Folks, how are we feeling about Dune?

Saw Part Two in IMAX the other day and had a Giant Worm of a time. Starting rereading the book and my previously Dune-skeptical gf is planning on reading it too. Everything’s coming up Dune!

Have any of you seen it yet? Did you enjoy it more or less than the first? Any thoughts on the adaptation and the changes from the book?

I’ll probably end up seeing Part 2 in theatres. I thought the first was underwhelming, but I imagine it’s more fun on the big screen. I don’t really like Denis Villeneuve’s aesthetic sensibilities, but I saw 2049 in IMAX and that movie got carried hard by being Big and Loud.

I’m kind of a Dune hater generally though. I respect the first book and really like Messiah, but the rest were pretty unbearable reads for me.

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I haven’t seen any of DV’s work besides Dune, to be honest. I would definitely say that even if you’re not that invested in the story it’s a hell of a sensory experience to see it on a massive screen with a beefy sound system.

I’ve read the first 4 Dune books and I really love them, however I did get into them when I was like 12 and I’m generally predisposed to like really convoluted, indulgent sci fi even when it’s not very artfully assembled (the first three sequels to Ender’s Game are GAS) so they fall right up my alley.

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I can dig that. I read the first book in high school and enjoyed it, then read Messiah and the sequels 10+ years later. Messiah was a huge hit for me because I love when authors hold their primary audience in contempt lol, especially in conflicts between artistry/depth and consumerism/fandom/nerd shit/whatever you wanna call it. I think that’s why I was extra critical of everything past Messiah, because I really felt it lacked that depth and artistry. Nothing worse than finding out someone doesn’t have the juice. I kept reading hoping it pulled back together, but it never did.

I realize writing this out that it sounds like I have way more and way stronger Dune opinions than I actually do. Mostly I don’t think about it lol.

I am glad that the movies aren’t total junk at least, even if they don’t really appeal to me. I’d probably have skipped them if my partner didn’t want to see them.

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I’m probs gonna watch the first one tomorrow. I never read the books tho - will report back with my thoughts

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I’ll probably watch the first one soon that the second one is out! I read all the books in highschool and mostly remember them fondly, though it definitely feels clear in retrospect that Herbert just like, got bored with it at at certain point and started to get weird. I don’t remember the specifics of the books enough to compare them to the movies though.

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Dune’s a good book and the movie is alright, but i can never get over the fact that frank herbert wrote them about the dunes outside florence oregon, which I can only associate with being that place people go to get very drunk and ride 4-wheelers

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W-wait… the people in Dune get high on spice… and ride the worms…

(I want to be clear that I know very little about Dune, and what little I do know is the stuff about his mom’s weird religious order)

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I don’t know anything about the movie, I just know that when the movie was ready to be made Denis Villenueve texted Chalamet excitedly to tell him “Muad’dib time”. Therefore I can say with reasonable certainty that this must be the best movie ever.

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oh my God I thought you were joking

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Movie is pretty fucking good, I liked it way better than the first part.

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feeling too icky to watch the first one now because i wanna give it my full attention…fate denies me yet again (hopefully soon tho)

Just saw Part 2 in 70mm (not IMAX) and it was great! Significantly better than Part 1 and retroactively improves it–the story genuinely benefitted from being two films. It also incorporated several elements from Dune Messiah, which I appreciated, and overall made the character conflicts more interesting imo

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Saw it again, this time on a “premium” 2.39 screen instead of IMAX because it had recliner seats and when your movie is over 2.5 hours I’m gonna need that lmao

Still kicks ass, but after learning that they intentionally framed it at a weird aspect ratio in-between 1.90 (IMAX) and 2.39 and neither version actually shows the whole image I just wonder why any self-respecting DP would do that to themselves. I know I was consciously looking for this, but so many shots in the 2.39 version felt like they had dead air on the sides so they wouldn’t be cropped too tightly in IMAX and it’s like… you could’ve just released the IMAX version on every screen! WB already did that with The Flash and The Suicide Squad and it was fine! Why even bother with a 2.39 version if you “filmed for IMAX” like they put on those promotional posters by the ticket counter?

I know this is a really petty complaint, but this is my hyperfixation and I don’t have many places to talk about it lmao

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Did it happen to be framed 2.2:1? That’s the natural aspect ratio of non-IMAX 70mm. I saw it on 70mm and didn’t notice any weird framing (but I also wasn’t really on the lookout in the same way as I was for Oppenheimer, which I saw at the same theatre).

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Apparently it’s framed for like 2.12:1 or something. Other people have done comparisons and it works out to where both versions show about the same amount of the full frame, just different parts of it. And to be fair, it’s not like the 2.39 version looks bad, it’s just that I couldn’t unsee the empty space once I learned how it was shot. Honestly, most movies in 2.39 have too much empty space on the sides, I wish taller aspect ratios were more common in movies. It feels like 2.39 is the default just because it’s what people associate with a “cinematic” image.

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It seems everyone but Hollywood knows that 1.25 is god’s chosen aspect ratio

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i finally watched the first one today, it was pretty good. i bet the second one will be more fun in theaters

also might read the book

Went back and rewatched part 1 and I can’t get over how weirdly everyone interacts with timothee chalamet. Thats a grown ass man but everyone still interacts with him like hes the fifteen that book paul is

When part one came out there was a lot of good coverage on explaining the background to Dune. One piece I really enjoyed was an article from LA book review on a book that Herbert kind of lifted wholesale from, and I would say is a key piece to the making of Dune.

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