TheUlyssesian

I love Spielberg and am really looking forward to the movie and will go to the cinemas for it and I think it has a chance to be great. But the fact remains that this movie will be to a certain extent been there done that. I would say but for Latino casting, this movie would not have been greenlit. I don't think the original is absolutely untouchable either. But for what it is, it is magnificently made and by all accounts is a very successful movie - artistically and commercially. Some films there is limited appetite by Hollywood to remake. Take Gone With the Wind (though that has its own problems), Lawrence of Arabia, Sound of Music - is anybody clamoring to remake them? No. Because the originals are about as good as you can make them, though they are not unimpeachable. WSS would have been in that category. What did Spielberg have to say when he went in to make the pitch. What would he do different than the original? Why cast Latino actors in Latino roles. That's how the movie got greenlit.

You are not wrong in the slightest and let's be honest about this movie's raise de etre - reason for existing. By all accounts the 1961 version is a cinematic classic - a magnificent movie with superb music and dancing and staging and design and decor and everything. Mega box office hit and critically acclaimed and swept the academy awards. Can it be improved upon? Why is it being remade? For a single reason? To bring more of a Latino element in - in terms of casting etc. The movie's very own professed reason for even existing is to highlight the Latino element. So it is not besides the point to speculate that this is why Dudamel received top billing. This isn't a political post this is just an acknowledgement of why the film is even being made because honestly who even asked for this film.

I don't trust music in trailers. Even for musicals, they are very unrepresentative of what is in the movie. Trailer sound is almost always souped up I feel regardless of how it will sound in the movie. I think the only true indicator would be how the music sounds in the movie. Even album can be souped up. Recent example - Memory in Cats. In the trailer it is featured as a soaring belting sweeping rendition with drums and choir backing while in the movie it is drowned in simpering and phlegm.

Is this confirmed? I find this unlikely for some reason. A 30 strong orchestra is going to sound thin. Spielberg is used to big orchestral JW scores even for his non-musical scores. Will he skimp out on his only musical ever? I think most modern musicals have a big dense orchestral sound. So I still want to hear how this sounds to see if its truly a 30 something Broadway orchestra pit kinda sound. The movie cost 100 mil.

I think David Newman is being robbed of credit here. He's doing SOMETHING right? He's not just compiling cue sheets for Dudamel to conduct. Arrangement is a big job. They used to give out an Oscar for arrangement of music in musicals. We know Newman got the job because Williams passed. Had Williams taked the job, you bet your ass he would have been on the poster. It's a little bit bizzare. Also surprised that Elgort is billed over Zwegler. It is her movie more or less. Natalie Wood had star billing for the original. I thought if their goal was to promote diversity and inclusion with this film they would do the same.

Is it me or are the accents really cartoonish - even though they cast right? Were the actors directed to satirize their accents?

Denis is rigorous streamlining means he’s left with a really diffuse 2.5 hour movie. As I said, the movie currently is just Atredies coming to Arrakis, assassination attempt on Paul, attack by the Hs and Jessica and Paul escaping to join the Fremen. To me it’s just not 2.5 hrs of story. This isn’t TV. If there’s more stuff in the books, why not put it in the movie. I see absolutely no reason why the movie’s meager content level couldn’t have been comfortably fit in 2 hrs. does every fucking movie have to be 2.5 hrs these days?

To be it isn't. It was more of the same. More visions. Similar desert shots. No new concepts or insight revealed. It did not feel like the good use of an hour narrative-time wise. I guess so but you can't be so slavish as to even translate the flaws of your source in adaptation. Surely the goal is to suit it to strength of the new medium. I find Denis to be a totally unimaginative director so for me unfortunately there wasn't more to experience in that barren hour. It was totally repetitive to me and I feel more story could have been told in that section rather than having them heaving sitting in a tent for 30 minutes - or however long that was.

i frankly would have cut the Duncan and liet parts post escape. What does it add to the story? Nothing. It prolongs the inevitable. They are going to end up with the fremen. We know that. What’s the point of spending an hour to get there? i actually think the last act post the attack on Atridies is weakest.

Some Ave Satani from Goldsmith is a perfect mood builder for getting frisky.

I do too. I actually mostly watch arthouse fare and watch far fewer blockbuster films. I would argue arthouse films that are extremely slow are still offering the audiences a lot - deep character development, advancing a worldview, trading in insight about the world and the way we live ad breathe and think and feel, burrowing into the fabric of society etc. I got absolutely none of that from Dune. So while it was slow, there wasn't a reason for its slowness. And it did not give me anything remotely cerebral to latch onto. It just very lethargically and lugubriously unfolded its very sketchy half baked characters and wafer thin storyline at an interminable pace and gave me nothing to chew on whatsoever - except stare at some pretty pictures and sigh in exasperation.

Titanic for what it's worth is extremely eventful and packs in a wizard's purse worth of incident. Story and plot are different and maybe I should have been more specific. Titanic's story might be simple but the plot - which is how the incidents unfold on screen - is very detailed and elaborate. Dune has not that benefit. Both the story and plot are not enough to fill out the 2.5 hours.

There is only one theme that stuck out to me. I think it is the one for Arakis. Everything else is just a soundscape. If there are other themes, none jumped out. The score didn’t interest me enough to bother with the soundtrack album. This will be a pass from me.

We can’t judge things that don’t exist. based purely on this film, it does not fill its 2.5 hours. per my count 4 major incidents happen. 1. harkonnens withdraw from Arrakis and Atredies arrive in their stead based on the Emperor’s command. 2. there is an assassination attempt on Paul. 3. harkonnens in partnership with imperial forces mount an attack on the artedies. Many including Leto die. 4. Jessica and Paul escape into the desert and find the freemen. Everything else is exposition. Now for a humble 4 events, did they need 2.5 hours? Not at all. Cinema is very different from television. For all of this movie’s cinematic grandeur, it moves like a television series. All set up. Think bank to lord of the rings. The sheer amount of incident it packs into the first film. i think This is what a lot of us are saying. While there is a lot of world building going on here. There is not a lot of story. Cinema thrives on story in the end, not world building. World building is an element which supports the story. Gives it context and resonance. World building is eventually exposition. World building is not a goal unto itself. think to Harry Potter 1 of a similar length. Look at the amount of world building packed and the sheer number of incidents. lotr too. It’s first 5 mins pack in more world building than this movie. It is a very necessary question. Does the movie use its time well? I am afraid the answer has to be no. What actually feels cinematic is a large sweeping story packed into 3 hours. That feels epic. But a small story spread thin over multiple hours - that is what television does.

I saw the movie. I will answer my own question. Did this need to be 2 movies. I don't think so. I found the pace exceeding slow for the amount of story being told.

Ten Commandments and Cleopatra are both total classics - both the films and scores. i actually revisited both in the last 12 months, and came away with an immense appreciation for both. They look insanely spectacular, are grandly entertaining and in their own way are quite well done. cleopatra could even be said to be actually quite literate in its own way and it definitely has an edge - it is most certainly not an all edges scrubbed off blockbuster. Ten Commandments has old school movie making smarts and rewards repeat viewings too. i highly recommend both. Both scores are excellent too. Ten Commandments score is supremely melodic and has over a dozen beautiful themes that keep rotating throughout the score. cleopatra has some absolutely tremendous themes - all time great variety that flourish beautifully over the runtime. i am actually unfamiliar with the other two movies but both of these are very good picks.

Movie screened for critics. Reactions out. Reviews sunday. Release soon. Main theme released. A second cue has been released.

That can't possibly be real.

The Ludlows is one of the best pieces Horner ever wrote. Just based on that LotF. but this is a surprisingly strong list of scores.

We Have All the Time in the World - wow. What a great idea to revive that - one of favorite Bond themes.

This should be a doozy. I didn’t like the second film but JNH still came up with great stuff. He’s clearly very inspired by this franchise. Most awaited score of next year.

if it were one 5 hour movie, they should have shot it like lotr, all at the same time. That they shot it like 2 separate movies means at least they think of it as two standalone films though apparently no one else does.

LOTR has natural breaks in the story. It was even released as 3 separate books and still is. Dune has no such breaks in the story. The breaking up of the book into two pieces is completely arbitrary and unnatural. So there's a difference.

My friend if you are asking for 8 hours to do a single book, you want to make a miniseries, not a movie.

i genuinely think Elfman’s Batman theme can’t be improved upon. It’s futile to try.