Dune and I go way back. I'm a big fan of the series. Eh, let me walk that back a little. I'm a fan of the first four books. After that, I lost interest really fast. I gave the first prequel book a try, but I didn't dig it. My favorite is God Emperor of Dune because it's so batshit crazy. I liked the David Lynch version but found it lacking. The Syfy version(s) are pretty good. When I heard there would be another version I thought maybe we didn't need it.
It turns out we did. I saw it yesterday, and while I enjoyed it I found a lot to not like about it, too. It's a good movie, but it's not as great as everyone seems to think it is.
Here's what I liked. The 'thopters. I had a bit of a hard time getting my mind around the concept when I first read the book, but seeing it here explained a lot. I liked what they did with the Voice and made it seem more menacing than before. I loved what they did with the personal shields. And the sandworms look fucking majestic, and seeing them filled me with awe. I never felt awe when watching the Lynch version, for example. They are forces of nature, and they are not to be fucked with.
In fact, it's a beautiful looking movie. You can't not say that about it, no matter what your problems might be. But you know how I feel about style over content. While I can dig some of that stuff, I don't think that kind of thing is capable of being great.
And that's where my complaints begin because the content does not match up with the style. It doesn't come close. While the concept is high and excellent, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The only characters who come off as people are in the Atreides group. We spend time with them. We get to know them. The dynamics between them are explored. But once you start to wander from that group things fall apart. What is Bautista doing? He's a big dude who kicks ass and yells a lot. And that's it. And while I appreciate the dread in every scene involving Baron Harkonnen, he's not doing much either. At least when Lynch did it, these characters had personalities.
I'm not going to talk about the Fremen much because they're in all likelihood going to be the focus of part 2. We don't get to spend much time with them, but we will, I'm sure.
So for the most part this movie is cool looking. Beautiful. Full of sound and fury. But, well, you know the rest of that phrase. I'm hoping this will turn out to be like Kill Bill. That first movie was Tarantino jerking off, but that second movie was where the truly good stuff was. Fingers crossed.
Oh! Here's another thing I enjoyed about the movie: the filmmakers don't feel the need to explain much. Like the scene where Kynes is making her escape and puts down the thumpers and takes out the hooks. I wonder what that must have been like to people who haven't had any Dune experience before. Those of us who have know exactly what she's doing. Too bad it didn't come to fruition. But it will in part 2. I can't see how it wouldn't.
But on the opposite side of that point, they *did* explain a bit too much when we get the narration in the beginning. I'm not a big fan of that sort of thing. There are exceptions (like the Star Wars crawl, as it was an imitation, like the rest of that first movie, of chapter plays), but I wish they'd started with the Atreides family preparing to leave home. They're arriving at this planet cold, knowing very little about what's in store for them. The audience should have been dropped in cold, too.
Don't worry. I liked it a lot. I will see part 2. But there are a few things that just irritated me about this first one.
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| I mean, could you imagine how much more interesting the Harkonnens would be with this guy around? |
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