Dune is definitely not what I would call a “good movie” but honestly I wouldn’t say most of Lynch’s films are what I would consider “good” in the traditional sense. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of his work, but it’s rarely what I would consider easy to watch even at the best of times.
And in the pantheon of great films, Dune is a particularly terrible one.
But damn if it isn’t gorgeously done and fun in its own way. It’s definitely squarely within the “so bad it’s good” realm.
Hrm. This is difficult for me.
I just rewatched this with my partner, who is re-reading the books for the first time since childhood.
Overall? Doesn’t do the book justice.
Atmosphere? I think it mostly works if you’re an existing Dune Fan.
Specific portions it portrays? Again, I think it mostly works if you’re an existing fan
Weirding modules? *sigh*
Never seen the movie or read the book. I am aware of what some of the plot points are judging from references in pop culture, though frankly i don’t have much interest in it. Someday maybe i’ll get around to reading the books
I’ve always loved 5th Element – it’s silly as heck, stylish, and as you say, tons of fun. Is it a storytelling masterpiece? Oh heck no. But it’s got Chris Tucker in a dildo wig, Gary Oldman swanning around like Alpha Centauri Hitler, Milla Jovovitch and Bruce Willis looking as hot as they probably ever will in Jean-Paul Gaultier outfits, and the Diva Plava Laguna.
Shit we must be movie buddies. LOVE the 5th Element. Chris Tucker was right at the edge of being awesome or stupid, but I think the needle tips to awesome overall. But everyone else was perfect.
Are you looking forward to Luc Bessons next sci fi epic, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets ?
Someone did another scene
I love 5th Element. Chris Tucker’s character is pretty incredible, the wig totally works for me. The part of the movie that i find a tiny bit distracting is: Why does the giant ball of space death have to go to Earth of all places to destroy all life in the universe? It seems like such a specific and odd thing and is never alluded to in any way during the movie.
My first look at that movie was seeing Dane DeHaan in a spacesuit, and I was not too thrilled. That guy always looks like he’s annoyed that someone just woke him up. But as I’ve seen trailers and read interviews with the cast where they described Luc Besson running around excitedly showing people his thousands of pages of the bible he created for the world of Valerian and all of the crazy aliens and things, it’s sounding like he had as much fun with this as Fifth Element. I just hope the movie’s as fun!
A big part of the movie hinges on the relationship between the two main characters. From the trailers i’ve seen i haven’t gotten much of a sense of personality from either character or a rapport between them. On that aspect i’m pretty apprehensive, but i’m 100% rooting for the movie since it’s not a sequel or reboot. I desperately want this movie to do well despite my cynicism.
Lynch’s Dune was rotten.
I am a philistine and don’t really care for David Lynch. I saw Dune in the theater and might never have heard of David Lynch at the time, so it wasn’t any anti-Lynch bias talking when I left, turned to a complete stranger in the lobby, and said, “What the hell was that? That was terrible, wasn’t it?”
I agree that turning huge literary epics into effective movies is really hard to do. Peter Jackson did it beautifully with LOTR I think.
It was never close to “almost made” or even “almost shot”. There was no way Jodorowsky was going to be able to put everything together and actually have a functioning production team and film. The documentary makes it clear (but unacknowledged) that he really didn’t have much of a clue how to work with such a large undertaking.
Plus that Toto score!
For fans of the book, it is a major letdown. But you are absolutely correct, it is such a fun film!
I just take Lynch’s Dune to be an overdone photo-insert to the movie tie-in edition of the novel and call it a day.
(Also: Dune was 1984, not 1982. Release the same month as 2010, which – if it had been anything other than a sequel to 2001, and therefore necessarily wanting – deemed really one of the best SF movies of its day)
I can fight you on this point. I think it’s a really shitty adaptation, the first one was solid but the other ones put me into a fit of nerdrage it’s best for me not to get into.
Well, just as in that he’d collected his cast, his concept art, a skeleton production team, and had the entire movie plotted and storyboarded out, frame-by-frame. If he’d gotten the money, I’m sure he would’ve started shooting, but I seriously doubt it would’ve ever been completed. This was an enormously ambitious project for someone who’d really only just shot handmade midnight movies. It would’ve inevitably been a legendary unfinished film.
I saw it as a teenage SF fan, but hadn’t at that time read the book.
Afterwards, I remember not really understanding what I’d just seen, but I definitely knew it was awesome.
I later read and love the book! At least the first one. 
I love Lynch’s Dune… But for all the wrong reasons.
If anyone does decide to do an animated version, they should use the storyboards from Jodorowsky’s unfilmed version to base the art on.
And that is exactly why I found it so much fun. I would love to see it on a big screen.
