I watched Dune today!

[potofsoup]

It was a super rare date with Spouse :)

I've never read Dune before, and I didn't read spoilers, so this was also a rare event where I didn't know where the movie was going! :D

- They did a really good job on laying out the various competing factions and not info-dumping. A lot of great showing of the world instead!
- It was good to have visuals of an expansive sci-fi world that *isn't* Star Wars. :chefkiss:

- Definitely enjoyed the framing of "lol these guys might be the nicer oppressors but they're still oppressors." Good job. (Oscar Isaacs being like "I'm the nice one who's willing to work with you, but also your planet was given to me by the emperor, and actually I want to work with you mostly to integrate you into our hyper-militaristic society as a force that fights for me")
- ::gestures:: look at all that over-militarization. Where are the women in this society? (Besides the BeneGs, ofc)
- oh man, not a fan of the White Savior trope. Paul Atreides, I see you, being better at fighting and being oh so magically knowledgeable. I'm so glad that it's not all in Paul's PoV because that would have been *insufferable* (I came out of this with strong Lawrence of Arabia vibes, and then learned on wikipedia that in fact this story was heavily inspired by that, lol)



- I was surprised that the mom plays such a big role, and is like, her own character and everything!
- Could see Oscar Isaac's death a mile away, but poor guy
- no Jason Mamoa don't die the Atreides aren't worth it.
- no Kynes you're so awesome I wanted to see you ride a giant sand worm into the sunsettttt
- ah yes the one clearly marked Chinese character turns out to be a traitor wooo
- I wanted more Zendaya, but that's how I felt about the Spiderman movies, too
- I really hope the Fremen society isn't going to be framed as barbaric as that first fight
(then again, the Emperor and the Harkonen are much worse. Everyone is ready kill people at a moment's notice, wtf)

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I cannot wait to see this movie and also I love how clear eyed you are. You saw what I saw when I read the novel 30 years ago, what people have ssen since they've been talking about this story.

[potofsoup]

<3 <3 <3

It was great fun! At first I wasn't interested in going, but then I read acoup's blog post about it: https://acoup.blog/2021/11/05/miscellanea-reflections-on-the-sands-of-dune/ and then I poked Hoosband into coming with. :)

[przed]

Congrats on having a date night with the Spouse!

I imprinted on Dune when I was 14, and it was a book I read at least once a year all through high school, so my experience of watching the film was half "ooohh, the ornithopters look like I always thought they would," and half "wow, that's some serious white saviour, colonialism, resource extraction you've got going on there." I could have done with 100% more Zendaya and Jason Momoa. (It's been decades since I read the book so I'd forgotten that Duncan Idaho didn't make it out alive. Boo.) And also more Liet Kynes. And yes, having the one Chinese character being a traitor, even under duress, is quite the choice.🤨

[potofsoup]

I really liked the visuals! I loved all the mechanical switches, and the cool projections, and the fact that Paul Atreides learned the desert walk through the equivalent of a youtube video XD;;;

But yeah I was so sad when Duncan Idaho died (I read spoilers and it seems like he comes back? but as a ghola?) It's just like... is this really worth dying for? How does fealty work here? Should I be shipping Duncan Idaho and Leto Atreides?

And me and hoosband were like "yessss Kynes is going to ride the worm!!!" and then the were like "NOOOOOOO!!!!" :(

[przed]

I was so jazzed to see Keynes ride a worm, and was very much NOOOOOO!!! when she was killed.

I’m not sure if I ship anyone in this universe, but I might be a bit intrigued by the possibility of Leto and Gurney. Done in a way that doesn’t disrespect Lady Jessica, of course.