I read the first 3 or 4 books as a teenager. I remember the David Lynch movie being absolutely awful. I like Lynch a lot but I really didn't care for his take on Dune. I'll definitely be checking out the latest version. I might go back and re-read the first few books as well.
Dune is one of those books (and series) where the thread changes dramatically from period to period. You could do a movie based just on the Atreides and the Harkonnens before Duke Leto ever made the decision to accept the change of fiefs from Caladan to Arrakis.
They're all worth reading up to the point that Herbert passed the writing on to the next generation. That's like book 4 I think.
Yeah! Dune was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I mostly like the first book, but then I read Messiah and Children of Dune and was not really a fan. I did not read the rest. Splitting Dune into 2 parts is cool, but I am not sure how the other books will translate to the big screen if they ever do them. The story is kind of nuts.
As people have said Dune might have translated better as a high end TV adaptation. But it would need to be big budget to work. The problem is that the source material dropped off in quality significantly in later works I felt, much like TDK, so not sure how successful a TV version would have been ultimately. I'm quite happy with splitting the initial story into two movies. I'm anticipating the second installment to be fairly epic.
I am a Dune nerd , took a Sci Fi class in college and read Dune and Dune Messiah for the first of several times. Actually Frank Herbert wrote more than the first 4, pretty sure it ended up with 6. Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse Dune. He initially planned on a trilogy and I think it could have ended with Children of Dune, but God Emperor I am okay with. Did not care for his last 2. However, some of the prequel books co written by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson actually decent. Specifically House Atreides and the real early ones in the Dune universe, The Butlerian Jihad. The Machine Crusade and The Battle of Corrin. Not a huge fan of the first attempt back in 80s or 90s, this new adaptation is visually stunning. The cinematography I outstanding, I think they dragged out some parts and could have been shorter. Really like the portrayal of Paul.
Eternals... Meh.. They spent a lot of time on character development that could have been better spent on action/battle scenes. For a pilot, I'm hoping they do a better job in Eternals 2. Yes, they left the door wide open for a sequel. The actors did what they could with a marginal plot and dialogue. Angelina Jolie almost reprised her role in Tomb Raider. She was good. Dr. Strange's sidekick who was her guardian was pretty good. Of course the only Black Eternal had to be gay as that's the theme in mass media these days. They did cover all the subgroups. Deaf, Black, Gay, White, Lesbian, East Asian. No slight intended if I missed a group. Almost an all British cast except for Angie. I guess that's the new way to film. Moving right along, the CGI was ok. Felt a lot like 10 rings. All in all, Some of you MIGHT like it. Me? left really feeling empty. Oh yeah, they introduced a truly corny hero/villian at the end. Looked like he should have been doing a toothpaste commercial. Yawn... Hopefully Dune will be better. Unfortunately, I read the book back in the day..
Eternals is truly a missed bag. It doesn't deserve all the negativity it has gotten online, but it also is not exactly great either. It's so long, but nothing really happens. They introduce so many characters, but no one really stands out. They talk about all this love, but the film feels kinda soulless. It is shot and directed really well, but I definitely get why people would not like it. It actually felt more like a DC movie (actually has Batman and Superman references in it) than it did an MCU movie. Overall, I enjoyed it, and as @Cman65 said, it is always nice seeing Angelina Jolie. She did a nice job, although she was not given much to do. The CGI was actually pretty weak. Normally Marvel does a better job with it. Another reason why it felt like a DC movie. I am interested to see where they take this, but I can also see where many people would not care.
Ok.. got a hi quality 1080P d/l of Dune and watched it last night. Wasn't expecting a serial but it is what it is. By the time the second one comes out, I'll have to rewatch the first one. Plot I didn't find very easy to follow beneath the overall Atreides vs Harkkonnen conflict. Even if you read the book which I did long ago, the characters weren't really fleshed out as they should have been. Felt rushed to me. Like they had a plane to catch so they had to move things along quickly. Paul seems to always have a bewildered look on his face. Kinda like Scarlet Jo in "Ghost in the machine". Killed off characters too soon. Storyline just felt rushed. Glad I didn't see this in the movies. Would have been disappointed. As a d/l it was ok. I'll d/l Dune II as well. Just when I was trying to put my pirate hat away too...
I think we have to recognize just how amazing the Lord of the Rings movies really were - they took an amazing and incredibly complex epic series of books, and turned it into an amazing and incredibly complex epic series of movies, neither cutting too much nor padding too much. The list of such adaptations is amazingly short (The Godfather I and II, Gone With the Wind, Doctor Zhivago, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, maybe the Harry Potter movies?), despite the desperate appeal to Hollywood directors to try.
The casting for the Lord of the Rings trilogy was just amazing too. They found a great fit for almost every part. I remember Sean Astin describing his casting call as an excruciating hour of crying and bawling with the casting agents making him turn on the spouts until he thought he was going to go dry.
I actually was talking to a friend about this as we left seeing Dune because the poster said "This generation's Lord of the Rings". We were like not even close! I think they did a nice job with Dune, but it is not even in the realm of the quality of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Obviously, I prefer the source material over Dune's too, but the films really were incredible. There is a lot of heart in Lord of the Rings, and I felt nearly 0 heart in Dune. Maybe Jason Mamoa's character. Also the way they flesh out the characters in Lord of the Rings is remarkable, yet I did not feel that in Dune at all. One of the best things Peter Jackson did was the prologue in Fellowship of the Ring. It explained so much and set up the story in a perfect way. Then you are dropped right into the adventure. Great stuff.
I saw the 'Dune' re-make. I'll probably get fried for this, but some of the dialogue was really bad, bordering on camp. It was OK, that's about it.
Not to side track this whole thread, but I feel the other thing that LOTR did right was they filmed all 3 at once. I know that takes a lot of money and trust and not many people will do that, but by doing this they really set the entire trilogy up for perfection. I still haven't seen Dune yet, have been too busy past few weekends, but I already know that 2 wasn't even "greenlit" until after this movie was out.
Yeah! That was super risky to film all 3 at once. If Fellowship of the Ring tanked, they were screwed. Luckily it became a phenomenon and each film grew it's audiences, leading up to 11 Academy Award wins for The Return of the King. If you are going to do The Lord of the Rings, you have to do it right. New Line Cinema did. Now if you are going to do Dune, you have to do it right too. Not sure why Warner Bros hesitated to start production on Part II of Dune, but at least it is finally greenlit.
'Spencer'. Eh. Pretty much a Jean Cocteau wannabe film. Princess Diana is surrounded by food and throws up a lot. I'm surprised Christopher Plummer didn't start singing Edelweiss.
