• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dune | Official Main Trailer

SJRB

Gold Member
Hard to fathom that it had no effect on him when it blew right into his face.

Well it did had an effect on him as he's in a rejuvenation tank for pretty much te rest of the movie. The gas fucked him up.

Also good to know that the Baron isn't some magician that can fly. He has suspenders that support his weight, movie takes some creative liberties with him basically using it as a levitation device.
 

Razvedka

Banned
I really loved this movie but I was also disappointed at the same time. It isn't just a matter of 'they cut stuff from the book'- that's inevitable and I appreciate it's also only "part 1". What really gets me is that for as beautiful and atmospheric as it is, the movie doesn't really feel like it was 2.5hrs of plot. Impressive run length but very sparse on the details, which tbh is the entirety of what was good about the book as Herbert seemed deathly afraid of ever writing an action scene. His strengths were world building & exposition, albeit some of his decisions with his writing were questionable (e.g. revealing the Baron's evil plot chapter 2 in its entirety to the reader. I think that the Dune movie handled this way better).

Gripes:
1. Explanation as to why melee combat is so prevalent, and why las weapons are not used in favor highly specialized projectile weapons or occasionally missiles/atomics. Also, atomics being outlawed.
2. Explanation as to why you cannot use a las weapon in the Dune setting, e.g. what happens when it strikes a shield. If you watch the movie, you will note that the Harkonnen *do* use las weapons with their ships. Those blue beams of light. To me this was a big 'wtf' moment, because the entire armada was flirting with instant thermonuclear death by doing so.
3. The word 'mentat' is both never used, nor the functional roles of Piter de Vries and Thufir elaborated upon. There's a brief scene with Thufir doing an instant calculation in his head during the beginning, but that's it.
4. No character building outside of Paul and Jessica, in fact everyone else is hardly even there. Piter & the Baron being perhaps the best examples, but again I appreciate this is only 'part 1'. I'm sure the sequel will focus more heavily on the bad guys.
5. Sarduakar worfing. They are made out to be extremely menacing, and are awesome, but spend most of their screen time getting dunked on. This is fine considering who is doing the ass kicking, but I'd have liked more scenes showing them as unstoppable killing machines to really illustrate 'no seriously, don't screw with them'.
6. While I really loved the scene of Piter going to Selusa Secundus and speaking with the Sarduakar, in the Dune setting this is absurd. The exact nature of how House Corrino (Emperor) trains his Sarduakar is a closely guarded secret only a few parties speculate at. In the book, this is a significant plot point regarding control of Arrakis as certain individuals iirc (e.g. The Baron) speculate that if Selusa Secundus is where the Sarduakar are trained then the real secret to their strength is the horrible deprevation and struggle of their environment. Selusa Secundus is a hell hole without rival in the galaxy save for, perhaps, Arrakis. So the Fremen due to the hostility of their world hold the key to countering the military might of the Empire, which is predicated entirely upon the undefeatability of the Sarduakar. So in this movie-verse, how the Sardaukar are 'made' and where is clearly public information and nobody seems interested in replicating the results of the program I guess.*
7. General pacing. I think the director made a mistake with where he ended the movie. The Harkonnen attack should have been a bit further along in the movie and greater in duration. I think the movie would've best ended with Jessica and Paul escaping into the desert. The extra time should have gone into more character building w/ Harkonnen, the attack on the Atreides, Atreides governance of, and struggles on, Arrakis, and the immediate aftermath in Arrakeen.


*My memory here of the book may be off, but I'm reasonably confident..
 

TheMan

Member
I really loved this movie but I was also disappointed at the same time. It isn't just a matter of 'they cut stuff from the book'- that's inevitable and I appreciate it's also only "part 1". What really gets me is that for as beautiful and atmospheric as it is, the movie doesn't really feel like it was 2.5hrs of plot. Impressive run length but very sparse on the details, which tbh is the entirety of what was good about the book as Herbert seemed deathly afraid of ever writing an action scene. His strengths were world building & exposition, albeit some of his decisions with his writing were questionable (e.g. revealing the Baron's evil plot chapter 2 in its entirety to the reader. I think that the Dune movie handled this way better).

Gripes:
1. Explanation as to why melee combat is so prevalent, and why las weapons are not used in favor highly specialized projectile weapons or occasionally missiles/atomics. Also, atomics being outlawed.
2. Explanation as to why you cannot use a las weapon in the Dune setting, e.g. what happens when it strikes a shield. If you watch the movie, you will note that the Harkonnen *do* use las weapons with their ships. Those blue beams of light. To me this was a big 'wtf' moment, because the entire armada was flirting with instant thermonuclear death by doing so.
3. The word 'mentat' is both never used, nor the functional roles of Piter de Vries and Thufir elaborated upon. There's a brief scene with Thufir doing an instant calculation in his head during the beginning, but that's it.
4. No character building outside of Paul and Jessica, in fact everyone else is hardly even there. Piter & the Baron being perhaps the best examples, but again I appreciate this is only 'part 1'. I'm sure the sequel will focus more heavily on the bad guys.
5. Sarduakar worfing. They are made out to be extremely menacing, and are awesome, but spend most of their screen time getting dunked on. This is fine considering who is doing the ass kicking, but I'd have liked more scenes showing them as unstoppable killing machines to really illustrate 'no seriously, don't screw with them'.
6. While I really loved the scene of Piter going to Selusa Secundus and speaking with the Sarduakar, in the Dune setting this is absurd. The exact nature of how House Corrino (Emperor) trains his Sarduakar is a closely guarded secret only a few parties speculate at. In the book, this is a significant plot point regarding control of Arrakis as certain individuals iirc (e.g. The Baron) speculate that if Selusa Secundus is where the Sarduakar are trained then the real secret to their strength is the horrible deprevation and struggle of their environment. Selusa Secundus is a hell hole without rival in the galaxy save for, perhaps, Arrakis. So the Fremen due to the hostility of their world hold the key to countering the military might of the Empire, which is predicated entirely upon the undefeatability of the Sarduakar. So in this movie-verse, how the Sardaukar are 'made' and where is clearly public information and nobody seems interested in replicating the results of the program I guess.*
7. General pacing. I think the director made a mistake with where he ended the movie. The Harkonnen attack should have been a bit further along in the movie and greater in duration. I think the movie would've best ended with Jessica and Paul escaping into the desert. The extra time should have gone into more character building w/ Harkonnen, the attack on the Atreides, Atreides governance of, and struggles on, Arrakis, and the immediate aftermath in Arrakeen.


*My memory here of the book may be off, but I'm reasonably confident..

I haven't read the books but I think we share as similar sentiment as to how the movie turned out. You just articulated better.

I too noticed the lack of guns which made no sense at all in a universe with interstellar travel and personal energy shields. Chalked it up to a quirk of the Dune universe, but then missiles and laser weapons show up and make the lack of guns seem too weird to just ignore.
 
Last edited:

Razvedka

Banned
I haven't read the books but I think we share as similar sentiment as to how the movie turned out. You just articulated better.

I too noticed the lack of guns which made no sense at all in a universe with interstellar travel and personal energy shields. Chalked it up to a quirk of the Dune universe, but then missiles and laser weapons show up and make the lack of guns seem too weird to just ignore.
Right. The answer to guns is shield tech. Almost no projectiles can really penetrate a shield save very special kinds.

Las weapons are far more potent than projectile weapons in the Dune universe, but if the laser strikes a shield no matter how small (e.g. a big shield, or even the personal shield of an infantry) it will have a reaction that can range between a small explosion and a thermonuclear blast.

This is the reason why you see so much melee combat, but as you note there are still missiles and the occasional laser (SUICIDALLY) being shot by the Harkonnen. All they had to do was spend 20 seconds explaining shield tech and las weapons and there would be less confusion.
 

thuGG_pl

Member
Just got back from the cinema.
Hoooly shit that was amazing. Rarely I get so impressed and pumped about the movie. It was so epic.

I read the books a few years ago, so I don't remember many details, but that's good because it didn't make me picky about the movie.

EDIT: Also, the scene with the voice was great, perfectly executed.
 
Last edited:

ManaByte

Member

Excluding China’s Saturday, the international box office cume through Friday on the Warner Bros/Legendary title is $150M. Coupled with domestic’s anticipated start as well as other new overseas markets and holdovers, the sci-fi epic will handily be at over $200M global through Sunday.

Will hit $200M WW tomorrow, not counting China.

Part 2 will probably be announced this week.
 

Jsisto

Member
I really loved this movie but I was also disappointed at the same time. It isn't just a matter of 'they cut stuff from the book'- that's inevitable and I appreciate it's also only "part 1". What really gets me is that for as beautiful and atmospheric as it is, the movie doesn't really feel like it was 2.5hrs of plot. Impressive run length but very sparse on the details, which tbh is the entirety of what was good about the book as Herbert seemed deathly afraid of ever writing an action scene. His strengths were world building & exposition, albeit some of his decisions with his writing were questionable (e.g. revealing the Baron's evil plot chapter 2 in its entirety to the reader. I think that the Dune movie handled this way better).

Gripes:
1. Explanation as to why melee combat is so prevalent, and why las weapons are not used in favor highly specialized projectile weapons or occasionally missiles/atomics. Also, atomics being outlawed.
2. Explanation as to why you cannot use a las weapon in the Dune setting, e.g. what happens when it strikes a shield. If you watch the movie, you will note that the Harkonnen *do* use las weapons with their ships. Those blue beams of light. To me this was a big 'wtf' moment, because the entire armada was flirting with instant thermonuclear death by doing so.
3. The word 'mentat' is both never used, nor the functional roles of Piter de Vries and Thufir elaborated upon. There's a brief scene with Thufir doing an instant calculation in his head during the beginning, but that's it.
4. No character building outside of Paul and Jessica, in fact everyone else is hardly even there. Piter & the Baron being perhaps the best examples, but again I appreciate this is only 'part 1'. I'm sure the sequel will focus more heavily on the bad guys.
5. Sarduakar worfing. They are made out to be extremely menacing, and are awesome, but spend most of their screen time getting dunked on. This is fine considering who is doing the ass kicking, but I'd have liked more scenes showing them as unstoppable killing machines to really illustrate 'no seriously, don't screw with them'.
6. While I really loved the scene of Piter going to Selusa Secundus and speaking with the Sarduakar, in the Dune setting this is absurd. The exact nature of how House Corrino (Emperor) trains his Sarduakar is a closely guarded secret only a few parties speculate at. In the book, this is a significant plot point regarding control of Arrakis as certain individuals iirc (e.g. The Baron) speculate that if Selusa Secundus is where the Sarduakar are trained then the real secret to their strength is the horrible deprevation and struggle of their environment. Selusa Secundus is a hell hole without rival in the galaxy save for, perhaps, Arrakis. So the Fremen due to the hostility of their world hold the key to countering the military might of the Empire, which is predicated entirely upon the undefeatability of the Sarduakar. So in this movie-verse, how the Sardaukar are 'made' and where is clearly public information and nobody seems interested in replicating the results of the program I guess.*
7. General pacing. I think the director made a mistake with where he ended the movie. The Harkonnen attack should have been a bit further along in the movie and greater in duration. I think the movie would've best ended with Jessica and Paul escaping into the desert. The extra time should have gone into more character building w/ Harkonnen, the attack on the Atreides, Atreides governance of, and struggles on, Arrakis, and the immediate aftermath in Arrakeen.


*My memory here of the book may be off, but I'm reasonably confident..

Agreed. Honestly there's so much critical exposition that one could make the argument a trilogy would have been better, but understandably that probably would have been a hard sell.
 

Jsisto

Member
Having only gotten into Dune in the last year, I gotta say it's kinda upsetting knowing that The Voice will come across as a rip off of jedi mind tricks from star wars when the opposite is in fact true.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Back from the cinema.
The movie looked and sounded amazing but it's not without problems
-The pacing was super weird. It felt like HUGE EVENTS are actually happening constantly but there was little weight to them. It kinda felt like if I was watching 2 hours long trailer
-The music was WAY OVER THE TOP during some not really that exciting moments. Keep it down Hans.
-The visions and premonitions are a bit too much but I know it should be like that. So say the people who read the source material

Loved new design Of Harkonnens. Wish we saw more of the Atreidis home planet.

Generally I really enjoyed it. I am not sure if recent watch of lynch Dune made it easier to understand whats happening or needlessly messed with my head.

edit: It was my first cinema experience since covid. I've got lg oled since then... the cinema looked like crap. I wish we had new movies like this available in home
 
Last edited:
I just saw it on IMAX! What an awesome experience, they all did the book proud as far as I'm concerned. Razvedka Razvedka is pretty much on point when it comes to the shortcomings, it just hard to put so much content into the movie as the format is completely different.

I wonder if they're going to add Feyd-Rautha in part 2. His omission was weird and he is central character, I want to see him fighting in the gladiator arena like in the book.
 

Hardensoul

Member
yeah that's a total of a few minutes of screentime with very few spoken lines until the very end
I totally understand your point. But at the point where this movie takes place, I'm ok with them not forcing which to me seem would be unneeded screen time. I thought the visions were appropriate to introduce her into the story. I'm strictly speaker of a non book reader and only know of Dune 1984.
 

I_D

Member
Just finished watching it in IMAX.

The cinematography is excellent, as expected.

The storyline is bit tougher to gauge. This movie was simultaneously long as hell, but also too short.
It is pretty obvious this whole thing is setting up for a "director's cut" version, which actually tells the whole story. The entire time I was watching it, I could see where scenes were cut short, and critical exposition was saved for the "deluxe" version.


That being said, I enjoyed it. It's a weird mixture of "in medias res" and "tabula rasa." The movie feels like it's supposed to explain everything and answer all of the background questions, but then it never actually does.
I think I like that style. It's different from the norm, which is a nice change of pace. I'm just not quite sure if I like that change, though my initial viewing left me with a positive impression.
 

Dithadder

Member
I only watched the first 30 minutes, but this seems like a lot of self regarding bs. Theres such a kickass story in the novel Dune, I wish they would just take only the necessary parts and make an action packed romantic audience pleasing movie out of it.
 

SpiceRacz

Member
Saw it in imax today. I have the opposite opinion of a lot of you - I thought the pacing was great. Especially considering the length of the film. The sets, music, costumes, cinematography, etc were all top notch. Feels like a true sci-fi epic. I don't really have any complaints with it.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Lynch version 1000%

This one had a great budget and great effects but all the emotional weight of tissue paper. For me all of Villeneuve's films are this way. The soundtrack tried to compensate for actors staring slack jawed at each other but it was all "ahhhh ah ah ahhh aaaaahhhh" over and over.

I liked a lot if it but just compare scenes from the Lynch version with this one and tell me lunch doesn't win EVERY TIME. The gom jabbbar scene, stillsuit inspection, seeker probe, even the tooth. There is grandious emotion in lynches version, it feels epic. This one just doesn't.

Zendaya is the perfect actor for Villeneuve as she has a single face and monotone voice. But put her up against Sean Young..... gotdamn!
 

clarky

Gold Member
Watched it again, yup still loved it. I can understand that there's a lot missing from the book, but lets face it you'd need about 15 hours of screen time to include and explain everything and you'd still confuse the fuck out of most people. I think they did a great job. I hope the is a directors cut with another hour in there i'd lap that shit up.
 

Fbh

Member
Just saw it, really liked it but it definitely has some issues.
It looked and sounded amazing. The VFX, the art direction, the cinematography and music, it was all top notch. Maybe it's the overs saturation of Marvel stuff but damn it's nice to watch a high budget movie that's not all over the top action and jokes. I also mostly liked the casting too.

I do think it has some pacing issues though, despite the long run time it could have used some less lingering shots and some more explanations and character developments. It's natural for adaptations to cut stuff but despite the long run time I felt like non book readers missed a lot here, like more than with your average book adaptation. They even glossed over some pretty basic details regarding shields.
I'm also slightly split on the action, it looks cool but It almost felt like they just ignored the whole concept of slow blows to get past shields

And the ending suffers from it being an adaptation of half a book. It sort of just...ends, and does so rather anticlimactically.
I really hope we get a part 2, it'd be a crime to leave this incomplete.
 
Last edited:

Malakhov

Banned
Fuck I didnt know this was streaming, i cant go to the theater so I thought i couldnt see it anytime soon and here i am, finding out i can stream it just before going to bed...
 

Green_Eyes

Member
I was loving it for like 20 minutes or so...basically until the just skipped right ahead to and just kept leaping from scene to scene.

The movie was devoid of all meaning; neither in the characters, the world, the plot, the philosophy, language/dialogue, politics...just anything tbh.

Movie just felt like Pauls' wet dream for Chani.
 
Last edited:

Dr.D00p

Member
Great visuals and sound, as always with this director, but the rest....OK, I guess.

As someone who doesn't really know anything about the lore, Who exactly are these protagonists and when is the story set, is this our (human) far future, after having settled the Galaxy? because I noticed that 'Humans' were name checked numerous times.
 
This was meant to be seen in theaters. What an amazing visuals + sound experience. I don't think I've ever felt this watching a movie before. The whole thing just comes together to create a seemless experience.


SPOILERS
But I haven't read the book (not much into reading) so I was kinda lost in a few moments here and there. What the heck was that something something Hasarach they kept whispering in his head? Also, why did he see that Fremen dude (Jamis) as his friend in his visions and when they met he challenged him and he had to kill him?
 
Last edited:
Thought it was excellent.

Only issue I have is that part 2 isn't greenlit.

Shame we are living in a world where this might not do well enough.

Should have been like Lord of The Rings and tried to film a trilogy all at once!
 

ManaByte

Member
Should have been like Lord of The Rings and tried to film a trilogy all at once!

That would never happen again. No studio is insane enough to gamble its very existence on producing a whole trilogy of movies at once.

WB is handling this exactly the same as IT. And like IT they're going to make Part 2.
 
Last edited:
That would never happen again. No studio is insane enough to gamble its very existence on producing a whole trilogy of movies at once.

WB is handling this exactly the same as IT. And like IT they're going to make Part 2.

Yeah it's just a shame. To do this justice s trilogy will be needed a I hope we get it.

Maybe they'll greenlight 2 and 3 at the same time with any luck.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I'm curious how much it would have cost to film the actors for part 2. Seems like they had most of the sets and props already. They already filmed at least 1 big desert battle of fremen versus sardukar for the waking dream. Obviously there would have to be the emporer, princess, and feyd scenes. But I bet they could have done principle photography for 50-100 mill and then just saved the sfx stuff for later. Seems like an easy risk to take with something like Dune.

Then again, maybe a 2-3 year gap will work for the story since it's in the book already. Hopefully Chalamet has been eating chicken breasts and doing some Olympic presses with Mamoa :p
 

SafeOrAlone

Banned
I've watched it twice now. It's one of my favorite movies already. I could spend all day in this world.

Jason Momoa has pretty poor delivery if you ask me, though. I have a hard time buying anything he says. Sounds stiff. Especially the lines "I gotta tell ya...I have never come so close to dying." It just sounds so deadpan and fake to me.

Oh well, the character he plays is cool.
 
I thought it was great, really looking forward to Part 2. First movie I've seen since COVID and it was worth it. Gonna watch it again on HBO Max when I can spare the time. I love how it just drops you into the world like Star Wars and Blade Runner 2049 - you have the brief text scroll at the beginning and then boom, everything just happens. I loved Blade Runner 2049 and now Dune - Denis Villenueve is easily now my favorite modern director. I feel like if he is allowed to do the sequel(s) the way he wants, Dune is going to be up there with LOTR and Star Wars for me. So happy right now.
 

ManaByte

Member
I thought it was great, really looking forward to Part 2. First movie I've seen since COVID and it was worth it. Gonna watch it again on HBO Max when I can spare the time. I love how it just drops you into the world like Star Wars and Blade Runner 2049 - you have the brief text scroll at the beginning and then boom, everything just happens. I loved Blade Runner 2049 and now Dune - Denis Villenueve is easily now my favorite modern director. I feel like if he is allowed to do the sequel(s) the way he wants, Dune is going to be up there with LOTR and Star Wars for me. So happy right now.

It's already up there with LOTR. Hell it literally has the same ending as Fellowship of the Ring.

I LOVE how it better explains the situation with the Emperor, the two houses, and Dune so much better than Lynch did. You get it before everything goes down at the halfway point, and it's all just through dialog between characters. Seeing Dune done like this almost makes the Lynch version offensive.

Watched it twice already, probably will be up to four or five viewings by this time next week. I saw Fellowship of the Ring 12 times while it was in theater. Thanks to HBO Max, I'll top that with this.
 

Hardensoul

Member
This was meant to be seen in theaters. What an amazing visuals + sound experience. I don't think I've ever felt this watching a movie before. The whole thing just comes together to create a seemless experience.

Paul can see the future! He was bred to be the universe savior or destroy? So the visions he has are possible futures!
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Great visuals and sound, as always with this director, but the rest....OK, I guess.

As someone who doesn't really know anything about the lore, Who exactly are these protagonists and when is the story set, is this our (human) far future, after having settled the Galaxy? because I noticed that 'Humans' were name checked numerous times.
Set In year 10,000 something
 

Hardensoul

Member
It's already up there with LOTR. Hell it literally has the same ending as Fellowship of the Ring.

I LOVE how it better explains the situation with the Emperor, the two houses, and Dune so much better than Lynch did. You get it before everything goes down at the halfway point, and it's all just through dialog between characters. Seeing Dune done like this almost makes the Lynch version offensive.

Watched it twice already, probably will be up to four or five viewings by this time next week. I saw Fellowship of the Ring 12 times while it was in theater. Thanks to HBO Max, I'll top that with this.
WoW you got a lot of time! I just finished my 2nd viewing! I’m going to have to find an imax this week to see it the way it was filmed for!

Edit: Mind sharing some of that Spice! :messenger_winking:
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom