03-12-2024, 10:50 PM
Yes, this is all correct. I liked the Lynch version, and it basically had the same story. It was just a lot more visually interesting (for better or worse), and the characters also felt much more dynamic! Every character in the new movie just felt very flat and melancholic. So you kind of focus on the story. New Lady Jessica doesn't scare me or seduce me (but she should both). Compare Oscar Isaac's Leto with Jürgen Prochnow. The latter oozes wisdom, confidence, and maturity. He's absolutely credible as a leader of men and as a father. Isaac just stamps around the set, shouting with little inflection occasionally; his charisma is minimal, and at no point is he convincing either as a powerful but troubled head of a house or as a caring but burdened-down father. I would say Lynch Dune has a character and charm to it, and it has the sort of colorful psychedelic nightmare visuals that really distinguish the world. Villenueve Dune is sleek, indisputably better produced, but a bit soulless, I thought. It's a gray, dull, computer-rendered, corporate-approved entertainment product. They cut out a lot of the palace intrigue and character quirks, leaving the narrative a little hollow, as well as any deep background on the Mentats or Paul's Mentat training, it just didn't make sense given how much runtime he had to play with. DV's film looks great and has some solid performances, but it just didn't resonate the same way Lynch's did and felt almost sterile in comparison. DV's Dune is fine, but to me personally, it was... forgettable.
DV seems to do sterile movies, just like Blade running 2049. In Lynch's Dune, there are multiple memorable scenes. One that got stuck in my head for many years was the Atriede, who had to drink rat and cat pee to stay alive. In this new movie, not one scene was memorable. Joyless, one-dimensional, and boring. Sterilized BS. The Lynch version has some genuinely interesting scenes, concepts, and meme-worthy dialogue. 2021 Dune has none of these advantages while also being every bit as poorly paced and peppered with absurd, inexplicable scenes and characters that add nothing to the movie and are only presented because they're in the book; therefore, they must be included in the movie for verisimilitude.
The Harkonnens just aren't characters at all in 2020's Dune, just placeholders. I still cannot recall what transpired in DV's adaptations. This is more rhetorical but: 'Was your pulse actually pounding when the Barron slowly floated towards Leto while chewing something?' I ask because this is the only scene that stuck with me—not because it was memorable, but because it was so destructive to the film's vibe. Here are two of the major players, so let's give this scene the energy of a high school play.
DV seems to do sterile movies, just like Blade running 2049. In Lynch's Dune, there are multiple memorable scenes. One that got stuck in my head for many years was the Atriede, who had to drink rat and cat pee to stay alive. In this new movie, not one scene was memorable. Joyless, one-dimensional, and boring. Sterilized BS. The Lynch version has some genuinely interesting scenes, concepts, and meme-worthy dialogue. 2021 Dune has none of these advantages while also being every bit as poorly paced and peppered with absurd, inexplicable scenes and characters that add nothing to the movie and are only presented because they're in the book; therefore, they must be included in the movie for verisimilitude.
The Harkonnens just aren't characters at all in 2020's Dune, just placeholders. I still cannot recall what transpired in DV's adaptations. This is more rhetorical but: 'Was your pulse actually pounding when the Barron slowly floated towards Leto while chewing something?' I ask because this is the only scene that stuck with me—not because it was memorable, but because it was so destructive to the film's vibe. Here are two of the major players, so let's give this scene the energy of a high school play.
