Thanks Abe, for the thoughtful reply and details.
Movies in the “streaming” age have a certain type of blandness that feels a bit like AI logic. like by being a certain amount of blah, and a certain level of bad, they become more watched. like those posts on instagram with the bad spelling to get people to make commments . idk, like the films being made now are to win the algorithm. Dune 2021 has a certain level of that feel to me.
Overall, watching it online, it was one of those perfect “let’s watch this” sort of things, and it ended up being better than a lot of the other streaming content, but was also a little middling feeling. and any media pretending to be a feature film, but isn’t complete without the pre planned sequels, to me are not to be judged with stand alone features, because if it was a feature it would be around 90 minutes, but because of it’s integrations and reliance on the sequels to resemble anything complete, then it is a series. i’m not saying that as a slight, just trying to categorize it. The original Star Wars managed to be individual films to a degree.
The film Dune 2021 was overall a good watch. and given the format they are making it, doesn’t really matter much if it was a cliff hanger or not, if it lives on line. I’m just saying, if trying to judge something as a feature…. have to figure it out if it is even truly a feature first.
Somethings took me out of the film in ways that prevented me from just going with it.
- actors seemed to be on different pages in regards to performance. Josh Brolin was mostly in a much more forced old world language and speech, but all of a sudden might slip into full Brolin. Oscar was a bit too Oscar, and then suddenly try to be kingly and have that older world sounding language. musk, felt like all of the actors got their own notes and ran with it in their own ways.
- technology. i’ll just mention the dragonfly chopper things. What the holy vibration reduction those cockpits had. also, how can those wings withstand that kind of force to operate, but the break so easily after the sand storm. idk, not saying whether it could really be a thing, but just saying it gave me pause, and took me out of the film. For the books to focus on the politics and get around some of the high tech stuff, Dune2021 certainly had enough tech to make people loose that suspension of disbelief that it was unfortunate.
- Sandworms. i feel these creature are part of the difficulty in adapting to the movies. How does one visually make these things make sense and describe them without horrid exposition?
- The pronounciation of “Harkonnen”. I watched with someone that claims they pronounced that word incorrectly. ymmv.
- i’ve already mentioned some of the staging/blocking and camera movement feeling unmotivated. but for a film that feels made for the streamer platform, i tend to be less bothered by that…. but it is Dune! so it kind of bothers me more than with movies such as Res Notice. Also, given how much i respect ‘Prisoners’, i’m sad to see Villenueve be subject to that.
Movies in the “streaming” age have a certain type of blandness that feels a bit like AI logic. like by being a certain amount of blah, and a certain level of bad, they become more watched. like those posts on instagram with the bad spelling to get people to make commments . idk, like the films being made now are to win the algorithm. Dune 2021 has a certain level of that feel to me.
Overall, watching it online, it was one of those perfect “let’s watch this” sort of things, and it ended up being better than a lot of the other streaming content, but was also a little middling feeling. and any media pretending to be a feature film, but isn’t complete without the pre planned sequels, to me are not to be judged with stand alone features, because if it was a feature it would be around 90 minutes, but because of it’s integrations and reliance on the sequels to resemble anything complete, then it is a series. i’m not saying that as a slight, just trying to categorize it. The original Star Wars managed to be individual films to a degree.
The film Dune 2021 was overall a good watch. and given the format they are making it, doesn’t really matter much if it was a cliff hanger or not, if it lives on line. I’m just saying, if trying to judge something as a feature…. have to figure it out if it is even truly a feature first.
Somethings took me out of the film in ways that prevented me from just going with it.
- actors seemed to be on different pages in regards to performance. Josh Brolin was mostly in a much more forced old world language and speech, but all of a sudden might slip into full Brolin. Oscar was a bit too Oscar, and then suddenly try to be kingly and have that older world sounding language. musk, felt like all of the actors got their own notes and ran with it in their own ways.
- technology. i’ll just mention the dragonfly chopper things. What the holy vibration reduction those cockpits had. also, how can those wings withstand that kind of force to operate, but the break so easily after the sand storm. idk, not saying whether it could really be a thing, but just saying it gave me pause, and took me out of the film. For the books to focus on the politics and get around some of the high tech stuff, Dune2021 certainly had enough tech to make people loose that suspension of disbelief that it was unfortunate.
- Sandworms. i feel these creature are part of the difficulty in adapting to the movies. How does one visually make these things make sense and describe them without horrid exposition?
- The pronounciation of “Harkonnen”. I watched with someone that claims they pronounced that word incorrectly. ymmv.
- i’ve already mentioned some of the staging/blocking and camera movement feeling unmotivated. but for a film that feels made for the streamer platform, i tend to be less bothered by that…. but it is Dune! so it kind of bothers me more than with movies such as Res Notice. Also, given how much i respect ‘Prisoners’, i’m sad to see Villenueve be subject to that.
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