@benzbanana I felt your gom jabbar, now you will feel mine, look into that abyss you dare not look, you will see me there looking back at you!
(i kid, i kid)
Slightly OT but gaping plot holes occur everywhere. Take a look at LOTR for instance. Why doesn’t Gandalf simply send the Hobbits off with a fake ring to be chased by the Nazgul while Gwalior takes the real one and drops it in Mount Doom? (Though in that case the problem could be solved by not having anything flying and intelligent, as was the case for humanity up till around the early 1900s.)
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The old ‘flying to Mount Doom’ argument, eh?
That argument has always bugged me. Are we assuming that Mordor has no anti-air capabilities? That all the Nazgul are out hunting and there’s no Wyvern riders flying around say, easily seeing an Eagle a mile off and intercepting? Do we assume that the Eye of Sauron, always searching for the ring, won’t see a big flying bird in a clear sky carrying a Ring that wants to be found?
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I still love Lynch’s Dune and on occasion I break out he SYFY mini series Dune and Children of Dune. Both are fun in their own ways with plenty of flaws between them. Interestingly Alec Newman was a much better fit as Paul. He played the angsty teen far better than Kyle Maclaclan.
The one element of absolute perfection in Lynch’s version though…inner monologues. They are integral to the story telling within the book and SYFY made a huge mistake removing them.
I just hope this new version wisely puts them back in.
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I’ve been lurking for years — this made me make an account. (i’m also doing badly at posting, ugh, take two)
I get mildly annoyed when people repeat the claim that Dune 1984 is a “terrible” film without any qualification or justification. It is my favorite movie of all time, so i have my biases, but please justify that it being “terrible”.
Is it too weird or not weird enough? It’s certainly off beat, but also epic. The style, imagination, quotes, characters beat star wars – which I also love. The performances and characters, especially by the Harkonnen, are amazing. The internal monologue of all characters was a bold experiment in form, which strikes me as still viable way to make movie more literary. I can see it being a bit hard to follow, complex, but not for anyone who had read the book.
Dune is my favourite book (up to God Emperor of Dune)— but i re-read it and found myself missing the quotes and imagery of 1984 Dune. I forgot that first 300 pages are exposition. I think that Dune (1984) is BETTER then the book.
I have a theory that critics and lynch-nerds (god bless them), hate Dune (1984) because David Lynch hates it, or atleast seems to. Or was Dune the one that got away? It was a messy break up, and there’s also sorts of re-cuts and edits, so it’s definitely not “pure” Lynch. For me, pure Lynch is like Muholland Drive, or Inland Empire, which is pure self-indulgence and actually too weird, too sickening, too “terrible”. Lynch fans like to try and figure out these fever-dreams when there is nothing TO figure out. They can’t do that with Dune, because it’s not “pure” Lynch. I obviously think Lynch is overrated, and that he hides behind being incomprehensible (if he was doing it wrong, how would you know?) – he can’t do that with Dune.
There’s also the fact that is was a failed big budget blockbuster, it lost money – and that makes hollywood shudder. It was too arty for the star wars crowd. But does that make it bad? There are endless popular, profitable, terrible (often stupid) films.
The miniseries was competent, accurate, made sense – but it failed to capture the transcendant feeling of Dune quite as well as Dune 1984. I’m sure Villeneuve or (or Jodorowsky) would do a great Dune, and I’m happy to see this story retold — but i think they have a tough act to follow, and could easily be not quite as good.
I’d be delighted if you read this rant and replied. To restate my question, WHY IS DUNE TERRIBLE??? 
The Lynch Emperor has no clothes — and Emperor, we come for you!
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If I had to come up with an argument for that, I’d probably start with the “weirding-modules” and everything connected with them. I think what you said about the film not being too hard to follow - for people who’ve read the book is probably true. It’s also part of the problem in that people who have read and loved the book are going to be annoyed by a lot of the changes. That’s one that annoys me.
But even so it wouldn’t be much of an argument. On balance I like the film.
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Lots of valuable minerals though, including (IIRC) some of the largest lithium deposits in the world.
I haven’t read the book either but the book is massive. So i would say no, it’d be like trying to condense LOTR into one movie… it’s likely doable but a filmmaker would be missing out on a lot, and in the case of Lynch’s Dune it makes the story near incomprehensible.
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Lynch’s Dune is all chopped up because he tried to squeeze a huge novel into a single, sorta long movie. If Villeneuve cares at all about the source material, this should be 2 to 3 movies.
Dune isn’t the greatest movie ever, but it was fun to watch as 13-14 year old because you had to try to figure out the missing pieces if you hadn’t read the book.
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Kind of off topic but for these more fantastical stories i have always hoped for an animated series, not directed at kids mind you. Live action that are effect heavy have a huge uphill fight that an animated feature doesn’t have and it’s easier to buy the setting. Sadly animated features aimed at adults is not common in the western market but we see it all the time in Japan.
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Yes- That’s the thing. People mistake Dune for a sci-fi novel, where in actuality, it is a story of political intrigue.
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I think it’s more that the Sardaukar are enough to cow anyone else, not everyone else. A few of the noble houses, united, would be more than a match for them- But if the emperor turned their full force on a single target, he could wipe them out.
So it becomes extremely risky to challenge the emperor- Sure, your combined forces might be enough, but you’re running the risk that he’s going to make his final strike at you personally, and that means you’re just as dead as he his. Better to let someone else draw his attention.
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I think I found another typo–Dune came out in 1984 not 1982.
i never heard of a dune video game. for me the appeal was the one-two punch of musical genius in the eno-toto soundtrack.
I’d be happy to see a new movie but retaining the design aesthetics of the Lynch film. Although the movie itself isn’t great, the visuals are exceptional - the costumes are intricate and imaginative, the sets are immense and give an impression that the story is set in an ancient universe.
There’s also a lot of old-fashioned effects work including burning tyres to give a thick soupy atmosphere that made the worms look immense and excellent use of forced perspective sets to produce scale. I was delighted to learn that Blade Runner 2049 also used good old-fashioned models to produce one of the most believable environments in a recent movie.
And does anyone think they can top Kenneth McMillan’s Baron? Somehow he came across as even more repellent than I’d imagined from the book.
Well yes, because what applies to a flight of fast moving eagles applies still more to slow moving hobbits. The Eye of Sauron isn’t a simple telescope.
Ian McNiece was pretty good in the miniseries. Not as over-the-top disgusting as McMillan, but still plenty threatening.
I love Lynch’s stuff but he is better off sticking with original material. Dune has great visuals but many of the performances were excessive. Baron Harkonnen, in particular, should be measured and Machiavellian instead of oozing pus and flying through the air whooping and cackling. It’s fun to watch but it begs the question: How did these cartoon villains wield such great influence and political power?
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Well, I watched Dune a bunch of times as a kid long before reading the book. It stands up as a beautiful film if you don’t hold it too closely to the source material.
The Harkonnens were totally bonkers villains, which made them fascinating. I mean, the Baron was weirdly gay for Sting?
You’re asking this in 2017? Seriously? lol
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