Put your hand inside the box office

All of the press about the new Dune movie before it came out, made it seem like it was going to be a huge bore-fest filled with wokeness that was trying to turn Frank Herbert's story into something it's not. I was blatantly not excited to see it before it came out. 

That is, until my younger brother made me watch the official trailer when it was  released, and I was stunned at the great visual style and the fact that it actually looked like it could be good. Not only good, but very good. I underwent a complete 180 and was now on the hype train to see it. 

One of the big promo images for the movie before release. See how boring it makes it look? Thank goodness it's not boring at all. 

Last weekend, I was finally able to watch part one of the new movie and I think it is actually the best adaptation of the Dune story so far. Great casting choices, great sets, effects, and the 'thopters actually look like 'thopters for once! Now, the new movie has it's own weaknesses and problems, but overall it's the most seamless experience for both people unfamiliar with Dune and for die hard fans. To be honest, I think the only legit complaints I have about the new movie are: 

 - The soundtrack is so bad as to be distracting from what's happening on screen. I actually like Hans Zimmer, but this one felt like he was phoning it in like he didn't give a crap. It has some genuinely good moments, but the bad ones certainly overshadow them. At best it's forgettable, at worst it's annoying. Also, stop with following the trend of horn farts as a soundtrack. It's fine once in a great while, but damn, it certainly ain't music! It's no wonder we're already seeing a crap-ton of fan edits on YouTube that inserts the 1984 movie soundtrack into it. 

- The story unfolds far better than in any other adaptation, but it doesn't properly establish why things are happening at all because it doesn't bother to establish much of the surrounding universe very well. This can make the why pretty confusing to someone new to Dune. But, this is actually a relatively minor complaint, since it's focusing on the immediate story.

- The needless gender swapping of the character of Liet Kynes to be a woman. This actually kind of frustrates a portion of the story not much later in the movie. Dunno why they did this cause it causes a minor plot hole for certain bits of lore. 

- Why the hell is nobody using guns in the major battle? They show that the tech obviously works against shields in the movie. It's seriously stupid to see freaking sword battles happen as AAA and strafing runs go rampant in the background of the same shot.  

But that's really all the big things I have to complain about, cause it really is a great movie. The pacing is great, it's possibly the most faithful to the source material, the technology looks correct, the characters have more charm to them, and I'm eagerly awaiting the continuation. 

But don't let it stop you from watching the Sci-Fy channel miniseries or the 1984 Lynch movie if you can. The Lynch is not what I would call a great movie at all, but as a lover of good sci-fi, I can really appreciate both the good aspects of the film as well as the things it attempted to do and failed at. I'm no fan of Lynch at all, but I really think he did a good job of embracing the weird and brutal elements of the Dune universe. That, and the 1984 movie soundtrack will never be bested, it will forever reign as the ultimate Dune soundtrack.

many attempts came before, but we do have a great one now. 

Maybe if I have time, I'll do a post that compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses between all three versions of the story in another post.