I am about to go see Dune AGAIN, so I figured I better get my thoughts down from the first viewing before the second one inevitably changes thing…
First off: incredible sets. The technology, from Irulan’s etching device to the Harkonnen spicing suits, strikes a perfect primitive-futurism that Dune is marked by. Levitation is on full display. STUNNING! What can I say but that? This movie is beautiful.
Timothee Chalamet is a perfect little ego freak, though I sometimes wonder if that was intentional. Whenever he gets close to spice, he gets kind of manic. His love with Zendaya is sometimes even believable!
Feyd Rautha gets boxed. He gets Gom Jabar’d. The scene is hilarious. Instead of showing Count Fenring’s side, the movie gives us Lady Fenring collecting genetic material from Feyd. Feyd is a weird baldy by the way. Totally new interpretation of the character, and I love it!
Love Geidi Prime. They make it alien as hell. Its like a new kind of atmosphere. Glad to have seen it on the big screen.
No acid trip orgy. 🙁
Like the previous movie, the directors opted to make The Water of Life really solemn and weird. The fremen don’t just throw a spice party.
SEITCH TABUR, ESPECIALLY THE WATER ROOM, IS SOOOO COOOL OMG!!!
They chose to make Paul’s mom the soft antagonist of the movie. She goes psycho after drinking the worm piss and it is not made clear if she is talking to herself or unborn Alia. They REALLY play up the “Bene Geseret are manipulating the local population” theme, to the detriment of the film IMO.
Alia never gets born. 🙁
So no, Mr. Harkonen doesn’t get gom jabar’d. He gets stabbed in the neck by Paul. Not a satisfying revenge scene in the slightest. Oh well!
WORM RIDING IS SO COOL OMG. Paul riding his first worm is wild. The gondolas on the worms are wild!
Feyd Rautha is Tom Brady’s son.
Reverand Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam does scream “abomination,” but at Paul instead of Alia. Paul’s ascendency is not triumphant at all. It is cast as a descent into evil. The movie ends on a really downer note, which is a shame. The book ending is ultra triumphant even despite the impending Jihad. The director failed to translate a certain degree of hype and pacing, which is understandable. Dune, as un-adaptable as it is, manages to find a good home in Dune: Part 2.
The ending was not a true ending, however, which leads me to think they are banking HEAVILY on a Dune Messiah/Dune: Part 3!