Finally caved and saw Dune 2021:
-Lightskin Chani narrates the opening instead of Irulan. Iāve always loved āThe beginning is the time for taking the most delicate careā¦ā, the opening from the book. David Lynch kept it in his movie, and the monologue even shows up in the official movie soundtrack for ā84 by Toto. The fact that itās not here doesnāt bode well.
-I always thought Dune was a very Asiatic work of sci-fi. Caladan is Space-Indonesia with its islands and rice paddies. The Fremen are descendants of Muslims, and they practice a weird, syncretic version of Islam with bits of Buddhism in it. I donāt like how Timotheeeeeās house has a bonsai tree framed by Chinese Circle Doors and only Yueh is the lone Asian there as a healer. I feel like Iām with Donna Chang from Seinfeld.
-Ferguson was a good choice for Lady Jessica.
-Zendaya canāt play dangerous. Whatād you expect from a Disney whelp?
-Caladan is so cold and gray, not like in the books. Thanks, I hate it!
-Oscar Isaac is light, but heād have to have fucked a ghost if Iām to believe he could play Timotheeeās dad.
-Mohiam is pretty spot on.
-I hate this version of Caladan. Itās so cold, so unhospitable, even compared to Arrakis. The entire point of Caladan is that itās a lush Eden.
-According to X-Ray, Atreides martial arts is based on Filipino fighting styles. Oh, like Thanos and Fauntleroy could ever.
-There are no upside down cows on Giedi Prime. Man-Spider? What are you talking about? There WASNāT a man-spider in this movie.
-Considering howā¦. light this movie is, I expected Denis to whitewash Dr. Yueh. Also, Yueh uses Mandarin to speak to Paul on the sly while heās administering his Suk healer powers. It feels orientalist.
-The landers that descend from the Heighliner onto Arrakis remind me of the eggs from Arrival.
-Jessica and her attendants at the spaceport are gorgeous, although one canāt help but think of Padme and her girl gang in Episode 1.
-Thufir is black (SMH is really fair, even compared to Zendaya) and he calls Paul āYoung Masterā when he lands on Arrakis. The optics arenāt lost on me.
-The thopters are really sexy.
-Right after, thereās a scene of townspeople praying. If they werenāt wearing 3 burqas one on top of the other, it would look like home to me.
-Denisā¦ he has a certain visual style. He loves bare concrete, pitted, monolithic surfaces. It feels like heās using Voice on my eyes. Something about the lines, the starknessā¦ You have to meet his style halfway.
-Jason Momoa shaves halfway. Like I said about unsettlingly bare surfaces.
-Zendaya, being Disney, canāt act. She is mostly here to tempt Paul in his visions. I mean, just like in the first third of the book, butā¦ why not get someone whoā¦ letās just say, doesnāt burn that easy out there to play Fremen.
-My image of the Sardaukar was always the Purge Troopers from Fallen Order. Here, they reminded me of Ronan the Accuser from Guardians Vol. 1, but dialed up to 90.
-The invasionā¦ is slightly less awesome, because you donāt see Patrick Stewart as Gurney, running into battle cradling a pug.
-I want that bagpipe riff to play at my funeral.
-Ok, so to have Yueh, the lone Asian man, act not just a healer with strange powers, muttering in Mandarin, but also have him betray the good Atreides, was that Herbert being low keyā¦ you know?
-Also, I just realized they got rid of two important scenes: Jessica finding the Secret Garden, and the dinner where Letoās guests, the rich townsfolk of Arrakeen, spill water everywhere to express their station. The palm tree thing drives the point of both home? A garden is visually too much for a Denis movie, though.
-They had to prop Leto in the altogether like that. Easier on the eyes than the Baron but likeā¦ really?
-The one scene that made me cry in the book, āHis only regret was that he never made you his Duchessā, wasnāt here. Like Jessica cries in the tent, butā¦ I just didnāt feel it.
-Kynes looking out at Arrakeen, similar energy to Leiaās death stare on Crait. The music in that scene, similar melody to the main theme from the 1984 movie.
-Kynes doesnāt get her trippy death involving visions of the previous Kynes. I liked it because it highlighted the strangeness of the desert, and stressed the environment-y themes.
-Timotheeee has to whitesplain how Fremen live to his mom after their thopter crashes. It feltā¦ redundant. Jessicaās a Lady of a House and a Bene Gesserit. Shouldnāt she have done her Arrakis homework too?
-No one in the main cast has any experience speaking Arabic and it shows. Iām not watching the second movie if Timotheeee and Zendaya butcher the phrase āLisan Al-Gaibā again.
-Nothing is more arrogant than ending your movie with the line āthis is just the beginningā.
Arrival is one of my favorite movies ever. Blade Runner 2049 existed only to strip all ambiguity from the original. Dune errsā¦ towards the latter. Thereās a lot of care in every frame! And Hans Zimmer and those bagpipes! But the young leads are just so, so miscast. And I still stand by my original statement. Who are THEY to tell me that the apex of humanity is the whitest person alive? I know Duncan becomes the Chosen One in the later books, but thatās not the implication the movie and its marketing circus, both infinitely more visible than the sequel books, are giving me
