Dune - Main Trailer

[Palanan]

New and longer trailer:

Spoiler

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Have to say, this looks impressive. Rebecca Ferguson alone would get me into the theater for this, and there are one or two other names of note involved here.

Really looking forward to it.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Interesting. The start was a little offputting (I don't remember a speech like that from the book), but the visuals look a lot better than the 'ol David Lynch film. And the Ornithopters were actual ornithopters this time.

[Whoracle]

Looks way more promising than I expected. The cast seems solid enough for the most part and the visuals are close enough to what I imagined reading the books.

I'm lukewarm about the Design of the worms, though, and what little there is to glimpse of Baron Harkonnen left me unimpressed, too.

Ant the shield combat training scene is a bust. In the trailer at least it's way too fast, both judging from my preferences and from the in-universe lore or what you'd call it.

Going to see it, maybe even in the theater. This one might be visually impressive enough to warrant the big screen.

[Eldan]

Some influencers were shown the first 20 minutes. From what they say: see it in theatres. Which also fits with this being Villeneuve, he is very good at making things feel massive.

[Clertar]

Some influencers were shown the first 20 minutes. From what they say: see it in theatres. Which also fits with this being Villeneuve, he is very good at making things feel massive.

Also a genius on small scales. The first film of his I saw, back when I was living in Quebec, was Polythecnique. I was floored.

He mega doubled down with Incendies some years later, and the rest is his early English language filmography. I hope he gets to work on a true personal project after his last franchise works, he could very well be a new Nolan.

[Corvus]

This is looking good. And as someone who has seen (and liked) both previous adaptions and the book I am hyped for this.

Though Duke Leto has an oddly soft voice.

[Trafalgar]

The new trailer dropped. I have a mixed reaction but I curious how you all feel about it.

[J-H]

They're definitely boosting Chani daughter of Liet with the dream-walking thing. I was going to criticize her walking around without a stillsuit until I found out it was her in a dream.

They appear to have taken a lot of the focus off of Jessica; is the actress even a redhead? Not impressed there. In the original, Jessica is one of the main characters, and has a more important role as female lead than Chani does. Without her, Paul dies and the story falls apart in several ways. The rest of the Atreides casting looks good.

Paul looks too skinny for an accomplished/trained knife fighter. Water-fat and pale, sure, but you don't learn to be someone who can take on Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen or Jamis or Stilgar in a knife-fight without putting on more muscle than he appears to have.
As cast and shown, I think Chani could probably beat him... which is fine for her, considering she set herself up as the filter for challenges in the book, where she'd just kill them so they didn't bother Muad'Dib, but not so good for Paul.

I always envisioned crysknives as more white and curved, like a tooth... all I saw were regular shiny metal knives.

Agreed, the shield fight is moving too fast. It's the slow blade that kills.

I always envisioned thopters as having one or two sets of wings, but the dragonfly portrayal makes sense.

To include all the important stuff from the book, this really needs to be a 3-4 hour long movie.

[Trafalgar]

They're definitely boosting Chani daughter of Liet with the dream-walking thing. I was going to criticize her walking around without a stillsuit until I found out it was her in a dream.

They appear to have taken a lot of the focus off of Jessica; is the actress even a redhead? Not impressed there. In the original, Jessica is one of the main characters, and has a more important role as female lead than Chani does. Without her, Paul dies and the story falls apart in several ways. The rest of the Atreides casting looks good.

Paul looks too skinny for an accomplished/trained knife fighter. Water-fat and pale, sure, but you don't learn to be someone who can take on Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen or Jamis or Stilgar in a knife-fight without putting on more muscle than he appears to have.
As cast and shown, I think Chani could probably beat him... which is fine for her, considering she set herself up as the filter for challenges in the book, where she'd just kill them so they didn't bother Muad'Dib, but not so good for Paul.

When I first saw Chani without a still suit, I was pretty upset. I had to watch the trailer twice to figure out that it was a dream sequence. I think in the dream sequence in the book, Paul sees her in a cavern in one of the big water storage cisterns. I guess my problem with it is that spice visions are premonitions of possible futures. So for Paul to see Chani in a spice vision in the desert with out a still suit means its something that could happen in future.

As far as Paul not being that big, remember that he knows the weirding way while Stilgar and Jamis do not. I don't believe Fey-Rautha knew it either. He was also trained by Gurney and Duncan so he was way more skilled than the fremen at least. So his size really doesn't matter. Paul is also like 15 or 16 in the book so a smaller actor makes sense.

I like all of the casting decisions except Timothee Chalamet. The only thing I have seen him in is "The King" and I thought he was too sulky for the role. Though I didn't like the film's overall portrayal of Henry V as compared to the historical one and maybe that's coloring my opinion.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

A mixed bag as well....

The obvious things that are good is the visuals but that is also a double edge sword. This may be just one long tech demo which is what I felt about Avatar despite the praise that movie got. But at least I can give it a chance that it won't be.

The actors are a mix bag. I don't think Timothee Chalamet was a good choice (as Paul) because he just looks stiff in his acting based on the trailer. Zendaya (as Chani) wasn't a good choice as well. I have never cared for her acting work and I just don't think she is going to nail the character down well. That being said some of the casting does look promising. Oscar Isaac (as Leto) and Dave Bautista (as Glossu) are some of the actors I think can do the characters they are playing some justice.

The other worry I had was some of the writers and director who don't really have much to their credits. Denis Villeneuve's only real known works are only within the past few years that include Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, and Sicario. They are solid enough movies to showcase is directing chops, which does give some hope to him as a director, but I am not sure if he should be the one tackling something as epic as Dune. The attached writers also give some pause to worry and hope. Jon Spaihts's most known work includes Prometheus (not all that great), Doctor Strange (meh), and Passengers (decent). Though there is also Eric Roth who is attached to some solid movies as a writer like Forest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

So in all this one is really on the fence. There are things that I do like about it but things I don't like about it. As with most movies nowadays, I am not going to rush out to see it at the theater nor start up an HBO Max subscription again to watch it since WB is the studio (which I have issues with them as a studio anyways). Been burned to many times in that regard so I'll wait to see what the reviews have to say before diving into it. What I am most curious is how much current day political topics they are going to inject into this as is done for all movies nowadays? Really hoping it isn't that way and the movie can just be a great visual telling of the book but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.

[GloatingSwine]

Denis Villeneuve's only real known works are only within the past few years that include Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, and Sicario. They are solid enough movies to showcase is directing chops, which does give some hope to him as a director, but I am not sure if he should be the one tackling something as epic as Dune.

TBH I can't think of another director working today who could even attempt Dune.

The only other directors who would really do this sort of big concept SF work are Christopher Nolan (and Tenet is mostly him getting high on his own supply, so I don't think he'd do it) and maybe Neil Blomkamp, but he usually does more personal stories than Dune.

Dune is still sort of fundamentally a bit unfilmable, given how much of it takes place in internal monologue and the normally "filmic" events like most of Paul's rebellion happen offscreen or in time skips, and I can't think of many who could try it.

[Cikomyr2]

A mixed bag as well....

The obvious things that are good is the visuals but that is also a double edge sword. This may be just one long tech demo which is what I felt about Avatar despite the praise that movie got. But at least I can give it a chance that it won't be.

The actors are a mix bag. I don't think Timothee Chalamet was a good choice (as Paul) because he just looks stiff in his acting based on the trailer. Zendaya (as Chani) wasn't a good choice as well. I have never cared for her acting work and I just don't think she is going to nail the character down well. That being said some of the casting does look promising. Oscar Isaac (as Leto) and Dave Bautista (as Glossu) are some of the actors I think can do the characters they are playing some justice.

The other worry I had was some of the writers and director who don't really have much to their credits. Denis Villeneuve's only real known works are only within the past few years that include Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, and Sicario. They are solid enough movies to showcase is directing chops, which does give some hope to him as a director, but I am not sure if he should be the one tackling something as epic as Dune. The attached writers also give some pause to worry and hope. Jon Spaihts's most known work includes Prometheus (not all that great), Doctor Strange (meh), and Passengers (decent). Though there is also Eric Roth who is attached to some solid movies as a writer like Forest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

So in all this one is really on the fence. There are things that I do like about it but things I don't like about it. As with most movies nowadays, I am not going to rush out to see it at the theater nor start up an HBO Max subscription again to watch it since WB is the studio (which I have issues with them as a studio anyways). Been burned to many times in that regard so I'll wait to see what the reviews have to say before diving into it. What I am most curious is how much current day political topics they are going to inject into this as is done for all movies nowadays? Really hoping it isn't that way and the movie can just be a great visual telling of the book but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.

I think we are a bit past whether or not Denis Villeneuve should be the one directing a Dune movie, and just hoping he sticks the landing?

[Trafalgar]

TBH I can't think of another director working today who could even attempt Dune.

The only other directors who would really do this sort of big concept SF work are Christopher Nolan (and Tenet is mostly him getting high on his own supply, so I don't think he'd do it) and maybe Neil Blomkamp, but he usually does more personal stories than Dune.

Dune is still sort of fundamentally a bit unfilmable, given how much of it takes place in internal monologue and the normally "filmic" events like most of Paul's rebellion happen offscreen or in time skips, and I can't think of many who could try it.

So I looked through Villeneuve's IMDb and I think he has the chops to do it. What's interesting is that there is a "Dune: The Sisterhood" TV series listed on his page for the future. I guess they are going for a Dune Expanded Universe thing.

[Psyren]

This looks promising, color me interested.

For those who'd like a refresher, HBO Max has the 1984 original.

Regarding the shield combat - I imagine the slash and parry part is going to be fast (because, well, it'd be boring otherwise) but once you're off-balance then they can slide the blade through.