are this loyal and dedicated in response. Jason Mamoa as Duncan Idaho for the first time made me care for the character, which is a good thing if Vlleneuve will get to do Dune Messiah and God Emperor of Dune. Swashbuckling without being obnoxious about it.
As for the women not Jessica, the only one who really gets good screentime and meaty character stuff is Sharon Duncan-Brewster as genderflipped (a good decision, that) Dr. Liet Kynes, as opposed to Zendaya as Chani, who only shows up in Paul's visions until basically the last seven minutes of the movie when we meet her in person. (Oh, and she does get to speak first, introducing the audience to Arrakis and its history, which is a neat flip of Irulan doing it in the novel and in Lynch's movie.) She's at first enigmatic though also from the get go clearly passionate about her work, and I cared about her enough to hope against hope Villeneuve would depart from her canon fate.
As for our hero, to become our antihero in the sequels: I noticed the script mentions at no point Paul is supposed to be 15 when the movie starts. While Timothée Chalamet looks young, he definitely doesn't look that young anymore. (Younger than Kyle MachLachlan in his position, though, and way younger than Alec Newman in the tv series.) On the one hand, wise decision, maybe not, because everyone referring to Paul as a boy and treating him as such as well as his teenage brooding is, well, way different coming from a teenager than from a young man of 21 or so. What I thought worked really well was the being-tormented-by-his-own-future part - perhaps Chalamet's best scene was when he sees himself as leading something the script is careful not to call jihad despite the novel using that term for the first time, and it absolutely horrifies him, with the second best scene being the very last one in the movie when Paul makes the decision not to try and get a passage off world somehow but to stay with the Fremen. But this film reminded me again that in any incarnation of Dune, I find it hard to be sold on the Paul/Chani romance for the simple fact he dreams of her and their future so often before meeting her, and "falling in love because you've seen yourself in love in the future" becomes an anti-trope for me the older I get. Zendaya's brief out-of-vision appearance as Chani near the end is fine, I should add. But given this version lets her start the film with her narration, I wished Vlleneuve had taken the change one step further and let us meet her as a character in her own right in a few scenes instead of keeping us in Paul's pov re: Chani.
re: the Harkonnen(s), Stellan Skarsgard is appropriately creepy and menacing as the Baron, with perhaps the biggest change to previous incarnations made is that there is no indication of his homosexuality. (Probably a wise decision, since there is no way a gigantic fat sadist who also is gay wouldn't come across as a terrible stereotype.) His nephew Rabban doesn't get to do more than be a Faithful Lieutenant saying "Yes, uncle", which, well, true to canon. No glimpse of Feyd-Rautha, which means in addition to being evil, the (official) Harkonnen family members present all look grotesque, playing somewhat into the "good = beautiful" cliché. Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother is no Sian Phillips, but then, few people are, and she does well enough in the test scene, but I didn't quite believe everyone is scared of her and her abilities the way the script tells me to.
On to the story. Like I said, the film covers roughly half of the book, ending after Paul and Jessica have completed their escape and have been accepted by the Fremen while the Harkonnen have reassumed complete control over Arrakis. This gives it something of an "Empire Strikes Back" kind of ending, and also means more time to get to know Gurney and Duncan Idaho in addition to the Atreides family, though Thufir Hawat still has only cameos, and Dr. Yueh barely shows up before his betrayal; I regret this since it means both his scene with Jessica (where his wife is mentioned for the first time) is gone, and like I said, the entire hunt-the-mole subplot. Otoh: much more Kynes, which is a good thing.
Somewhat puzzling: the first time the fact Jessica and Leto aren't married comes up when he says, in the night of his death, "I should have married you". And then later someone refers to her as Leto's concubine, but since it was a Harkonnen soldier, it could have been meant as an insult rather than a differentiation from "wife". Now, I did wonder whether that means that in this version of Dune, space nobility doesn't have these differentiations and maybe Villeneuve is going to drastically alter the ending of the book accordingly, but then again, he had Paul already bring up the possibility of ending the entire feud by marrying the Emperor's daughter (though the idea isn't taken seriously when he tells it). Also either missing information or altered background: Jessica's reason(s) for giving birth to a boy despite her strict instructions by the Bene Gesserit to give birth to a girl. In the book, she has two - Leto wanted and needed a son, and she herself was hoping for the Kwisatz Haderach. The film only brings up the Kwisatz Haderach one,
Not sure about: on the one hand, the Spice/Oil parallels are much stronger to me now than they used to be when as a teenager I first came to know this story. And this film takes care to make it clear all the messiah legends on Arakis were in fact deliberate Bene Gesserit plants. And by ending it right after Paul's duel with Jamis and his and Jessica's acceptance by the Fremen, there is no actual white savior story being played out. (Not to mention that of course the way the story continues past Dune in the novels is one big deconstruction of the white saviour trope.) Otoh, by ending it at this point, we don't really get to know the Fremen except in bit and pieces and cameos. (Other than Kynes, who is an adopted Fremen.) Presumably the next movie, if it comes, will allow an in depth Fremen depiction), but so far, they're the mysterious noble Other.
In conclusion: I'm interested rather than passionate about, and I am/i> glad of having been able to see it on the big screen.
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