Dune

[luka]

course not. we dont need to watch those films to know they're terrible

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Is Villeneuve any good? I know the stuff he's done, but I've never seen any of it.

he's basically a visual stylist, he can make things look interesting and he can execute a good script OK but I don't think he can elevate a bad one

that's why I had (very) tentative high hopes for the aesthetic sensibility of Blade Runner 2049 etc applied to Frank Herbert

not that 2049 lived up to the original at all, but it wasn't an embarrassing effort and it looked pretty cool

that was a best-case scenario. this looks more like, yeah, a bunch of kewl fighting and explosions.

the Lynch via Jodorowsky version, despite its problems really does impart a sense of mystery, grandeur, truly strange otherworldliness

albeit at the price of almost total incoherence, but if you're adapting Dune incoherent striving is a much better look than just kewl fighting etc

tho probably a much tougher sell to the producers than a generic space opera blockbuster

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho is inspired casting, I will say, even if it looks like they're totally gonna fuck up his character arc

cutting out Feyd-Rautha (Sting) is a bewildering decision tho, he's one of the best things in the book and every other adaptation

Paul's lithe, sexually ambiguous, smirking alter ego

Dave Bautista is a surprisingly decent actor but it ain't the same relationship between the characters

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

you know what that trailer reminded me of was another mediocre recent adaptation of a beloved sci-novel - Ender's Game

a very strange book in different ways but, similar visual style, similar dumbing down into generic blockbuster

 

[IdleRich]

There was a series of Dune right? I bought a box set from a charity shop but I lost it without watching it. I guess if it was good we would know about it though.

 

[version]

I still want to see Jupiter Ascending and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. They both look nuts. I'm expecting spectacular visuals and appalling acting and writing.

 

[borzoi]

idk what affection people have for him as a director. its nice that he somehow can keep sweet talking hollywood into giving him 100 million dollars to make a non superhero movie but he doesn't have much of a style or identity. hes a total journeyman so all his movies have been "pretty good". this looks boring and grey af for a movie about doing space acid and riding on a giant worm.

 

[borzoi]

hes better than alex garland who is a complete hack.

 

[version]

this looks boring and grey af for a movie about doing space acid and riding on a giant worm.

... like if Nolan did one of the new Star Wars films.

 

[version]

That greyness is something which really bothers me. There's a certain sheen and blandness to a lot of stuff these days that makes it look like a glossy car ad.

 

[version]

Nolan's the main culprit, imo. Tenet looks crushingly bland. His brother does Westworld and it's got that look too.

 

[IdleRich]

he's basically a visual stylist, he can make things look interesting and he can execute a good script OK but I don't think he can elevate a bad one

That's my feeling... he aint got that zingor whatever.

I still want to see Jupiter Ascending and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. They both look nuts. I'm expecting spectacular visuals and appalling acting and writing.

Did he do them? Both bad. I had it in my head the Valerian one was Besson.

 

[IdleRich]

Nolan's the main culprit, imo. Tenet looks crushingly bland. His brother does Westworld and it's got that look too.

Nolan definitely tries to make good films.
I want to go to the cinema soon... might try Tenet even though everyonewho has seen it says it's terrible.

 

[version]

Did he do them? Both bad. I had it in my head the Valerian one was Besson.

No. The Wachowskis did Jupiter Ascending and Luc Besson did Valerian.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

There was a series of Dune right?

yeah the Sci-Fi Channel (or as it's now called - sighs - Syfy) did a miniseries around the turn of the millennium

it's pretty good for what it is, a miniseries made for basic cable

unsurprisingly a much more faithful, straightforward adaptation than the Lynch version

 

[version]

hes better than alex garland who is a complete hack.

Which would you say is his worst?

 

[IdleRich]

Oh yeah, had a friend who was an extra in JA, she kept talking about Wachowskis now I come to think of it.

 

[version]

yeah the Sci-Fi Channel (or as it's now called - sighs - Syfy) did a miniseries around the turn of the millennium

it's pretty good for what it is, a miniseries made for basic cable

unsurprisingly a much more faithful, straightforward adaptation than the Lynch version

They're doing a new Dune series too -- Dune: The Sisterhood,

"TV series set in the 'Dune' universe which centers on the lives of the Bene Gesserit."

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Jupiter Ascending

I mean it's pretty terrible. I wasn't really impressed with the visuals but the terrible acting is there in spades.

I do concede it has a a kind of deranged loopiness and I always want to support people taking big, ambitious swings with original material

but it's not even bad in an interesting way

 

[IdleRich]

yeah the Sci-Fi Channel (or as it's now called - sighs - Syfy) did a miniseries around the turn of the millennium

it's pretty good for what it is, a miniseries made for basic cable

unsurprisingly a much more faithful, straightforward adaptation than the Lynch version

I wish I'd watched it.
I think you're right about JV, he doesn't seem to have much spark but his things look good.