It would spoil the movie more than anyone's comfortable with to argue with anything you say about DUNE -- but the specifics of what you think our issues are with it aren't quite it. Everything you've said, the movie is very clear about. But...
I can wait to official release to discuss it. It's just interesting to see the dichotomy between critics I trust who found it "thin" versus those I trust who didn't and I'm trying to speculate why. I think one of those reasons might be in the difficulty of translating the book to film.
For example, when I read the book I thought that the "Plans within Plans within Plans" commentary was more about how analysis paralysis could blind one to the obvious and how the Atreides were blind to how straightforward the Harkonnen were. The Lynch film, and SciFi series, took it far more literally.
I am eager to read your response in a couple of weeks when spoilers of the film aren't an issue.
I generally hate headline construction in the vein of "We Need to Talk About the Ending of X," but in this case, somebody does. I know my friend Jeffrey Harris, who calls Dune his all-time favorite book, had a BIG problem with it.
It's often hard to write introductions/framings for some of the content, especially reviews for films I haven't seen yet. I try to be careful in my speculation, because it will always be speculation, but I'd rather be off base and get a good discussion later than just have a list of links.
You all deserve better than that and I want people to know why I recommend you guys and a part of that is your reviews/commentary inspire speculation.
I haven't read the book, but on the plans within plans topic, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that in the movie, it's the Fremen who find the Harkonnens complicated. When Paul says "I know how they fight, I know how they think!" it's treated as revelatory.
Paul understands them better than his family in the book too. He understand that they are direct and brutal. His mom solved a certain dilemma, that is featured in film one, but refused to believe it because there must be "plans within plans" and that had to be a distraction because it was too obvious.
It would spoil the movie more than anyone's comfortable with to argue with anything you say about DUNE -- but the specifics of what you think our issues are with it aren't quite it. Everything you've said, the movie is very clear about. But...
I can wait to official release to discuss it. It's just interesting to see the dichotomy between critics I trust who found it "thin" versus those I trust who didn't and I'm trying to speculate why. I think one of those reasons might be in the difficulty of translating the book to film.
For example, when I read the book I thought that the "Plans within Plans within Plans" commentary was more about how analysis paralysis could blind one to the obvious and how the Atreides were blind to how straightforward the Harkonnen were. The Lynch film, and SciFi series, took it far more literally.
I am eager to read your response in a couple of weeks when spoilers of the film aren't an issue.
I generally hate headline construction in the vein of "We Need to Talk About the Ending of X," but in this case, somebody does. I know my friend Jeffrey Harris, who calls Dune his all-time favorite book, had a BIG problem with it.
It's often hard to write introductions/framings for some of the content, especially reviews for films I haven't seen yet. I try to be careful in my speculation, because it will always be speculation, but I'd rather be off base and get a good discussion later than just have a list of links.
You all deserve better than that and I want people to know why I recommend you guys and a part of that is your reviews/commentary inspire speculation.
I haven't read the book, but on the plans within plans topic, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that in the movie, it's the Fremen who find the Harkonnens complicated. When Paul says "I know how they fight, I know how they think!" it's treated as revelatory.
Paul understands them better than his family in the book too. He understand that they are direct and brutal. His mom solved a certain dilemma, that is featured in film one, but refused to believe it because there must be "plans within plans" and that had to be a distraction because it was too obvious.