Movies you've been watching...

[BlackMastodon]

I look forward to watching Dune 2 when it's streaming, dunno if I can handle seeing in theatres. Watching the 1st one a few years back when theatres were coming out of lockdown made me realize I really don't like "the theater experience." Fucking yappy little teenagers...

Also I thought this fucking movie was coming out in November and I just found out last night that it's already in theatres! That was a pleasant surprise. I also started reading the first Dune book again and I think I'm juuuuust about done with the events of the 1st movie, so this all gonna be new to me.

 

[SalsaWood]

I forgot the entire first (remake) Dune movie. Donkey years ago I dated this girl who was, like, almost a Dune super fan. Really into it, was her favorite thing. I think it programmed my brain to automatically dump everything Dune related into this selective hearing category where I put general nagging. I haven't read the books, but I rewatched the first Dune last month because I realized I had practically no recollection of it. It's a good movie, I'm just that stupid now. The silver lining being I got to enjoy the first movie twice. I also didn't realize until reading the posts here that Dune 2 has come out already. Definitely going to catch that from home when I can. Alone.

 

[Jynx]

Saw Dune 2 yesterday. I really love Villeneuve's visual story telling and minimal use of dialogue and exposition. I know some people dislike it for the same reason but that's what the books are for.

It hits all the right story beats and unlike Lynch's one it retains the message of the book instead giving the complete opposite one.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Looking forward to seeing Dune Pt 2 this month. I didn't love Part 1 but it was a very good adaption for a film and great to finally have mature sci-fi again on the big screen. It looks to be doing well so hopefully Messiah is green lit and we get the ending to the story.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Dune 2-

Spoiler

I think the first movie is a bit stronger in terms of visual framing/cinematography, but this one is much stronger in the sense that it takes its time fleshing out the details laid in the first book. The art design/costume design is so goddamn good, especially some of the cool stuff they have Irulan/the other bene gesserit wearing. They do a pretty good job of covering all the main beats of the first book, though they do accelerate the overall timeline significantly (the war takes years in the books, not months) and change some details (Paul's sister helping fight at the end, how long Paul is in a coma from the water of life). Honestly I'm glad about the latter, as the uncanny valley ninja child would have made it too damn weird even though that's pulled directly from the book *I'm looking at you Lynch* The timeline with the water of life isn't critical, but it does take some of the drama away with how quickly he pops out of the coma.
The fremen fight scenes are great and they have some neat Kali/silat esque moves integrated into the choreography. It's fast and nasty, but without shitty jump cuts like say the Bourne films. Austin Butler chews scenery like a madman, giving off Cage in Face Off vibes. Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson spend a good portion of the movie hard carrying it, and they all do great jobs imo. Javier Bardem also does a really great job helping to build the legend of lisan al gaib/the mahdi. I love how they make a big point of showcasing the Fremen's use of stealth and camouflage/ambushes to win fights. It really helps sell the whole guerilla warfare aspect of their war against the Harkonnens up until the ending, which is pretty epic. Overall I think it's the best adaptation of the source material by far and it's really worth seeing in theaters. I would HIGHLY recommend rewatching the first movie and generally familiarizing yourself with the plot before going to see the second one, as it jumps right back in where the first film left off.

 

[SalsaWood]

Tried to watch Avatar 2 in 4k last night. Between the cloned plot from the first movie and the variable FPS making the frame stuttering extremely aggravating I ended up just turning it off. I've accepted that nothing is going to come close to seeing the first one in 3D on the silver screen and they boned the dog on the second one.

Saw the Spaceman, Adam Sandler, movie. It was ok. Kind of like 70's Solaris, but nowhere near as good. It's kinda cutsey and bankrupt of actual science, which is a trend in sci-fi lately that I absolutely detest, but it was an ok movie despite that. It's more of a soul searching tale, kind of feels like an M. Night Shyamalan movie without the subtle but detailed plot devices.

 

[MFB]

Man, I tried watching "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" last night and turned it off with 30 mins to go, and that was after scrolling on my phone during half the movie. It's not bad, but it just seems so excessive for what it's trying to say; like I got it, she's being stretched in every direction and therefore NONE of them go right, but my GOD, why would I want to root for someone who's continually called "the worst version" of someone?

So I did just that, I didn't and just cut my losses to watch something else.

 

[Louis Cypher]

Saw Dune pt 2 last night. Definitely a film that needs to be seen on the big screen, it's visually and sonically epic in every sense. Really enjoyed it. I've never read the books or seen the earlier Lynch film so came to these two parts totally green and really enjoyed both.
Def agree with the comments on how good the cast are, the world building is insane.

Only slight negative was the final battle seemed quite short/rushed for a film that's so long anyway. It is a huge battle and looks incredible but just felt to me it was rushed, might be just me tho

Spoiler

Dunno if this is as per the books but i have to say the change in Pauls character after he fulfils the prophecy and becomes the lisan al gaib/the mahdi was a real kick in the gut (in a good way) he becomes a total bastard compared to his character in pt1 and most of pt 2, even Chani says at one point she believes in him because he is so sincere. Once he has drunk the worm juice/water of life and comes back round his character is properly nasty. Best way to can describe what i mean is his change is like he converted to the dark side and all i can think is this is exactly how the star wars prequels should have handled Anakin. Full respect to Timothee Chalamet. He is a brilliant

 

[brector]

Saw Dune 2 yesterday in Imax and it was pretty damn amazing visuals wise.

 

[wankerness]

I watched Dune 1 over the last two days, and watched Dune 2 after finishing Dune 1 about half an hour prior. So, that was the right way to do things, cause I'd forgotten most of the plot.

I think 2 is a lot messier, probably entirely due to the source material, and is also way more ambitious in terms of showing crazier stuff and having a lot more explosions and worms and stuff. I also was having my head spin with how many characters were getting introduced. Like, I was confused at first and mistook Lea Seydoux for Florence Pugh in her weird little tiny subplot. Anyway, it's good, but there were a couple things I wasn't sure about.

Feyd! It felt like they spent a ton of the movie introducing him, when maybe the character would have worked better if he'd just been introduced in the last movie instead?? I don't have a clue how he's introduced in the book, maybe it makes sense to leave him out till then. Boy, does he not look like Sting.

The Harkonnen coliseum scene! The planet has this weird design where everything's completely monochrome (presumably because of the way the lighting/sun works?), but it had the effect of making the coliseum audience looking like cheap CGI in a way that really nothing else in either of these movies does. I mean, it looked like something from a shittier CGI fest like a Marvel/DC movie or something, while almost everything else about these movies is a total visual triumph more along the lines of classics like Blade Runner or the Fellowship of the Ring trilogy.

Jessica going bonkers almost immediately! Again, I don't know how it is in the book, but it was weird that the first movie she's this very sympathetic, emotional woman and then in the sequel she's like psycho manipulative witch lady. My suspicion is that in the book she's probably more consistent across the whole thing and probably less sensitive in the first half and less evil in the second half. I'll have to read it.

Anyway, after watching them back to back, I'd have to say Dune 1 is like a 9/10 and Dune 2 is like an 8/10. I did think it was cool how the movie leans so hard into upending the whole "white savior" thing. I'm assuming the book was also all about that, and I certainly never noticed that in the crappy David Lynch movie (they probably just cut out ALL of that). I mean, I definitely noticed in part 1 that they explicitly note that the Bene Gesserit planted that belief in the Fremen and that it's BS, but 2 really goes all in on zealots, manipulation, and even cynicism among certain ranks of the Fremen. I'm interested to see a part 3 if this is financially viable, but I really don't see this movie making enough money to get a third one. It's way too uncompromising a vision to really achieve early/mid Marvel kinds of box-office numbers, I think. Definitely not a crowd-pleaser.

It's ridiculous how loaded this cast is. On top of the cast from the first movie, we get the likes of Lea Seydoux, Anya Taylor Joy and Florence Pugh all showing up for very little screentime, as well as the likes of Christopher Walken and current it-boy Austin Butler.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Going to see Dune 2 this weekend, big stoked. Almost done with my second read-through of the first book. It's interesting to me that Dune 1 was considered to be heavy on exposition, as my standard for that is the 2000s SciFi channel miniseries. That was heavy on exposition. Of course, it's also like 8 hours long. Villenueve's Dune by comparison throws viewers off the deep end.

I'd really like to see him go all the way through Children of Dune, but that's probably hoping too much. As I've said many times before in this thread, if you haven't seen the 2000s miniseries (which does go all the way through Children), it's highly worth a watch even with the hilariously dated CGI.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Jessica going bonkers almost immediately! Again, I don't know how it is in the book, but it was weird that the first movie she's this very sympathetic, emotional woman and then in the sequel she's like psycho manipulative witch lady. My suspicion is that in the book she's probably more consistent across the whole thing and probably less sensitive in the first half and less evil in the second half. I'll have to read it.

Spoiler

It's more or less similar to the book, albeit truncated from the span of 2 years in the book the movie is based on. The moment she drank the Water Of Life was where her character changed and becomes more manipulative to the Fremen. Her change (as well as the unsubtle cultural appropriation) is also part of Frank Herberts message of beware of messiahs and charismatic leaders. Jessica becomes just as much that leader like Paul in the forefront.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Without being specific about the plot of the later books, Jessica is actually one of the villains of books 1-3 IMO. Her character is complex but she basically uses her children (along with everyone else) as tools for her own plans and unleashes a bunch of awful shit on the universe. Paul alludes to all of this in the stilltent scene after the Harkonnen attack, but as the story unfolds it becomes more and more clear, especially if you read through Messiah and Children.

There are no heroes in Dune (except maybe Duncan Idaho), but Jessica is b-a-d. We don't quite see the ramifications of her actions at first and she's shown mostly as a loving, nurturing mother figure at first, but she starts becoming very unsympathetic about halfway through book 1. By Children, she's downright despicable.




I watched A Quiet Place 2, it wasn't the worst sequel I've ever watched, but they could've just left the first one where it ended and been fine.

 

[Wiltonauer]

Reptile surprised me on two counts:
1.) No actual reptiles.
2.) It was worth watching.

 

[MFB]

I watched A Quiet Place 2, it wasn't the worst sequel I've ever watched, but they could've just left the first one where it ended and been fine.

Just wait until you find out they're making a prequel!

 

[nightflameauto]

Without being specific about the plot of the later books, Jessica is actually one of the villains of books 1-3 IMO. Her character is complex but she basically uses her children (along with everyone else) as tools for her own plans and unleashes a bunch of awful shit on the universe. Paul alludes to all of this in the stilltent scene after the Harkonnen attack, but as the story unfolds it becomes more and more clear, especially if you read through Messiah and Children.

There are no heroes in Dune (except maybe Duncan Idaho), but Jessica is b-a-d. We don't quite see the ramifications of her actions at first and she's shown mostly as a loving, nurturing mother figure at first, but she starts becoming very unsympathetic about halfway through book 1. By Children, she's downright despicable.




I watched A Quiet Place 2, it wasn't the worst sequel I've ever watched, but they could've just left the first one where it ended and been fine.

Funny, I always read Jessica as a sympathetic character, even when she's at her most despicable. It was one of the things I really appreciate about Herbert's series, in that the motives are fairly clearly understandable.
1. Brainwashed by religion that's combined with an absolute need to control all aspects of the human race.
2. Betrayed that religion for love (allowed herself to bear the Duke she loved a son first to please him over her religion).
3. Bitterness over the dismantling of her perfect vision when the Duke meets his fate, someone she truly loved, and the ultimate failure of the big plan pushes her to double and then triple down on the religion, a religion that hates her for creating the chosen one ahead of schedule. Her children turn a different path, creating still more bitterness.

I love villains anyway, but understandable villains are so rare in sci-fi and fantasy that, when I first read the books as a kid I was fascinated by the concept.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Funny, I always read Jessica as a sympathetic character, even when she's at her most despicable. It was one of the things I really appreciate about Herbert's series, in that the motives are fairly clearly understandable.
1. Brainwashed by religion that's combined with an absolute need to control all aspects of the human race.
2. Betrayed that religion for love (allowed herself to bear the Duke she loved a son first to please him over her religion).
3. Bitterness over the dismantling of her perfect vision when the Duke meets his fate, someone she truly loved, and the ultimate failure of the big plan pushes her to double and then triple down on the religion, a religion that hates her for creating the chosen one ahead of schedule. Her children turn a different path, creating still more bitterness.

I love villains anyway, but understandable villains are so rare in sci-fi and fantasy that, when I first read the books as a kid I was fascinated by the concept.

I don't disagree and I think ultimately this points to the very human complexity he brings to his characters.

 

[wankerness]

Alright, thanks for the background on Jessica in the books. So, it sounds like the movie is ultimately faithful to the book in having her character change radically as soon as she drinks the water of the life. My question, having only read the dune wiki article about it, is what exactly DOES the water of life do? Does the book even specify? The wiki is several hundred words long, but the only parts that actually address what the Water of Life DID to Jessica was "increase her powers of awareness to where she is able to unlock her genetic memory" and then says that Paul says it "increased his powers of awareness/prescience," neither of which really give any explanation at all to why she went nutballs. Does the book detail what it was she saw in the future/past that made her go all in on the propaganda/manipulation? I mean, I can assume it means she saw that Paul would be victorious and thus she immediately went all in on making that occur, but is that it?

Anyway, I watched Asteroid City. I'm a huge Wes Anderson apologist, but this one almost seemed to be saying "yeah, the people that hate me are right, all I care about is style, if you care about my characters you're an idiot." The sad thing is I really liked all the stuff that was in the "play," aka everything in color. I hated that framing device so much! It sucked all the life and soul right out of the movie. I'm sure some people feel differently and Wes Anderson probably says "the whole point of the movie is the framing device!!" but I found it infuriating. Still, I really did like the 75% of the movie that the other 25% of the movie was telling us you shouldn't be invested in, so overall I'd still say it's pretty good and better than the couple of his movies I don't like much (French Dispatch mainly).

 

[wankerness]

Man, I tried watching "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" last night and turned it off with 30 mins to go, and that was after scrolling on my phone during half the movie. It's not bad, but it just seems so excessive for what it's trying to say; like I got it, she's being stretched in every direction and therefore NONE of them go right, but my GOD, why would I want to root for someone who's continually called "the worst version" of someone?

So I did just that, I didn't and just cut my losses to watch something else.

If you are half-watching a movie because you're on your phone, and then turn it off 3/4 of the way through it, it seems unfair to say it's the movie's fault. And you'd want to root for them cause it's a movie about them improving themselves and helping to be improved by her family - what would be the point of watching someone who's a good version of themselves be a slightly better version? I mean, that could be a movie too, but...yeah, the point is her character arc, and the movie is about becoming a better person. For me it was really cathartic when she finally allows herself to take in the ethos of her husband, who's such a fantastic character. I was so glad that Ke Huy Quan got the awards recognition for this role.

My only real problem with that movie is it had slightly too much stuff, they could have cut out at least one of the absurd scenarios and been stronger for it. Kinda like The Dark Knight. Some of the humor is of the "lol bacon ninjas epic!!!" variety which is kinda annoying. But it was still a really great movie about why you should be excellent to one another.

 

[nightflameauto]

If you are half-watching a movie because you're on your phone, and then turn it off 3/4 of the way through it, it seems unfair to say it's the movie's fault. And you'd want to root for them cause it's a movie about them improving themselves and helping to be improved by her family - what would be the point of watching someone who's a good version of themselves be a slightly better version? I mean, that could be a movie too, but...yeah, the point is her character arc, and the movie is about becoming a better person. For me it was really cathartic when she finally allows herself to take in the ethos of her husband, who's such a fantastic character. I was so glad that Ke Huy Quan got the awards recognition for this role.

My only real problem with that movie is it had slightly too much stuff, they could have cut out at least one of the absurd scenarios and been stronger for it. Kinda like The Dark Knight. Some of the humor is of the "lol bacon ninjas epic!!!" variety which is kinda annoying. But it was still a really great movie about why you should be excellent to one another.

I'm a big fan of multi-dimensional shenanigans so loved all the layers, but some of the more absurd stuff I can see really turning people off. The sex scene between the hot-dog fingers versions was one of those scenes where I cringed and laughed my way through, appreciated it, but absolutely know there would have been people in this part of the country walking out during it in the theater.

I thought the whole movie was pretty damned good, and geared just slightly more toward thinkers than most action flicks. Which also makes it hard for some people to watch. It's an engager, not a backgrounder.