Dune, adapted by Denis Villeneuve

[happyninja42]

More like shields can be modulated to admit or repel a spectrum of kinetic energy, in thresholds measured in joules if I remember right. Because that's why hunter-seekers were so absolutely lethal, they can bypass almost any shield that wouldn't kill its wearer on account of how light they were. And that was the other thing about shields too, they could be attuned so finely they wouldn't even admit airflow; that actually came up in one of the later books if I remember right, when one of the characters managed to either avoid a gas attack or was assassinated by asphyxiation by an over-tuned shield.

Could be, I don't remember a lot of the minutia of the little tech details. I was just giving a broad overview of a detail that is significant to the setting, but has never actually been addressed in the films. The David Lynch film just basically ignored it, and let them use guns all over the place. The mini-series didn't use guns much that I can recall(?) but it also didn't really explain the shields much either. It's just one of those details that relies on the audience knowing this detail from the books. But given how many people will be seeing this film, that have never read the books, I can see that being something that makes a lot of people scratch their heads.

It's similar to why Jim Butcher made the magic in the Dresden-verse, be so hostile to technology. He has specifically said it was to negate the "yeah but why don't they just pull out their cell phones and call for help?" "Because magic kills technology."

Same thing for the shield tech. It was simply to justify "Yeah but why pointy sticks instead of pew pew?"

 

[Agema]

I was happy enough with the 80s version. But then, I'm a big fan of David Lynch.

I think Dune is the sort of story that should suit a more artistically-inclined director like Villeneuve, although that sort of style is not going to be to everyone's taste.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Ended up getting the boxset with all 6 of em on amazon, hopefully I can finish it in time for this movie to come out haha.

You utter madlad.

 

[happyninja42]

I wouldn't describe it as shocking.

I would describe it as increasingly awkward.

*shrugs* I didn't find it very awkward personally. It was just sex addiction and dominance. I mean given the level of body control established in the Dune-verse, it made sense to me that a group of women would decide to specialize in sex to gain dominance in a society.

 

[happyninja42]

I was happy enough with the 80s version. But then, I'm a big fan of David Lynch.

I think Dune is the sort of story that should suit a more artistically-inclined director like Villeneuve, although that sort of style is not going to be to everyone's taste.

I fucking LOVE the Lynch film. I wouldn't call myself a Lynch fan, I mean I like some of his stuff, but I don't really love it either. But I saw that film as a kid, and holy shit did it have a profound effect on me. I'm pretty sure I saw the film first? and then read the books later. Not sure, my memory from my childhood is spotty at best. But, it shaped a lot of things for me personally. I firmly believe, that film, is one of the fundamental reasons I have an attraction preference for dark haired women, who are older, who also happen to have really strikingly beautiful eyes. The actress who played Lady Jessica, with her poise and demure sensuality just...well, I realized I was definitely into women, thanks to her. And the shots of Sean Young, standing in the dark when they introduce her, with those glowing blue eyes, just piercing into the camera. Yeah that pretty much solidified it for me. But it was more than that. The whole weirding way/module thing had a profound effect on me as a kid, and the idea of thoughts as fundamental concepts of reality, and thus having shape, thus able to Think Your Way to Altering Reality, kind of blew my little kid brain. I was never really religious, but that, mixed with a hybridization of the Force, was the closest I came to a spiritual concept to reality for a long time.

I'd always had a fascination with the desert, so the film had that going for it. It just, really galvanized my imagination on so many levels. It was over the top, and ostentatious, but also epic and triumphant. It was trippy and sexy and weird and just fucking awesome. Yeah it's a cinematic mess, from a critical standpoint, but I don't really fucking care. I love it, and always will.

I then picked up the books, and read the entire series, which was an amazing series of books, spanning such a long time line, letting you see how things would be altered by the actions over time..

So yeah, I love Dune.

 

[Eacaraxe]

Same thing for the shield tech. It was simply to justify "Yeah but why pointy sticks instead of pew pew?"

My intent pointing this out, is you're selling it short by understating it thus and really not giving enough credit to the depth and forethought put into the series by Herbert. It's not just something cooked up to justify this one thing in the narrative, it's a more or less omnipresent force in the story that's (until Chapterhouse if I remember right) entirely internally consistent, and has repercussions on most narrative branches and major events through the entire series.

Hell, just in the first book the entire battle of Arrakeen hinged on it.

 

[happyninja42]

My intent pointing this out, is you're selling it short by understating it thus and really not giving enough credit to the depth and forethought put into the series by Herbert. It's not just something cooked up to justify this one thing in the narrative, it's a more or less omnipresent force in the story that's (until Chapterhouse if I remember right) entirely internally consistent, and has repercussions on most narrative branches and major events through the entire series.

Hell, just in the first book the entire battle of Arrakeen hinged on it.

The fact that it was done to justify having melee combat instead of firearms doesn't make it less cool or clever writing. But that's why he did it. He did it very well, and incorporated it into his setting with excellent skill, but that doesn't change the motivation for him doing it.

 

[Dreiko]

You utter madlad.

Hey man, when I go into something, I go all the way XD. Not sure how big these books are but it's not unrealistic to give myself a couple of months. One time I read all 12 or however many Ranger books are out there in like 2 weeks lol.

 

[Eacaraxe]

The fact that it was done to justify having melee combat instead of firearms doesn't make it less cool or clever writing. But that's why he did it. He did it very well, and incorporated it into his setting with excellent skill, but that doesn't change the motivation for him doing it.

You're still missing my point. There is a significant logical gap between handwaving something for the sake of narrative, and establishing the metaphysics of your setting from the beginning, and putting the legwork in to figure out in all the ways those metaphysics will dictate narrative. And in this case, it's the other way around: the metaphysics drove the narrative. Case in point,

Spoiler

The entire war between the Atreides/Fremen alliance, and the Harkonnen/Corrino alliance, hinges upon and is determined by this "handwave". The Atreides didn't stand a chance against lasgun-equipped Sardaukar because they couldn't use shields, the Fremen would later weaponize the Holtzman effect against the Sardaukar to punish lasgun use on Arrakis, and the final battle boiled down to the Sardaukar being completely incapable of effectively countering the Fremen's use of sandworms and the Weirding Way.

 

[Hawki]

...Did you swap Jihad for Crusade?
N I C E

You utter madlad.

Madlad?

Nay, mentat.

 

[Gordon_4]

Madlad?

Nay, mentat.

Anyone who thought Jihad was staying in this movie was deluding themselves.

 

[Hawki]

Anyone who thought Jihad was staying in this movie was deluding themselves.

Shut up and let me dream!

 

[Agema]

I fucking LOVE the Lynch film. I wouldn't call myself a Lynch fan, I mean I like some of his stuff, but I don't really love it either. But I saw that film as a kid, and holy shit did it have a profound effect on me. I'm pretty sure I saw the film first? and then read the books later. Not sure, my memory from my childhood is spotty at best. But, it shaped a lot of things for me personally. I firmly believe, that film, is one of the fundamental reasons I have an attraction preference for dark haired women, who are older, who also happen to have really strikingly beautiful eyes. The actress who played Lady Jessica, with her poise and demure sensuality just...well, I realized I was definitely into women, thanks to her. And the shots of Sean Young, standing in the dark when they introduce her, with those glowing blue eyes, just piercing into the camera. Yeah that pretty much solidified it for me. But it was more than that. The whole weirding way/module thing had a profound effect on me as a kid, and the idea of thoughts as fundamental concepts of reality, and thus having shape, thus able to Think Your Way to Altering Reality, kind of blew my little kid brain. I was never really religious, but that, mixed with a hybridization of the Force, was the closest I came to a spiritual concept to reality for a long time.

I'd always had a fascination with the desert, so the film had that going for it. It just, really galvanized my imagination on so many levels. It was over the top, and ostentatious, but also epic and triumphant. It was trippy and sexy and weird and just fucking awesome. Yeah it's a cinematic mess, from a critical standpoint, but I don't really fucking care. I love it, and always will.

I then picked up the books, and read the entire series, which was an amazing series of books, spanning such a long time line, letting you see how things would be altered by the actions over time..

So yeah, I love Dune.

I think Dune is the sort of setting that really, really, benefits from a very... "artistic" director. Someone who can not just think up something that looks futuristically pretty, but has a real sense of style and aesthetics. Lynch and Villeneuve are such directors. Ridley Scott could be. I am inclined to think that criticisms of its script (or what it was edited into - lots of exposition was possibly removed) are valid. Dune's a big book with a lot to explain to a reader, and it's incredibly hard to do that in a 2h movie; that Lynch is hardly the most straightforward of directors may not have helped. A SF fan can much more easily roll with it, but it must have been bewildering to a lot of people back in the 1980s when SF was much more niche than today, despite Star Wars.

I know Lynch probably hated what happened with the making of Dune, and like many less commercial directors backed out from big Hollywood movies to ones they could retain more control over. But I'm glad he got the chance to give us that vision, because as you say, I also first watched it when relatively young (~14-16?) and it was a wonder (even if I had to ask my dad, who'd read the book, to explain what had happened at various points).

 

[Agema]

Anyone who thought Jihad was staying in this movie was deluding themselves.

Ah, to think that back then it was a relatively innocent term that was deemed interchangeable with crusade, except to grant a sense of the exotic.

 

[Eacaraxe]

Ridley Scott could be.

Erm, I don't know if you brought him up knowing, or what...but we did get a movie that was basically Scott's creative vision for Dune. You probably never heard of it, it wasn't that great and wasn't a very big hit.

 

[Baffle]

I had the game on the 386. I was Paul, and Paul was useless. Seemed pretty amazing at the time (the game, not Paul; even as a 10 year old I knew Paul was a useless crapsack).

 

[Satinavian]

My first exposure was the game as well. Then the Film. Then the second game (which is only loosely based on the book or film), then the 6 books.



Personally i think the TV miniseries does capture the books better than the first film. Well, expect for the Paul actor that is. But all the adaptations that are first-book-only completely omit all the important points including how Paul is fighting his fate and eventually losing and why.

 

[Ezekiel]

Looks like Blade Runner 2049 is only 200 nits in HDR. Knew I wasn't hallucinating when I said it lacked color.



I know brightness and color aren't the same thing, but they're related. HDR can enhance colors or show more of the intended colors that DVD and Blu-ray couldn't.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Looks like Blade Runner 2049 is only 200 nits in HDR. Knew I wasn't hallucinating when I said it lacked color.



I know brightness and color aren't the same thing, but they're related. HDR can enhance colors or show more of the intended colors that DVD and Blu-ray couldn't.

Only 200 godamn nits? I've been bamboozled goddammit. Clerk assured me movie had at least 400. I don't watch movies under 400 nits. Don't even talk to me if your movie is under 400 nits.

 

[Dalisclock]

You will probably only need to finish the first book, for the purposes of this film. They are really dense as far as story elements, and it wouldn't surprise me if they split the film into 2 parts frankly. I'm not a big fan of that idea, but, to do otherwise would mean carving out huge swathes of the story. I mean the scifi channel did the first book as a 6 hour mini series, and it still had to leave stuff on the cutting room floor.

Apparently they are going to split the film into two parts, which might be for the best.

Dune: Director Explains Why His Adaptation Will Be Split Across Two Movies - IGN

Denis Villeneuve says his Dune adaptation will be split into two movies as the world is "too complex" to fit into a single feature film.

www.ign.com

A bunch of outlets are reporting the same thing, I just grabbed this one because why not.