THE SPICE MUST FLOW.

[rogueslayer452]

They've released a new trailer for Dune which will finally, hopefully, be released this year as they are stating. It was supposed to be released last year but, of course, the pandemic kind of pushed it back and there's been some difficulties over how the film is to be released. It's set for an October release here in the US.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the trailer.

a.) I actually like this trailer more than the teaser we got last year, and the song in the trailer fits better imho.

b.) The only thing I kind of have a problem with is that it's too beige, too bland, and while it might just be the trailer and the movie might have more color, I'm endlessly disappointed that science fiction movies are just on two settings these days: neon Asian aesthetics or desaturation nation. Where's the boldness? Where's the color, the weirdness, the creativity, the outlandish outfits? Be more innovative. If Mad Max: Fury Road can make things pop in style, so can other films.

c.) This is going to be only the first half of the book (which makes Chani narrating in the beginning interesting because, if I'm right where they might leave off, she won't appear that much in the film anyway), and assuming that they haven't already filmed the second half I sincerely hope that this movie succeeds enough to get that second part otherwise it won't make sense. Furthermore, if both succeed in box office numbers and doesn't financially flop (breaking the curse of the Dune franchise adaptations) that they get greenlit to adapt the rest of the series. Although I've been thinking about this because, well, Dune in itself is a very complicated and nuanced story, it and the rest of the books in Frank Herbert's series is get even more complicated and weirder. I, personally, love that about the books. But Hollywood, sadly, isn't so forgiving in that regard. They hate anything that is too bizarre. They don't think it's marketable. And in a way, Dune isn't really marketable. It's far too niche to be easily digestible towards a wider audience. The book is dense, the information more so, and you can't really water it down without leaving out vital pieces that make the story make sense. It's part of the reason why many believe that Dune and the rest of the Dune Chronicles are unfilmable, because even the best directors who try their best to be faithful and include everything it will either be too long or too confusing for regular audiences to understand.

With that being said however, I do want it to succeed because if it does, I want them to go as outlandish as possible. I want to see what they can do to bring the story to life, even if they don't go as bizarre as they could (and should!) I just want to see how far they can get. Basically, this is just me wanting them to get to God Emperor Of Dune because if they get a big budget for that. Because there is no way they can tone it down from that, that's all I'm saying. It probably won't happen, but I can dream.


tl;dr (non-spoilery): the trailer is great (color palate is a little boring but the trailer music is awesome), still think the majority of the casting is fantastic, and if nothing else, as someone who has read the book, I really want this to succeed in the box office because this only covers the first half of the book and the story will not make sense otherwise if they don't film the second part. And it would be dope if they could adapt the rest of the Dune books, too.

Comments

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

Interesting. It's been a couple of years since my last re-read but I was struck by the narrator as the beginning is very Paul centric. This kind of shifts the story to understanding a different view of what's happening on the planet right away.

Agree about the colours. It's a desert planet but they could have had some fun with that. Even made it a richer coloured desert. Made the clothing pop, especially for the colonizers. Bland colours for warfare make sense but the rest of the time they could have done some bold sets for indoors etc.

Wishing them success too - and I really should read more of the series.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I like that it's from Chani's point-of-view too, that she's both describing the beauty of the planet that's been her home while also bringing to light the destruction the Harkonnen's have wrought. Granted, this narration might only be for the trailer and not really in the movie itself, since I'm positive that Chani isn't really going to be in it all that much aside from Paul's dreams/visions and when he meets up with her (where I'm assuming is where the cut-off will be) and it's a way of utilizing Zendaya more, but still! I liked how it was done, if nothing else than to give more insight to those unfamiliar with the story of what's going on in the simplest of terms.

(It is, of course, more complex than that, especially politically and the fight between Harkonnen versus Atreides, like the first half of the book is literally a lot of political stuff and I'm curious to see how they're going to do that because it's so intricately interwoven into the plot and the driving force of the whole thing.)

Bland colours for warfare make sense but the rest of the time they could have done some bold sets for indoors etc.

Exactly! Even for the planet Caladan, the brief shots we see of it, there should've been more distinction of colors and whatnot with the sets in comparison to Arrakis, but it all just sort of blends together and seems so...drab? I know that there's always this ~vibe directors go for to set the mood, but not everything has to be desaturated and boring to invoke the feeling of oppression and war, come on.

Look at Syfy's Dune (and Children of Dune) miniseries, for example, they went for bold and on a very limited budget too, so imagine what could be done with a large budget! But I guess that would be too ~silly to filmmakers in Hollywood which, idk, sucks and is kind of unfair because not everything has to be grimdark to be taken seriously and to convey the serious nature of what's going on. Just saying.

That's my only biggest gripe, just judging from the trailers of this movie, and the posters too. But otherwise, I am super curious about how this film is going to do.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I guess with Hollywood it's often so little risk taking. So until someone takes a risk and hits with a film that's serious but has a different colour palette they'll all be like "serious sci fi must look like this"