Dune (2021)

Simbiat

This movie once again proved to me, that sometimes you need to be in a certain mood or even state of mind to appreciate certain art.

When i first tried watching it soon after it became available digitally, I found it boring, and was barely able to get through 20 minutes. That impression was not necessarily wrong, though. Even compared to David Lynch's adaptation, it felt slow, and if you compare it with John Harrison's TV series it was almost static. I was not alone feeling this way, too: I heard similar sentiment from people in my circles, and found quite a few reviews saying the same, too.

But in light of the 2nd part coming out, I decided to give it another try, and... I liked it. I would still consider it a bit overhyped, but it still was quite good. I think what changed was my state of mind: due to various events in my life, I've been feeling "small", and what Denis Villeneuve' adaptation is really good at is providing sense of scale. Something, that I think the other adaptations failed at, for the most part.

Lynch went in for "the weird", especially if you look at Harkonnen men: even people who did not watch the movie have seen memes with Feyd-Rautha and Baron. Harrison, I think, was a bit more religious. He was a bit closer to the sense of "fate" from the book, but it was somewhat one-sided and mostly "contained".

What made Paul's story impactful, for me at least, was not the he saw the future and tried to change it or even the way he behaved in general. It was the fact, that he felt as if he was being crushed by all of the responsibility falling on him and his kin. Those who read past the first book will understand what I mean.

This new adaptation delivers that almost to a T. In quite a few scenes you can see glimpses of hesitance, reluctance, despite a seemingly brave front. He feels... More human, I guess. It resonates with my own feelings: I am scared, but I know, that there are things that I need to do, no matter how scared I am of the world consuming me. The only moment that I did not like was when Paul mentioned his father's death: it was too emotional, when in the book there is a specific very vulnerable and powerful moment related to mourning much, much later.

Aside from that personal resonance, it is quite a good movie by itself. It's a a breath of fresh air even, considering how different it is from the overly "clean" shows. It feels very close to original, even though there were some little (and not so little) changes here and there, and it feels... "Grounded". You can believe what's happening on screen and relate to it to an extent, despite it being a fiction.

Definitely want to see 2nd part, and hope, that it won't stop there: I would love to see God Emperor adapted as well, because it affected me even more than the first book. But something tells me it may leave out certain sensitive topics.

Simbiat

Was going through my old posts in search for reviews to add to the site and turned out I tried watching this in 2021, and liked it far less. Here's what I wrote then:

I dropped it after around a third.

I felt like creators did not try to learn on past attempts (although some do consider this a slower remake of Lynch's version). I watched Lynch's version (2 in fact, if not 3) and Hallmark TV series version and both had something in them, that this version lacks, at least in my eyes. Lynch's version had a sense of grandeur to it and some of the scenes, especially those with Baron Harkonen. Those in particular had that kind of insanity, that was felt in the book(s) as well, when the character was described. Villeneuve's version feels like it's... Small. I could not feel the the size of it all. Knowing what comes after what has ever been adapted to the screen - it just does not do it justice.

When compared to TV series, I could compare the pacing, of course, but since 2021 movie is, indeed, slow on the uptake, but so was the book and there was reason for that. No, what I do not like are colors. I am not talking about the colors of the clothes or anything like that (although I do talk about lack of red hairs in at least 2 actors, that have to have red hair for very important reasons).

You know how using different cameras, different lenses and different studio lights make frame have certain "tints"? Like, if you watched Game of Thrones, you probably noticed, that different areas had different tints to them: snowy were a bit more bluish, valleys a bit more green and desert more red? Because it kind of how we perceive such areas in real life.

2021 movie lacks that. Completely. And it could learn from the TV series: in short scenes of Caladan, you felt the the moisture in the air by looking at them. In scenes of Salusa Secundas - you felt cold, you felt how inhospitable the prison planet was. And you felt the scorching hot and dry air of Arakis. Because it's supposed to be like that.

Lynch's version was not that good, but it was, at least vibrant, so it did not feel that faulty to me. But Villeneuve's just seem to use the same colors through-out. It can be just the badly colored version, that I was watching, but trailers were mostly the same: washed out and somehow sanitary. Everything looks like "Dexter: New Blood". Except with Dexter it makes sense, since it's a cold region at winter, duh.

I know it may sound silly, but this is a movie. A movie based on a book, that did not age quite that well, unless you go into very intricate philosophical or religious details, that it had. You want the colors to be proper, because that's what makes it more immersive, helps you believe in what you see.

There were also some other minor things, that I did not like: the start of the movie from freemen perspective, Paul not saying the litany out loud (I do not think he did say it out loud in the book, but it still makes much more sense, than Jessica saying it behind the door)...

And overall it was not that bad, but still, it felt like it was not made by people who read the books and were inspired by them in any way. This felt more like: "Hey, there is a bunch of nerds who have wet dreams about proper movie based on Dune, we can exploit that: how difficult it can be in modern day and age?".

Thing is - it is. It is difficult: book was written in different era, and it was not about the "show" (at least for the first 4 books: last 2 books from Frank were so-so, IMHO), but more about global questions that may still hold interest even today. I believe, that this is what fans really want.

But what we got is more like an "ok" watch.

Proves once again, that the time you watch something can affect the experience quite a lot.