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« on: November 21, 2021, 05:24:06 PM »
Just to complete this story; a couple of weeks ago I went to see Dune Part 1 at the cinema with my brother, and I wanted to sit on it a little while to formulate my thoughts. I obviously have read the series, whereas my brother has not, so we had two perspectives going in knowledge-wise.
I thought it was very good and definitely the best adaptation to date. But from what I can tell from talking to others and listening to discussions online, if you have not read the books then there is about a 50/50 chance that you'll enjoy the film. My brother definitely did - he did really well at picking up on the themes, and just enjoyed the Sci-Fi universe that he was presented with through great visuals and costumes, generally great acting and casting, and Zimmer going absolutely ham with the soundtrack. Others, though, struggled with just being dropped in at the deep-end with the worldbuilding, or just found it boring. Prior knowledge definitely helps so you can just sit back and enjoy seeing everything being brought to life on the screen. There is a reason the book had a glossary in it, and they should've probably printed it and handed it out with tickets for newcomers to Dune!
For me, I really hope that there is a 5 hour long, Lord of the Rings-esque, directors cut of this first part, and the same for the second. It tells the story of about the first half of the Dune book, but adapts about half of the material. They were intelligent about what they cut and what they chose to show, and very good at adapting a book that is very heavy on cerebral monologues into a visual medium, but I honestly think that there is a significant amount of depth and richness in those missing parts. Also the more overt politicking that they cut out (Yue, Thufir Hawat, the dinner party with the other Houses) may have made up for the lack of action in this first part. I didn't know that it was a two-part film (although they didn't know if they were approved to make part 2 yet either...), so wasn't expecting it to just end when it did... That said, I was just relieved that they didn't try to cram and rush it all in one film. My major gripes were: 1. The music was waaaaaaay to loud at points, especially during the Gom Jabbar scene when it completely drowned out Jessica reciting the litany against fear; and 2. Zendaya's performance as Chani - she is either just not a good actress, or she was putting in noticeably lower effort than the rest of the cast...
Overall though, I think it was a good film, that will only improve when the second is shot and released. I was hoping to be able to recommend it to people over reading the book, because of how just obtuse the writing style is, but I'm still kind of on the fence still.