I'm surprised you said you haven't read the books and will compare against Lynch's film but then say this film is improved by Paul looking closer to the age of that in the books...

Being the same - i.e. only having the two films and not having the books as a reference point - I thought the exact opposite. Not that Kyle MacLachlan was some kind of hulking colossus but Timothée Chalamet was so dweeby I had to wonder if it was some sort of deliberate choice? Maybe to highlight his seeming man love for the man mountain Duncan, who knows...

I was also surprised at just how far down the line the story went (again purely viewing against the first film). Basically all that was left was the "Over a few years, Paul and his Mujahideen brought down the Harkonnen on Arrakis" montage and Paul becomes the new Emperor. The End.

I guess the rise of Paul and the Fremen will be massively expanded from two minutes in Lynch's film to pretty much the entire run time of part two?

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

I'm surprised you said you haven't read the books and will compare against Lynch's film but then say this film is improved by Paul looking closer to the age of that in the books...

Yes but book aficionados will hammer that point home every time the subject comes up so that is where I picked up on that point.

@movie_nazi said:

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

I'm surprised you said you haven't read the books and will compare against Lynch's film but then say this film is improved by Paul looking closer to the age of that in the books...

Yes but book aficionados will hammer that point home every time the subject comes up so that is where I picked up on that point.

I appreciate that's the case but what I was trying to say was that if you're just making a comparison between the films, that in itself doesn't equate to an improvement. Unless you thought certain scenes played out better in this version by having a slightly more effeminate actor in the part?

Maybe slightly unfair to make the comparison at this point though as I guess the point within the book is that he joins the Fremen as a boy but emerges as a warrior / man capable of leading. So maybe we need to see if Timothée Chalamet goes fully Arnie in Part 2 and looks the full transformed part. At which point then yes maybe I could see his casting as being an improvement...

@movie_nazi said:

Let me just say that I have never read the book and my only experience with the story is from watching the 1984 David Lynch film. So a lot of my comparisons will be to that since it is my only source of the story. Overall I thought it was pretty good for what the story is. As far as film making is concerned, I thought it was very well done. I loved Villeneuve's Blade Runner and the dude definitely got chops. One thing that I did like more compared to the old one was that the pacing was much better. Since the old one tried to cram the entire story into one film it just seemed to drag ass at times. The fact that they split this one up into two films gives it a tremendous advantage. I also felt that the casting of Timothée Chalamet as Paul was much closer (at least in looks) to the age of what the character was in the books which, if I recall correctly, was a young teenager. Kyle MacLachlan, although he didn't look old per se, was in his mid 20s and did NOT look at all like a teenager so at least in that respect this film is an improvement.

Dune (2021) - 7 outta 10 stars

Timothee is no sane man's idea of an action hero.

@Adammm said:

@movie_nazi said:

Let me just say that I have never read the book and my only experience with the story is from watching the 1984 David Lynch film. So a lot of my comparisons will be to that since it is my only source of the story. Overall I thought it was pretty good for what the story is. As far as film making is concerned, I thought it was very well done. I loved Villeneuve's Blade Runner and the dude definitely got chops. One thing that I did like more compared to the old one was that the pacing was much better. Since the old one tried to cram the entire story into one film it just seemed to drag ass at times. The fact that they split this one up into two films gives it a tremendous advantage. I also felt that the casting of Timothée Chalamet as Paul was much closer (at least in looks) to the age of what the character was in the books which, if I recall correctly, was a young teenager. Kyle MacLachlan, although he didn't look old per se, was in his mid 20s and did NOT look at all like a teenager so at least in that respect this film is an improvement.

Dune (2021) - 7 outta 10 stars

Timothee is no sane man's idea of an action hero.

Take it up with Frank Herbert. He's the one who wrote him up like that. Also like Midi said, maybe he gets buffed out for part two. The point of the story was that he was just a boy when he was forced to take over as leader of his house. Having him look like an "action hero" at age 16 is pretty unrealistic. Unless they are using some really good steroids. 😁

I fondly remember when I went to see Lynch's verison of Dune. Everyone going into the theater was given a sheet of paper by the theater employees. This was basically a glossary explaining what certain words meant. It also mentioned all of the factions (e.g. Bene Gesserit, etc) in the movie. This was the only time I ever got a cheat sheet for a movie.

@SecretaryIMF said:

I fondly remember when I went to see Lynch's verison of Dune. Everyone going into the theater was given a sheet of paper by the theater employees. This was basically a glossary explaining what certain words meant. It also mentioned all of the factions (e.g. Bene Gesserit, etc) in the movie. This was the only time I ever got a cheat sheet for a movie.

Huh. I'm not sure how to feel about that. In one instance I think it is a nice touch like when you go to see a play but in the other I feel like the plot was not told clearly enough in the film that they felt they needed to hand hold so that the audience wouldn't get confused. The entire story is a bit much to take in on a single film though so I suppose it is understandable.

@SecretaryIMF said:

I fondly remember when I went to see Lynch's version of Dune. Everyone going into the theater was given a sheet of paper by the theater employees. This was basically a glossary explaining what certain words meant. It also mentioned all of the factions (e.g. Bene Gesserit, etc) in the movie. This was the only time I ever got a cheat sheet for a movie.

That would have been cool if the theater I saw it in, back when it was first released. I had already read the first two books so knew what was going on but the person I went with was really confused & I had to keep telling them what was happening & why.

@bratface: That's exactly why "cheat sheets" were passed out. When I saw Interstellar in the theater (it was in one of those "high class" movie theaters), a theater employee stood came in about 10 minutes before the film started to tell us a little bit about Interstellar. One of the things he said was that "this movie is very densely plotted, so if you need to go to the bathroom, go now because if you go during the movie you'll lose the plot."