Does DUNE Live up to the HYPE?? - Dune Review

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Denis Villeneuve's 2021 sci-fi Epic Dune is an instant classic that we better get a dang sequel to! But can performances from Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson stand up against intense scrutiny from fans of the novels?
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[@TalkingThrones]

I was a Dune virgin heading into this film. I knew nothing about the universe or its characters. That said, I still loved everything about this film. I've seen it twice now, and I'm still hungry for more. Now I want to read the books, and watch the 1984 version just for fun. Great review, fellas.

[@ZachDxn]

Glad you liked it. I'd say the book is a must read and the 84 movie is fun but not nearly as good as this. Some of the worst CG I've ever seen. I think you actually get more character building in the 84 version though.

[@bazookatooth]

I have the first book, but I put it off until I saw this film (because we all know the film adaptation never lives up to the book). After hearing them talk about the differences, I really want to read it, but I don't want to spoil part 2! Dilemmas

[@ZachDxn]

@@bazookatooth Yeah I'm not sure if seeing the movie first makes it more enjoyable. But I definitely feel like it makes it more understandable. But at the same time I feel like something is missing having read it first. So maybe watching the movies first is the way to go.

[@galacticviper4453]

Same here. I really want to read the books after watching the movie

[@guardian35]

Ignore the 1984 movie and head for the far superior Dune miniseries from 2000. So Good! It was followed up by a sequel miniseries in 2003, Children of Dune, which had James McAvoy and Susan Sarandon.

[@fansofER]

The Barron and emperor has access to the most advanced shield penetrating bombs. extremely expensive and precious but it was worth using to destroy the atredies. Plus it was an ambush. In the book howat says he grossly underestimated how much money the Barron was willing to spend

[@hippie_4762]

Aye, went through the chapter a few days ago and it mentions that they can scourge Arrakis for another 60 years and still not have made up the immense costs incurred by coordinating their invasion with the Spacing Guild. And according to the movie, the extravagant visit with three Navigators in the beginning of the movie was 1.2 million Solaris. So, in those 60 years what would come to 600 billion Solaris. Grossly underestimated how much they had to spend, moreso then willing to, they were hoarding the spice for this gambit for years.

[@mikemcnair2026]

What, shields were down?

[@fansofER]

@@mikemcnair2026 the house shields were sabotaged and brought down but the Atredies lighter ships and vehicles still had their shields.

[@JCJW101]

@@mikemcnair2026 Not on the ship's they weren't, you can see the shields blip as the missiles land on them.

[@kailoucleary6025]

I think I remember the book saying they used extremely old outdated technology that no-one would have expected them to use, but that was able to pass through shields. Mortars might be the word used in the book?

[@adamh.4167]

My wife, tired of being dragged to Sci Fi movies by me, said on the way to the theater that "nothing will make this movie worthwhile. It is going to suck." To make matters worse, I accidentally bought nonrefundable tickets for the showing late at night on Thursday instead of Friday, so we were guaranteed to be tired on Friday morning when we had to wake up super early for work. To my surprise, after the movie, she leaned over and said "so...that was very good." She has been asking questions about the movie since, and has even been asking whether WB has approved the second part yet.

[@nick4810]

get a divorce

[@LoupBlancEA]

@@nick4810 what do you mean, she still goes with her husband even though she doesn't like the theme, and she was open minded enough to admit she loved it . That's so sweet.

[@Gmrking91]

@@LoupBlancEA he's trying to steal his wife

[@kailoucleary6025]

@@LoupBlancEA Definitely a joke. I laughed at least.

[@kingcurry5139]

@@nick4810 maybe you should hit the "read more" button

[@dingledodger5323]

I've seen a few posts of folks being pissy about Paul "learning up" on spice in beginning, and making the argument that he would know those details, he would have no reason to be looking at that, etc. But how many times have you gone to learn more about something and have to wade through the basics you already know? It just served to show he took his family's business seriously, was studying up on Arrakis, and was a good moment for some natural exposition to the viewer.

[@jonnowocky8179]

I also like that these info-vids had the narration style of scratchy pre-Attenborough 1970s UK nature documentaries, it sort of hinted they might be a touch out of date

[@bemersonbakebarmen]

The whole point of why WIKIPEDIA exist

[@albertotr1]

@@bemersonbakebarmen imagine Wikipedia 20,000 years in the future

[@CockatooDude]

@@albertotr1 In the Dune universe, computers have been banned.

[@Crazy_Diamond_75]

This is exactly how I interpreted in the theater, without making any leaps. Like, they're about to go to Arrakis. He's brushing up. It would totally make sense.

[@TwoTonTommy721]

The moment James says “these ships are way better than Star Wars ships”, and Riley gets a viscerally defensive face, I love it! Haha

[@galacticviper4453]

They are IMO. lol

[@AshishDeepSinghBhatial]

Also, the fact that George Lucas was inspired by Dune. You can clearly see the parallels when you get to know this.

[@ajmerthethy6724]

Villeneuve messed up one part. The Bene Gesserit ship exiting the heighliner clearly emitted sound waves even though they were in space.

[@tijmenteering9877]

@@ajmerthethy6724 I noted that too. But I think that's more of a, "appeal to the masses in the lowest common denominator of their knowledge of science/physics" thing. Not everyone knows what the doppler effect is, but almost everyone has experienced it/knows what it sounds like. So id wager the majority consumed that scene and passively thought, "whoa" as opposed to, "wait, that wouldn't happen in space".

[@pseudonymousbeing987]

@@ajmerthethy6724 Holtzman fields bro, we're hearing them. Surf's up dude, ride the wave, flow with the go.

[@spitperson69]

At 2 separate points in the movie they explain that the reason they needed to be on the desert planet (I'm not even going to try to spell it) is because there were no satellites to see them coming or reach out to other royal houses. That would prevent the houses from rebelling against the empire and weaken the good good guys' forces.

[@hero3104]

It's spelled arrakis

[@RILEYismyname]

aaaaah right right I remember that now

[@hero3104]

@@RILEYismyname Riley! What's up?

[@RILEYismyname]

@@hero3104 just procrastinating on writing a video, y'know how it is

[@hero3104]

@@RILEYismyname nice

[@Kalamolng]

I like Jessica's human side of her. When in public she's literally cold and stoic, but in private she shows her vulnerability.

[@barence321]

Jessica is a complex character. I love that Villeneuve gets it and gives Ferguson room to play Jessica properly. She is both a sensitive and loving wife and mother, and a dangerous calculating Bene Gesserit. Everyone is afraid of her, except her children, and rightly so.

[@rigs9801]

same, i think it was a really smart move on their part. It also helps the audience understand that she does care about Paul as Paul, and not just the Kwisatz Haderach.

[@DizzyBusy]

@@barence321 yesss! I daresay, Jessica in the film is better than in the books

[@fakecubed]

I really enjoyed the actress, she was a great casting. There was something a bit off about her for me, though, in certain scenes. I wanted to see her showing more emotion in some scenes, and less in others. It was hard to for me to describe exactly what I wanted different. But it didn't impact my enjoyment of the film at all. It's a really delicate balance to play a character like Jessica, especially, but really all of the characters have more going on underneath and unless they do the voice-over monologue thing to hear their inner thoughts, of which there are just so many in the books, it's not something that can really be adapted as faithfully as book fans might wish. The alternatives are to include more characters talking about their feelings and schemes openly, which is not really accurate to the story, or try to demonstrate it with acting, and perhaps music that causes the audience to feel the right things. Jessica is such a complex, and fascinating character in the books. Ultimately, it was her love for Duke Leto, and her son Paul, that set everything into motion for the entire series. All of the good, and all of the bad, it came down to love: the "original sin" of Dune. But such a romantic way to drive a story like this.

[@dannydecker108]

Lazguns aren't "illegal", it's just that when they hit a shield, it creates a nuclear explosion randomly, either at the gun / at the shield.

[@DinerLingo]

Exactly. It's "atomics" that are illegal. Lasguns are just too dangerous to the user to use.

[@kinagrill]

No house will ever field lasweapons in ANY conflict where even the most minor of suspicions of someone wearing a shield is out there... because with a 50-50 chance of wether it's the shield going pseudo-nuke or the lasgun that does it.... no one wanna risk that, and the fact your house would be exterminated to the last man, woman and child for breaking the great convention... yeah, better bring some swords.

[@fakecubed]

The Harkonnen agents smuggled in a bunch of lasguns, and it's implied they may have deliberately let themselves be caught by Hawat and his agents, in order to cause the Atreides to be fearful of using shields when the invasion came. But the real plan was not lasguns at all, it was ancient (modern for us, 20th century) artillery, that was useless against shields, but was very effective against unshielded targets, and the terrain of Arrakis itself, to bury Atreides troops alive in the cave systems scattered all over the planet.

[@dimitri299]

12:30 they explain that there are no satellites on Arrakis so I guess they can't see the invasion force coming, which gave them a massive advantage cause literally none could get on a ship

[@orenolti]

The more problematic part about not having satellites is that they cannot record the Emperor's interference in a war between two Great Houses and distribute it to the other houses in the Landsraad. The Emperor is not an immovable object, the Landsraad - Choam members - jointly control the throne. House Corrino rules, because they have the most wealth, political and military power combined, but against all the houses they could not win. When Paul dreams about his destiny, that balance is broken, because with the power of the fremen and control over Spice production, he has more power alone than all the other houses combined.

[@kingmanic]

Why do they have shields when they have anti shield weapons: The special weapons are very expensive compared to standard weapons used. It's not economical but they want to completely overwhelm them to allow no escape so the rich Harkonnen over spent to completely crush the Atreides.

[@subashchandra9557]

These anti shield, corkscrew thingies weren't in the Dune book I think. They show up in later books.

[@conortownsend242]

@@subashchandra9557 yeah they show up later but it is sort of implied that the space forces were caught on the ground in the book so I thought it was ok

[@shadow2233]

Yeah not moving on the ground otherwise they’d not have had the time to burrow through

[@Alaybaba]

@@conortownsend242 what are the corkscrew thingies? It couldn't be stone burners otherwise J-rays would have been mentioned

[@fakecubed]

@@Alaybaba It's not stone burners. It's really just the same thing as a hunter-seeker, or glowglobes for that matter. It has its own Holtzman field generator, and it can use it to slowly push its way through, same as if a human was moving his hand slowly to push a knife through.

[@sidewalkere]

From 15:50 onward: it was a SURPRISE attack, guys! With a saboteur inside that turned down the city wide shield. So those were stationary, non-alert, ships without any cover. I imagine those projectiles would be very easy to dodge or shoot down with the fore warning that a first line of defense (i.e. thee city shield) would provide.

[@sidewalkere]

​@mark totton Why do you assume they were all asleep? But, again, it was a massive surprise attack compounded with heavy sabotage. What's so hard to believe about that? Think Pearl Harbour, and that wasn't even night time...

[@sidewalkere]

@mark totton In the house? Sure! Why would they all be keeping watch? It was sleep time and they were all protected by a shield...

[@ankitbhavan]

as someone who has not read dune or seen the other movie, i was blown away. The only reason i even knew wtf dune was, was that id hear you guys bring it up often. id watch a 4 hour cut of this EASILY. insanely excited for the other part. and im excited to watch this again and catch all the things i missed initially. I'm amped to watch this episode of the podcast!!

[@norgeek]

Exactly this. It was probably the biggest cinematic experience I've had, and my dad said it felt like seeing Star Wars for the first time as a teenager. A 4 hour version would be fantastic!

[@yonkocommander5531]

@@norgeek I'm glad I'm not alone when I say I felt a cinematic experience with this movie I hadn't felt in many years

[@carnsoaks1]

i have read every scrap there is on this story you could do a DUNE CHANNEL. enjoy getting into Franks work, then his son, who wrote more, using dad's extensive notebooks. the end of the whole story is awesome

[@samkutcher]

same here, i'm looking forward to dive deep into the dune world

[@maciedixon3983]

I’m so happy to see new fans. It truly is magnificent and I have to get over it when I see people hate it.

[@Al3xrex]

I just heard linus on wan show said a one of TJM about Dune part two is coming. I so want this podcast to return fulltime. So hoping that other like me felt the same way and commented here to get this beautiful bouqet of dudes rambling on and on about passion! Please Linus bring back "Carpool Critics"!

[@AdastraRecordings]

The Spacing Guild members consider navigator the ultimate role within the guild. The spice melange mutates them over millenia, which is also addictive, you cannot quit once you start or you die. The navigators are never seen in the book but they are rumoured to look fish like.

[@DavidGreen1993]

There is one in the second/third books and fish like is accurate

[@provostkhot]

Also, a genetic manipulation is an important thing in the Dune universe: Bene Tleilax gets introduced, and plays a big role in later books.

[@kinagrill]

Actually you CAN take Spice without addiction...but too much at the time can lead to the blue-eyes (which is the sign of the addiction), and you need to regularly intake spice or you will die from the withdrawls. I think even Paul make mentions of it being an insidious poison, one so dangerous that you won't die from it untill you STOP taking it.

[@ChrisRowe]

the key thing to understand and that I hope the second film makes clear is that Paul is not a hero, he's an antihero. That he sees multiple futures and not just one, makes him fallible and dangerous, particularly once the Jihad is launched in his name, with fanatical legions commiting atrocities trying to avoid a possible future he sees. That's why he's so upset with his mother in the tent scene as he can see this in his visions. Dune is the ultimate critique of the white saviour story. Paul and his mother consciously manipulate the locals and their traditions. To quote: “The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better to rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes. Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says that mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader's name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question… I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it…” - Frank Herbert

[@wombat7961]

nice!

[@timotmon]

It's certainly a criticism about cult of personalities and "saviors" in general along with religious zealotry amongst many other things. Not sure that Herbert had in mind the "White Savior" part but I suppose we can apply that overserves to some extent.

[@nathanliteroy9835]

Yeah, I didn't like how Paul's visions were portrayed in this movie at all, it was basically mostly about Zendaya. And Paul and Jessica's intentions towards Freemen along with Paul's complex feeling towards visions weren't shown at all

[@timotmon]

@@nathanliteroy9835 Haha, they were only given just over two hours to cover all that.. there's probably 20 hours of visions in the book. I think they covered it all pretty well. Paul saw himself and the Fremen fighting the sardarkar.. we see pauls army on Caladan, We see alternate futures where he was friends with Jamis. The tent scene which I thought was really emotional showed what paul feared was going to transpire. Dune deserves to be series of probably more than 15 two hour episodes and even then you won't be able to cover every detail.

[@nathanliteroy9835]

@@timotmon >they were only given just over two hours to cover all that Yes, and director decided to waste most of them on showing silent people and panning shots. Also there were plenty of visions, they were just repeatedly showing Zendaya over and over again because Villeneuve has said that he liked her so much

[@stephenkelly8312]

The voice is weaponized psychology. Through training the Bene Gesserit are able to analyze the psychological weaknesses of people they are interacting with. Also through training, they are able to exploit those weaknesses. A voice command that works on one person will not necessarily work on the next person. They weren’t really able to explore that in the movie. One thing they seem to ignore in the movie is that spice isn’t the only drug that enables Guild Navigators or Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers. It’s just that once they use the spice liquor, those other drugs don’t work anymore. Also spice is in EVERYTHING on Dune. Unless you’re getting offworld food, you’re eating spice all the time.

[@hellomark1]

The best description I've heard of The Voice was I think from Denis himself for this movie: it's the voice of a thousand ancient grandmothers telling you to do something

[@lukesbacon]

In my hometown there was a little fast food joint called "taste of spice", I wonder if it's the same thing

[@Northstar-Media]

@@lukesbacon Nope, they are from Iraq.

[@tams805]

@@lukesbacon Ummm, the chances of that being a Dune reference are infinitesimally small. I don't know why you thought that.

[@fakecubed]

The voice was basically inspired by people like Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, other charismatic revolutionaries around the world, and of course cult leaders. People who had the ability to speak, and move masses to do things that either were or often were not in their own best interests. Frank Herbert was not necessarily saying the voice was somehow an evil power, exactly, it could be used for good. He was probably also thinking of people like Churchill, and JFK. But very often charismatic leaders are more about getting power for themselves, regardless of their personal intentions, and power does corrupt.

[@booshramoosh]

Bruh that wasnt Dune. That was Du

[@hero3104]

Took me a little bit to get the joke

[@Mionwang]

That about sums it up lol

[@wiraydh]

I can't wait to watch ne!

[@theAessaya]

Du du du du du?

[@IanMustafa]

more like ⊃⋃

[@mrjules1982]

1:05:00 The bagpipes... as far as I can recall the only moment the score actually had visuals was the Atreides fleet landing on Arrakis. The bagpipe player stepping into the sand really drove home the feeling that these people are way out of their element....

[@kinagrill]

Isn't it also hans Zimmer or whomever wrote the score for the movie that played the bagpipes?

[@yonkocommander5531]

I'm glad I'm not alone when I say I felt a cinematic experience with this movie I hadn't felt in many years

[@AshishDeepSinghBhatial]

I would have really loved to see the book as a trilogy. The book itself is written as a 3 parts each of which has its 3 part structure. Would have definitely helped with the pacing. The Book 1( Dune) has a perfect amount of dread, politics and action to rope any new viewer in. It ends just after the Atreides fall with all of Paul's abilities kicking together in the tent and his vision of the Jihad. All that dread, inner conflict, helplessness of the Atreides knowing their fall is coming and still unable to do basically anything to stop it. That being said, I'll take a 2 part over a single movie.

[@knghtbrd]

Villeneuve has talked about the possibility of a trilogy-but it would be a trilogy of Dune parts 1 and 2, and Messiah as part 3. He's got part 2 greenlit. I really hope he gets the chance to do his part 3 that will actually cement that Paul was not the hero. (You could do Children and God Emperor as a miniseries.)

[@colesenger]

That would be a pretty dark place to end the first movie though, I like that they ended on a more hopeful note

[@AshishDeepSinghBhatial]

@@colesenger Book 1 ends with a pretty kickass scene of Paul getting all of abilities kicking in together. His kwiastz haderach abilities from the Bene Gesserit breeding program, his mentat training from his family and his prescience from all the spice he consumes. Basically the whole of time and space opens upto him. I'd say that's pretty hopeful ending and a great cliff hanger as well.

[@birdsofafeather8368]

@@AshishDeepSinghBhatial I mean at the same time, Book 1 ends with him finally allowing himself to mourn his father. Personally I would’ve loved a movie ending like that. Would make the following installments that much more powerful, and would be a fascinating way to start a trilogy.

[@fakecubed]

@@knghtbrd The studio in question is reluctant to greenlight stuff far in advance, officially. They're not Disney. But I have no doubt at all that part 2 and part 3 were both discussed and essentially greenlit unofficially with everyone having confidence Villeneuve could deliver on part 1 and again on part 2. No contracts, and no verbal agreements, but basically assurance that yes, the studio was interested and it was up to Villeneuve to prove that he could, in fact, make the studio enough money that it would make sense to keep going, every step of the way.

[@Bob-md2ye]

I anticipate this review all most as much as the movie itself.

[@jeffbergstrom]

RE: "The Voice" that the Bene Gesserit use...I've had it used on me (sorta). I was at my mother-in-law's house with my wife. I had bought a modem (or some computery bit) for them. It was not a lot of money and I did not want to be re-paid since I didn't ask permission and just did it. All's well. MiL asks how much it is, I say don't worry. She asks again, I say no biggie, forget about it. Then she used the freaking Voice on me. **HOW MUCH WAS IT** (not yelling...the VOICE). I swear I had no control over my response. I just blurted out "$38.95". I was shocked. MiL smiled. I'll bet most here can think back to a time when their mom or friend's mom or teacher ninjaed their brain into answering something they didn't want to. Spooky. Dunno where they learn that. When it happened to me I immediately thought, "this is what the Voice is based on."

[@barence321]

Everyone who has a Mom understands the Voice.

[@a.wosaibi]

Yes! I think Villeneuve also confirmed in one of the interviews that the Voice was meant to evoke being scolded by ancient grandmothers

[@jccouture13]

The spice isn't what enables space travel. It has nothing to do with moving the ship, the Holtzman engine is what enables FTL travel. There are no computers in this world, thus there is only one way to navigate through space. The spice is what enables guild navigators to open their minds enough to calculate a safe path. Much like the Mentats do extremely complex calculations, the Guild navigators take this to another extreme using high concentrations of the spice.

[@rsjrx]

How are you confused about the library scene? Jessica's fear was her running in and stopping the test, hearing the pain Paul was enduring, so she recites it. Paul's fear was pulling out his hand, so he recites it. They both recite it, because that's their training, but there's no connection otherwise.

[@DizzyBusy]

I like how Villeneuve did that scene. It gave us an emotional connection to Jessica, Paul's mother, who worried about him, but she also created him and kind of feared his powers (that was partly due to her). She was the emotional core of the movie. And it's a nice bonus too, since Frank Herbert didn't really, fully write female characters

[@iamthesayyadina]

Jessica has undergone the same test. She’s also terrified he’ll fail and die, which is why we see from her POV when she’s called back into the room, Paul standing, then her relief that he’s not a corpse.

[@orenolti]

In regards to the Fremen fighting capabilities. They do say that they are fierce, but they become a real threat to the Sardaukar after they receive training from Paul and Jessica. That is also shown in the scenes when Paul fights with the Fremen in his visions.

[@maciedixon3983]

To be honest , the Janis scene where he cries might still happen. It doesn’t happen right away in the book either, they go to the sietch first

[@robertwinslade3104]

If I had to guess I would say that the funeral ceremony for Jamis is very likely to be the opening scene of Part 2

[@ReXtion88]

Paul gives water to the dead at Jamis' funeral after announcing himself as a friend of Jamis. The film hasn't got to the scene where that is supposed to happen

[@RolandsSh]

I haven't read the Dune books yet, but I absolutely loved the film. It made me feel the same way as Fellowship of the Ring did years ago. Brilliant and excellent worldbuilding, great cast, outstanding visuals and music, very dense lore. But the story does not feel finished at all, and it needs a part 2, it just does not work quite well enough as a standalone film. I fully trust Dennis Villeneuve and his vision. His track record is insanely good - I haven't seen August 32nd on Earth or Maelstrom, but out of the rest of his movies I only liked Enemy. The rest I absolutely loved, especially Incendies and Sicario.

[@fakecubed]

Hope you've picked up the books by now. If you haven't, I'll just strongly recommend them and say they are even better than the film, although the film is a very good adaptation for a very difficult story to put on screen.

[@Narapoia1]

You should definitely check out Arrival as well if you haven't. Before Dune was probably my favourite SF film of the last 10 years.

[@rafaszczawinski4103]

I loved the Dreams are messages from the deep introduction and the way it was placed. Before all the WB studio watertower etc.

[@BriscoelabMN]

Really missed the development of Kynes as a character. Her death had little impact if you hadn’t read the book and understood the characters dream of what the planet could one day become.

[@hades392able]

Yeah, hopefully they'll talk about it more considering how important Chani is in the second half

[@kinagrill]

maybe extended edition has more info.

[@fakecubed]

I'm quite certain they pushed a lot of the ecological stuff to Part Two, once Paul and Jessica can learn that stuff direct from the Fremen.

[@davebenhart4611]

There are behind the scenes shots of the terrarium room that Jessica finds, so at least some of that scene was filmed but later cut. I really hope we do get an extended version of this movie. Not that it has holes that need to be filled, but that having even more would be great. Like the Lord of the Rings films, the theatrical release is great but the extended version is even better.

[@fakecubed]

The dinner party is the thing I want most. And perhaps some more stuff involving the suspicions Hawat has about Jessica, whether we get the confrontation between them or not.

[@dougcarey2233]

In the book they have slow pellet guns and hunter seekers that basically "drill" through the shield. The Harkonen artillery was used to seal off the duke's men in caves where they had retreated. Remember that Yueh had shut down the house shields too, so the explosives worked better. The bombs also drilled slightly through the vehicle shields, so they usually worked.

[@maoristutuff]

@mark totton the doctors Imperial training and loyalty is supposed to be infallible due to their own genetic manipulation ,however this has been hacked by the harkonnen . The Imperial doctors are therefore viewed as incapable of deceit and given the highest clearance. Also doctors hold high rank in our militaries aswell.

[@kevinmcgarrigle2539]

Because someone was killing the security staff and a mole is usually picked to be able to get into high security places, it’s not clear who else was killing them, there is a lot missing in the film.

[@fakecubed]

@mark totton He literally shot the guards to get access.

[@fakecubed]

@mark totton He shot his way, in, dude. They didn’t give him access. And the everyone sleeping thing is a movie invention, not in the book.

[@JJP1890]

The bomb used on the ships presumably uses the same principals as the glow globes and suspensors to slow themselves down before impact. It could then be argued that since they don't have machines that can calculate/compute the bombs would have to either be set, controlled, or have a mechanism to trigger the slow down. This would make them hard to use on air-born ships but perfect for air to ground attacks which would also explain Gurney's command to get everything off the ground. Also they can bend space and time for space travel without spice but they can't navigate it safely at those speeds without the prescience granted by spice. Finally I think the spider thing (which isn't in any of the books) was a replacement for the subtext of the Baron Harkonnen being a pedophile.

[@kinagrill]

Most likely Ixian creation as well... potentially an illegal weapon as well, like with Nukes and such. Cuz Nobles are meant to feel safe wearing a shield, hence why lasgun to a suicide assassin's mission to kill someone is a hella big nono in the Dune Universe. Any House discovered to break the Great Convention will get eradicated down to the last man, woman and child in the familyline, the House's assets will be redistributed to other houses, etc. Even House Harkonnen respects these rules and it shows just how fearful even the vilest of houses are of breaking the Great Convention.

[@myflippinggoodness8821]

@@kinagrill dude, that's frickin awesome. Jfc I'm excited lol

[@fakecubed]

Yeah, humanity spread throughout the stars long before they ever discovered Arrakis and the spice. It was just incredibly dangerous, and there was the chance that a ship would simply not survive the journey. Just as Paul gains prescience from the spice, so do the navigators.

[@amby8719]

im 14 and a freshman in high school. my dad adores dune so we went and saw it in imax. and i loved it so much. it really wasn't hard for me to follow the story and im glad they didn't rush a lot in the first movie. the world building really established this universe. so happy part 2 was already announced. gonna start the books now!

[@mrjules1982]

* spoiler alert for non book readers * 34:00 ... They're also bribing the spacing guild (with huge amounts of spice, which they can afford as they're close to the source) to keep part of the planet 'dark' to the empire. That's one of the main themes that made me love the story when I first read it: All these factions are sort of co-operating in the current political environment, but all have their own agendas. plans within plans. I'm pretty sure al lot of that will be covered in part two, though. It's such an essential part of the entire saga.

[@DizzyBusy]

Spoiler alert for non book readers...

[@mrjules1982]

@@DizzyBusy You're right. My apologies... I'll edit one in.

[@johanvork9379]

For the guild navigators, they come from a training program where people with innate prescient abilities are exposed to spice. Some evolve/mutate into the weird things you described, but some can’t get that far. You end up with the true guild navigators who live in tanks of spice gas and the failed navigators who operate as heralds or messengers for the guild.

[@Alaybaba]

The "final form" are called guild steersmen

[@jonnowocky8179]

Also I though the fight choreography was absolutely awesome. Paul has his trademark knee tackle he uses at 3 key moments, Duncan sees multiple Saudakar and draws a second blade and trips his weight belt for a super Mario jump, and Gurney grinning like a mad bastid running into the fray with bagpipes a blazing had me welling up

[@jordanm2984]

Man I hope this movie makes so much money that the studio basically has no choice but to adapt the insane and bizzare later books to the screen.

[@fakecubed]

I really just want Book 4 on screen. Someday, maybe. A Game of Thrones-style HBO series where they do one book per season would be ideal.

[@jordanm2984]

@@fakecubed I hear ya. God Emperor was my favorite.

[@ritterkreutztrager]

The Harkonens used "old fashioned" artillery to breach Atreades defences

[@Dystopia1111]

Yes. I remember in the book the remnants of the Atreides troops were forced back into caves and basically buried inside by the bombardment. I can see valid reasons why they would change that up for visual purposes, but I did also immediately wonder if the 'fireworks display' barrage artillery was meant as a callback to that detail.

[@alvaroafduarte]

The way I understand The Voice is a way of reading another person's behaviour in such a deep way, that one can manipulate others in an instinct level, almost like bypassing the cognition. Its a pretty cool concept...

[@fakecubed]

It was inspired by the various charismatic leaders of the 20th century (that caused hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide). One of the central concepts of Dune is the idea that given enough time to evolve and selectively breed, human beings will be able to achieve levels of competency from focus and refined training techniques developed over millennia that humans in our present reality could only dream of. The Bene Gesserit use intense concentration and focus to observe the particular susceptibilities of a target, and then pitch their voice just the right way to cause them to do whatever they are told to do.

[@DinerLingo]

Dune is actually set farther into the future than 10,191. That year is 10,191 since the creation of the Spacing Guild. If I'm remembering correctly it roughly takes place around 20K-30K years in the future. (There's also a 4000 year jump between books 3 & 4 & a 1500 year jump between books 4 & 5.) We do see members of the Spacing Guild, but not navigators. They're the ones in the white robes & orange helmets in the entourage that lands on Caladan. You can see if you pause it that the orange is spice inside the helmet. Also if you listen closely you can hear a slight buzzing sound when they cut to them, which I took to indicate that their helmets were electronic or operating, unlike the black & white helmets of the rest of the entourage.

[@user-ec1ii3ev4y]

58:09 Duncan Idaho in the book version of his death killed 19 Sardaukar, gets revealed in later books as a report of the incident by the Sardaukar. If anything the movie downplayed how insanely powerful the Atreides Forces were, specially Duncan. The Sardaukar honestly are used as a tool to showcase how strong the fremen are all throughout the book. As soon as they step on Arrakis they just lose and lose more. Kinda sad but cant complain, even though they had this aura of invincibility through their past exploits, in the timeline of Dune, they are on the decline, a force going soft because they didnt have powerful adversaries to train for. Sardaukar are basically all talk no bite even in the books.

[@fakecubed]

Duncan came from a particular planet with a particular fighting school, which was considered the best in the whole Imperium. They practice a style of fighting that is not dissimilar from what the Bene Gesserit do. Gurney Halleck came from the Harkonnen fighting pits, giving him a lot of very brutal real world experience in fighting to survive. Hawat is no slouch either, and of course there's Jessica, who brought her experience with the Weirding Way to House Atreides, subtly influencing the training of the House forces, and more openly training Paul. Combined, yeah, they produced a force likely close to the level of the Sardaukar, just a much smaller force. House Atreides was not as wealthy as other houses, and were still drawing from basically conscripts of a relatively small and unimportant planet. If House Atreides could draw on an already-skilled, large population of fighters, say, the Fremen, and then trained them up with Duncan, Halleck, Hawat, and Jessica, they might beat the Emperor's legions. If they could be led by Paul, trained in the Voice, in the Weirding Way, and with lessons in charisma and propaganda from his dad, that would be downright scary. Add in political and religious training from Jessica, and yikes. It was all a really good plan. But Dune is a story about plans not going the way anyone expects.

[@user-ec1ii3ev4y]

I am so glad this movie became so big that I could not ignore the books. Dune has to be the greatest and the most frustrating series I have ever read. I LOVE how he crafts the world, the politics, all the little details and everything about the workings of the world. At the same time i hate how treats my 'favorite' characters. I didn't think i would like plot driven stories but this honestly opened my eyes to a whole new world of writing. Just cannot stop thinking about it.

[@fakecubed]

@@user-ec1ii3ev4y I've reread the series many, many times. The first time I read it I just thought it was really cool. As I've gotten older, and read it with greater understanding and knowledge, it's given me much more to think about, and my thoughts keep evolving each time I do. It's a story you live with, not just read and then put down.

[@sandvich101]

I cant believe I wanted this movie to be longer lol. So rarely do I want to add more time to a movie. There was just so much more about the lore and the details I wanted to know!!!!! Hope part 2 is longer lmao

[@fakecubed]

Read the book. The details are there. I think they could have crammed in enough of it in just 30 minutes of added footage, in the first part of the film. It would have really dragged on the pacing, but, I think it would be worth it for the characters and some of the lines they have, and just a bit more exposition. That said, the film is a really great adaptation. Better than I expected. Villeneuve really understands this story.

[@guardian35]

Also about the Stilgar meeting: It was supposed to be Paul who recognized Stilgar's gift of his bodies water and thank him for it...not Duncan. They did it this way in the 2000 Dune miniseries and it makes Stilgar's "I recognize you" moment more meaningful. It's how Stilgar "recognizes" Paul as one who knows their customs as if he were born to them. I wish they didn't make that change in this movie.

[@ElJebus0]

My only issues with this movie is that it will remain incomplete for so long, and it felt like the movie SHOWED you the book. It didn't get into what the characters were thinking or why they did anything unless they said it out loud.

[@117johnpar]

58:00 The discussion about the Sardaukar soldiers reminds me of the Astartes animated adaptation. Where the animator was able to portray such a revered fictional fighting unit. Its the kind of stuff you hear about with things like Halo spartans. Where on paper and in writing. Their abilities are hyped up. But no one can ever actually visually portray the combat. Astartes should be a case study in this. Its a representation of a space marine in combat that is genuinely and viscerally scary. Justifying the dread thats described by those going against these types of units. Where its just pure despair.

[@imthestein]

There's a picture that was posted of Jessica in a red dress she wore to the banquet so apparently they did shoot it. Combine that with the fact Josh Brolin did have a scene with his balliset and singing and I think we're getting a LOTR style Extended Edition Blu Ray

[@wombat7961]

I need more... I think it's the only way to make fans happy, we need an extended version

[@jkhristian9603]

That’s what I’m hoping for!

[@PickeringSamuel]

So glad you guys are coming back for Part 2

[@squeebbb]

As far as the costumes go I loved the Spacing Guild. It was so damn good even if it wasn't word for word as they were described in the book

[@iamthesayyadina]

"Are you SIX?" made me hit the Subscribe button! 🤣👍🏼 I can't wait for you all to rewatch it, and revisit everything. Adding on... Paul's opening dream where Chani is explaining what's up - is also a brilliant way to show the newer Harkonnen spice harvesters and the full yard of spice silos, compared to what they left for the Atreides: the old model of spice harvesters and not even a full pallet of silos to fill that we see later.

[@carnsoaks1]

No spy satellites at Arakis. Yeah, it was paired down, BUT like a good book, wait for the reveal. But to wait for part TWO for the LORE is silly.

[@Bob_Smith19]

The lore is extremely deep and complex. Two movies devoted just to it wouldn’t be enough. There’s plenty of YT videos on the more for those that want it.

[@ricardokowalski1579]

45:00 This was lifted wholesale onto Matrix, where Neo cannot see past his choices, until he *understands* what the vision means

[@bluespace8263]

12:20 they actually explain that in the film. At the beginning in Chani's monologue she says that the Harkonnens get richer than the Emperor himself. And the Atreidis have political alliance and influence with other houses that can possibly undermine the Emperor's own strength over his subjects. So, here's an Emperor who's own political strength is dwindling. So he's conspiring with house Harkonnen to stage a coup against Atreidis. So the result will be, 1) Atreidis are dead. Harkonnens destroyed Atreidis. So the Emperor has deniability. 2) Possibility of other houses to unite against the Emperor reduces and reducing the possibility of future secessions. And again the Emperor himself can't just destroy a faction just because he wants to. It's going to send a message to the other groups that they might be next. Which is going to lead to further secessions. And one thing in Empire politics is that even though the Emperor is supposed to be the person who holds absolute power over his subjects. The Kings, Dukes, Princes might not always agree with the Emperor. A good example is Muhammad Ali of Egypt vs the Ottoman Emperor.

[@RobVespa]

Yes. I wish this film was longer. Outside of that, my two largest gripes are the editing (too quick and some awkward transitions, which surprised me) and the ghost of Lynch's Dune (I swear, both in art design and score, this version had homages to it), which is pretty visionary and underrated.

[@DavidLeeKersey]

The big ghost of Lynch's Dune in this one for me is The Barron flying. In the book his lift harness just kind of made him almost but not quite weightless so you would have this big 500lb fat guy walking around barely touching the ground not someone who was floating above it.

[@KosmicNomad]

They need to do a third movie about Dune Messiah at least. The story isn't complete without it

[@jorismak]

You liked that book ? Most people describe it as a chore you have to get through to get to the 3rd book. Way too political IMHO.

[@ReXtion88]

I just want to say that this discussion has been a great way to meet you guys. Instant subscribe based on this discussion alone

[@zaneburnett2190]

all this and no mention of the blood sacrifice for the imperium soldier before the raid. So many small details in this I absolutely loved it.

[@DurvalLacerda]

You can tell that everybody that gets out from that ship to the change ceremony in the beggining KNOWS what's going to happen; you can see it in their eyes, they know House Atreides fate

[@fakecubed]

The Atreides knew it too. They just thought they had more time.

[@mlaine83]

Haven't read the book. Had a very general sense of what Dune was all about, and left the theatre just vibrating. I'm sure there's some meta stuff I missed out on, but god damn, even as fully standalone piece of art I absolutely loved. I tracked the story and thought the whole thing was an absolute masterpiece.

[@fakecubed]

I hope you've read the book by now, but if not, all you really missed out on was more background on the political and economic situation of the Imperium, and why it's leading to the conflict in the film, with the Baron Harkonnen and Emperor scheming to eliminate House Atreides (and scheming against each other at the same time, Dune is full of plots within plots). A big part of this is also how the Spacing Guild and Bene Gesserit fit into the overall system of great and minor houses, the Emperor, and the market. The book also goes a lot more into the ecology of Arrakis, but I expect Part Two will go much more into that. Long story short, Arrakis is a dry planet. Like, really, really, really dry. It's not your typical desert. Water is as valuable on Arrakis as spice is to the rest of the Imperium, which has a nice sort of poetry to it, and both are very much worth killing over, in their respective realms. The ways in which the life that does exist on Arrakis has adapted to this dearth of moisture is really quite interesting. And the sandworms are also very interesting. And the spice is very interesting. The book really goes deep on all of that. There's also a lot more to the characters. Many more scenes between them all, before the invasion happens. Everything got compressed in the film to focus mainly on Paul and Jessica, and to get them out in the desert sooner, which is a shame because the rest of the characters are really interesting and have some great scenes and dialogues. Everything that happens to them hits harder after getting to know them better.

[@SunsetRogue]

In the novel, the spice (melange) is described as similar in appearance to cinnamon. The spice gives and it takes. It enables the Navigators to see a safe path through space. It enhances the fine-tuned abilities of the Bene Gesserit. It greatly prolongs the lifespan of anyone who regularly consumes it. After several years, any person who consumes spice develops the blue within blue eyes (blue sclera, blue iris), also called "The Eyes of Ibad". It's not just the Fremen who have this appearance. But-and this is a big BUT-the spice is highly addictive. Once you're on it you cannot get off it. Withdrawal leads to death. The movie did not explain that part.

[@stephenkelly8312]

We needed more of Jessica being awesome. We needed more foreshadowing with Yueh. And if we’re taking about an extra hour, we need more of the “getting settled in Arrakeen” period of time, most importantly the dinner party where we get to see the various politics at play. All that said, I loved the movie. You could really tell that the writing team loved the source material.

[@JamesFuston]

RE: AV setup, I watched with a pair of Sony 1000XM3's paired to an LG OLED and it was fantastic. Movie theaters are kinda dead to me.

[@sinorcdit]

Damn i did the same but with a Ipad 9th gen. But damn do those Sony's serve us well in having a very similar, if not better audio experience that you can get in the theatre. I did wish I had an OLED when i turned all my lights off and noticed all the backlight in my ipad

[@jonnowocky8179]

I’ve seen it three times now - and a lot of subtlety in the actors performances landed the third time. Denis seems to extract nuanced performances from his cast - I noticed 10 x more micro expressions - feel like it rewards multiple views greatly

[@Crazy_Diamond_75]

I've only seen it once in IMAX (and loved it), but apparently my mom has seen it 3 or 4 times on HBO Max and seems to think it gets better with subsequent viewings. Well, I'm seeing it again for its IMAX re-release this weekend, so I guess I'll find out! :)

[@_Gecko]

Watching this in a college dorm at midnight, I’m glad I didn’t bring my subwoofer, but watching this again at home with my speakers is definitely on my to do list

[@filmclubjacks]

Great commentary and mugs!

[@lefunghi6151]

Yess... I was waiting for this for a month now haha! Also small spoiler for the discussion at 13:00: One of the reasons the Harkonnen waited to attack on Arrakis is that the Moon (gods hand) disrupts communications and there are no sattelites around Arrakis. So theire basically off the grid there while on Caladan all of the universe would probably instantly know what happened. I'ts one of those blink and you miss it dialoge parts.

[@zachlistofficial]

The personal shields are a story tool to excuse hand to hand combat and get rid of nukes. If personal shields weren't a thing, then there would be no reason to have scenes with hand to hand combat, it would all just be gunfights

[@fakecubed]

Yeah, the story is inspired by our own Earth history, from a time before guns. The shields, and the Butlerian Jihad, were nice inventions to keep things relatively grounded while also taking place far in the future.

[@blackcatiswatchingyou7776]

I have to agree about the IMAX theaters sucking these days. I went to Silver City Riverport Cinemas to see Bond. The seats we were awkward and uncomfortable. The 2 people in front of me had broken chairs that kept leaning into us. They felt really bad so they moved seats but because of covid protocols they took other peoples' seats and had to move back. I'm sure they did not enjoy the movie trying to balance their seat back for 1.5 hours. My friend and I joked about whether the screen got smaller or we got bigger because IMAX screen was much less impressive than we remembered. Sound was fine but honestly, you can get the same or even better speakers in a good AVX. I saw DUNE at a Cineplex "VIP" theater and it was AMAZING (Marine Gateway). The screen and sound was incredible. It's age restricted, reserved lounge seating with full reclining seats you can even turn into a couch for two people. You can order food and alcoholic drinks served directly to your seat. And wait for it... it's $1 LESS than Imax. I will never go to Imax ever again and I highly recommend people try a VIP theater if you have one available in your area, especially for this movie.

[@eliminat]

About the Freman VS Arkonen, if you fail has an Arkonen you died, so a lot of the badassness of the Freman was hidden in the reports to the Baron to save face. Awat does a presentation to that fact to the Baron late in the book, like we sent/lost 30k soldiers and a few thousand Sardaukar but only managed to kill 20k or something, that's when the Baron realises what was Leto's plan and why the emperor wanted him dead.

[@KevinHerronArt]

LOL the podcast was almost as long as the movie. Loved the movie and soundtrack as well. Agreed with James, Richmond's IMAX was also bad, Scotia's Ultra AVX all the way. Better seats, sound system and screen.

[@gametester47]

Also didn't the Tei'laxu have their own versions of Bene Gesserit breeding program?

[@fakecubed]

That's more of a books 5-6 kind of thing.

[@ResonantFrequency]

I don't think you could cut the movie any other way and keep it at the 150 minute run time. If you include all the mentat stuff, then you have to have more of Thufir, who is instrumental in the traitor sub plot. You also have to remove the majority of the first meeting of Stillgar as well as the dinner scene since it features so heavily in the traitor sub plot. That leads to the removal of the conservatory as well as the terraforming sub plot which is first revealed in the dinner scene by Kynes. Because of all this we also don't get the explanation of the ban on nuclear weapons, lasguns and the world building explaining family atomics or how a lasgun hitting a shield causes a nuclear explosion which cuts a scene from the book that would have been pure eye candy and also doesn't explain that the alternative to joining the Fremen was to retrieve the family atomics and flee Imperial Space. A lot of the details are done as inner thoughts and narration in the books which also don't translate well to cinema. I hope that we do get the 4-5 hour cut of the movie at some point with all of that integrated as best as possible, but I don't know how else it could have been done.

[@xsomeNOOBx]

Exactly how I feel David, stunning draws you in, captures the world, little emotional connection.

[@barneymattox]

The "CGI Scene" you reference of Paul's future vision where he's in the armor and his helmet opens up seems to mostly be practical effects. There's some behind the scenes footage where you see them shooting that scene from a distance and Paul (Timothee) is on in a wired harness wearing that armor on a rock outcropping. So the only CGI in the scene is the helmet opening and blue eyes. Doesn't necessarily mean the scene isn't a little janky, but it's practically janky.

[@jacksonwillbert1352]

WB made a dumb decision to release it on HBO Max the same weekend as theaters. In spite of this, Dune just opened #1 domestically pulling in $40M. It has also been doing strong in the international B.O. It received a "A-" CinemaScore and 8.3 on IMDB. I would be surprised if it doesn't get a sequel.

[@Mcglocklingirls]

The most intelligent review of Dune I've found - great work guys! Seeing it for a third time tomorrow all in IMAX ;)

[@Barn3bus]

To add to what others are saying - I had barely any knowledge of the DUNE universe going in, but James and Riley had me super excited for this movie. Every expectation that I had going in was blown away, I watched it in IMAX which I think played a roll in the experience but it was fantastic and I'm going again later this week to watch it again. As someone else said - I was hyped to see this movie, but I was pumped to hear you guys talk about it.

[@darthcookiejar]

Does James or Riley not share his out of 10 score?

[@Ravushimo]

Pretty sure Riley said 9 out of 10

[@abdulsoleh7131]

Yeah, but James seems forget to give rating

[@ne16region63]

The film was my introduction to Dune (apart from playing the awful EA game when I was young). I loved the film and I've been to see it twice now. I kind of enjoyed not understanding things like the Kwisatz Haderach. Its lead me to going out and buying the books which I'm hooked on.

[@ayush.s0]

just how many channels do these guys have everyday i find a new one

[@wujskorpion]

i need extendet cut of THIS podcast !

[@betterideas]

I live 5 minutes away from you guys!! Would love to watch the next movie with y'all

[@svsguru2000]

As someone who did not read the book, nor saw the Lynch version, I had the same problem as David. The characters are woefully underdeveloped, as is the world-building. The visuals, sound design, and overall technical proficiency of the film-making does not compensate for the core-storytelling shortcomings. 6/10.

[@ahmadshams2981]

I felt the same way. I've been excited for this movie for month and was expecting LOTR level fantasy and world building/characters and was incredibly disappointed. I thought every single actor other than the Baron was just very "hollow". I'm a huge Oscar Isaac fan too and even his character fell so short

[@fauxsorcier]

I didn't read the book either, and for me, the exposition was enough to inform educated guesses for the details and still was very naturally delivered in the dialogues. I might be just a different expectation. I love Villeneuve and his films are usually built like that, it's not a "regular" Sci fi epic and that's refreshing tbh.

[@fakecubed]

The Lynch version is hot garbage. I don't know why people keep talking about it when the SciFi Channel miniseries was much more recent and so much better.

[@VWtechhhboy]

I wonder if David’s opinion on Timothee Chalamet will change with part two. I need the podcast!

[@ogeidsamsora]

I'd suggest we all go spamming both; They're just movies and LTT Twitter feed, asking for a reprise or an encore specifically for this episode. We need it.

[@hartmarque]

I wonder if James' IMAX opinion changed. I was surprised he said it, but I totally agreed with him. I'm curious what he thinks of Part Two in IMAX, because that seems to be heralded as the best way to see it.

[@kraigthorne3549]

16:10 The Dr. turned the shield OFF.

[@hobyt3]

Most of the slow motion was unnecessary. That’s my review.

[@ZachDxn]

My big problem with this movie is the pacing. Way too fast. As somebody who loved the book, I bet most viewers of the movie would've liked it even more if there was more drawn out explanation, fights were more dramatic, it had more of the social-political lore, etc, like in the book. That's what people loved about the book and a lot of it was missing in the movie. A lot of the problems with the characters and the lack of emotion is that we don't have enough time to learn about them. I think they should've done three movies with similar length to this or better yet an 8 episode (roughly 1 hour per episode) series for the first book (Dune).

[@fakecubed]

I feel that just 10 more minutes in the first half of the film before the attack could have covered 90% more of the background and character material in a way that wouldn't bog the story down. 20 would have been plenty. Would I have liked another hour? Of course. But just a few extra lines here and there in the scenes we did get, and then one or two additional quick scenes, they could have added so much more to the story and made the loss of certain characters be so much more impactful.

[@ZachDxn]

@@fakecubed totally agree, 10-20 minutes in the first act would've explained so much and got us familiar with the characters without being too boring for the average viewer

[@MaikKellerhals]

I've never read the book and not seen the old movie since i was a child (don't remember much). This new one was an absolute masterpiece. It's beautiful, i'm a very visual film fan and this year was great with The Green Knight and now this!

[@syncswim]

Another really cool detail from the book that I hope is in the 2nd movie is that the dueling martial art the noble houses learn is almost useless without a shield since a lot of the defense is based on using your shielded limbs to physically block swings and thrusts (you can see Gurney do some of it in the first fight on Caladan). Fremen martial arts don't have this problem, which gives them a huge advantage fighting in the desert (no shields). Never mind that they can now just, like, shoot you with their projectile rifles and RPGs

[@bluesmachine1006]

I got bored and fell asleep, watching dune 😝

[@filthyneutral5801]

Lowkey same, and i watched it in imax not at home lol nodded off like 3 times

[@janglederek]

I accidentally bought tickets for IMAX on Friday instead of Saturday. So I had to buy tickets a second time. I'm doing my part to get part 2 made.

[@Unforgiven11]

It is easy to miss in all of the Chaos of the ambush but the bombs being dropped on the Atreides ships were moving slowly or slowing down as they approached the shields to penetrate. That's the key is that they were slow moving. If it was a daylight attack, they would have seen the bombs dropping from orbit and shot them out of the sky, but because they had the jump on them with the City Shield disabled the bombs were already falling in too many of a number before the cannons could spot and shoot them down.

[@Omega-uq5fs]

WOW guys best commentary dynamic of the movie I have seen...and trust me, in my awe inspired self after watching the movie, I saw them all.

[@lucianoramirez6111]

The soundtrack just serves to accentuate what world or faction is in the setting. You notice the bagpipes for the Atreides, then another for the Harkonnens. I was particularly struck by the mood of the soundtrack when in the world of the Sardaukars, sort of like tibetan growling chant that suits the world well. it really help convey the mood and the way a particular world feels like.

[@jarradtait5322]

in Dune Messiah, the navigators are described as being orange people with elongated trunks, enlarged cranium, and webbed hands and feet. In the 1984 Dune movie, Guild Navigators have three stages, with third-stage navigators appear as whale-like beings, suspended in huge tanks of orange spice-gas. Frank Herbert reportedly liked the idea of different stages as mentioned in the 1984 film and incorporated it into his later books.

[@JD-fi4nk]

About a year ago, I started listening to TJM. I got to this episode, listened to the first 5 minutes, then shut it off and told myself I wouldn't listen to the rest until I read the book and saw the movie. I am 4 1/2 books into the series and finished the movie yesterday. Thanks for the wild ride. I have had Dune buried in my core memories since I saw it on my dad's bookshelf as a little kid.

[@csdiabo]

I hadn't read the book before watching this movie and I absolutely loved it. It feels really weird to say this when the series is incomplete, since we only have part one, but this might be my favorite movie of all time. The visuals, the soundtrack, the tension I felt throughout the whole second half of the movie, the worldbuilding and even the characters! I completely fell in love with Dune.

[@aidanking9070]

Wouldve loved to have been in the room for this conversation and just a greater conversation of dune as a whole

[@julioangelico5333]

Knew nothing about the book, was confused at the beginning but really enjoyed it at the end, looking forward to a sequel, thanks for not spoiling the second book guys!

[@fakecubed]

The power levels for the various fighters in this is hard to really put on screen, but I think they did a fairly decent job of it. We get the idea that Duncan is pretty special, right from the start. He's going out with a specific mission of finding the Fremen and making contact. Why him? Because he's apparently really good and really trustworthy. We also learn that he is the Duke's son's combat trainer. That surely means he's the best the Atreides have, right? Then, we go to Arrakis, and we find out that Duncan has enormous respect for the Fremen, and that he's never come so close to dying as when he fought presumably just some random Fremen, maybe not their best guy, just somebody average. The way he describes the Fremen, he clearly thinks they're incredible fighters, and Hawat and the Duke get really excited about the possibility of an alliance. Then we go to the Sardaukar planet and find out that they're apparently these crazy blood cult fanatics who are going to reinforce the Harkonnen with a small force, and we hear that this is surely going to make the difference against the Atreides that the Harkonnen think are really tough. If just a few Sardaukar are going to turn a difficult fight into a successful one, they surely must be pretty good. Then the Harkonnen show up, and we see the regular Atreides forces fight the Harkonnen and do pretty good against them. They seem like they might hold their own, even with the surprise attack. But the Sardaukar come and they very quickly slaughter the Atreides forces. But then we see Duncan face off against the Sardaukar, and he beats them. And we see the Harkonnen are afraid to face Duncan, also. So, Duncan is better than all of them, at least against small groups, one or two at a time. We do eventually see Duncan can be killed by a lot of Sardaukar all at once, though. And finally, we see Paul, who was trained by Duncan, beat Jamis, again asserting that Duncan, and those he's spent countless hours training personally, 1v1, is at least barely better than the Fremen. Even still, Paul sees versions of the future where Jamis kills him, so the fight was probably going to be close. It's implied he only beats Jamis because he makes use of his growing prescient abilities. This suggests that the Fremen are probably a lot better than the Harkonnen, and either on par with the Sardaukar, or maybe better than the Sardaukar. But we really haven't seen them go head to head yet. Have the Fremen been giving the Harkonnen a really tough time on Arrakis? Maybe, maybe not. The spice harvesting happens pretty close to the cities, and the Fremen seem to live in the deep desert. The Harkonnen report that there aren't really that many Fremen, that implies they haven't really been fighting that much against them, just beating up on those closest to the cities, and generally oppressing the locals who actually live in the cities. The Fremen clearly don't like offworlders, and probably have good reason for that. Let's also consider the political situation. If the Harkonnens are maintaining a fiefdom on Arrakis, they probably don't want to report that they're struggling to maintain order. If the rest of the Imperium hears that, they'll think the Harkonnens are weak, and/or be worried about the spice trade impacting their own profits. It could very well be that the Harkonnen have been losing a lot of troops and equipment on Arrakis, but covering it up. And they might be making so much money on the spice that they can afford to replace it all leaving the Emperor and the rest of the houses ignorant. Even if the Emperor's spies tell him the situation is worse than the Harkonnens report, the spice has been flowing, apparently well enough that he didn't want to make a change until quite recently, once he figured out how to profit off of it both financially and politically, eliminating a troublesome Duke and basically bankrupting the Harkonnens at the same time. But how accurate is the Emperor's intelligence on Arrakis anyway? His own planetary ecologist, Dr. Kynes, is secretly a Fremen, and Dr. Kynes could report that the Fremen are not a threat to the Imperium at all, their numbers are as small as the Harkonnen report, and the situation is well under control. So, as usual with Dune: it's complicated.

[@ToomanyFrancis]

the destruction of Arrakeen was a part of the cover up. It didn't make any sense to me in the novel, it kinda just seemed like an excuse to blow some stuff up, but the baron does talk about it being a way to frame House Atreides for using nuclear weapons or something along those lines. The stunners that the Harkonnens and the Sardaukar use are in the books, and they do work exactly as portrayed. They aren't used often because they penetrate slowly the victim can usually just pull it off and throw it away. They tried a bit of retro-exposition, a Sardaukar shoots a stunner at Duncan and he just throws it away like it's nothing. The stunner only worked on Leto because he couldn't reach it. I'm not sure what you're talking about regarding the missiles, I didn't catch that in any of my viewings. It wouldn't really make sense because the Harkonnens wanted it to look like Arrakeen was attacked by nuclear weaponry anyway. Obviously I saw the missiles blowing up the ships, but it looked to me like they were just abusing the fact that shields create nuclear explosions.