MovieChat Forums > Dune (2021) Discussion > Can't Top the Original.

Can't Top the Original.

posted 5 years ago by TheAdlerian (2092)
16 replies | jump to latest

I don't think you can.

I have read the book and I know there's differences but I love the original movie and have watched it countless times. Parts could be a little more slick, but overall, I was such an odd movie with great costumes and acting.

I will watch this thing just for Brad Dourif's weird hand gestures that have nothing to do with his point. I love the pilot and his crew of handlers talking throw translation devices that look like something from the 30s. And, the though that went into them having tubes of spice go directly into their brain.

Also, I didn't think Paul was much of a character in the book. In the film he had a positive quality.

The Harkonnens were great, bizarre, obviously perverted, and I don't know how you can match it.

The negative about doing a movie though is the whole idea that all of these special people are the result of long breeding programs to avoid technology. In addition, I never really got why Paul wanted to bring water to the planet and so forth. It seems like a misty idea and I don't know that audiences care.

The first film was a spectacle of weirdness, which made it great. Not sure that can be reproduced.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16185) 5 years ago

"The first film was a spectacle of weirdness, which made it great."

Well you're half right.

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 5 years ago

If you're familiar with the concepts in the books, then it would be a very weird reality to live in.

People specially bred to be like machines, psychic powers, a spice that mutates people, and so on. These are humans 10k years from now and just imagine how strange we would be to humans 10k ago, only the spice and breeding thing would make everyone and every thing in life very bizarre.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

It was one the campiest films ever made and it is still a spectacle to behold.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12313) 5 years ago

I still love the 1984 movie too. While the 2000 series did stick closer to the book and did more introspection for the audience to understand, the writing had a lot of issues, and it lacked that certain magic that made the '84 film so epic, up to and including the visuals.

Frank Herbert is a very odd author, and some of his explanations are very iffy. He's not as bad as the Wachowskis when it comes to explaining the science in his stories, but even he can't quite make sense with some of his stuff. I sometimes wonder if his later works were fueled by drugs when he was dreaming up the storylines.

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 5 years ago

I found the following books to be unreadable, but there were lots so someone liked them!

I dislike how there was mostly no central character to follow and the books were about a lot of mundane things, at least to me.

Regarding the science, once you get psychic powers involved, things get crazy. But, in the beginning of the 20th century and in the 60s many people believed psychic powers were real and so it wasn't just magic included in stories but something many thought would happen.

Whatever the case, if we went back 10,000 years and tried to explain how a cellphone worked or what a toilet is, and how that works, I'm sure the people then would be shaking their heads like this is not how life works and can't happen. So, I'm cool with the spice and breeding programs, but it is stuff you must make clearer for people.

I saw the 1984 movie the night it opened. We were given a sheet of paper with many terms and their definitions from the film upon entrance! They assumed the movie would not be comprehensible, lol.

I did see a bit of the TV series but it was so dull to me I couldn't get through it. As I've said before, the original captured the intensity that these odd types of humans would likely have. The TV show seemed too "normal" which would be unlikely for the characters.

[–] Johnspartan1982 (137) 5 years ago

I thought the original film sucked and i truly detested the film version since i was 13 when i rented it as the previous year 25 years ago i read the book and loved it as it was something different! the movie was very disappointing and was a terrible mess that i wish Lynch should had never been near the movie, even he hates the film.

I also disliked the mini-series as well! this new 2 part movie will top both films.

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 5 years ago

The book and the movie are very close.

I don't see what the big issue is with people.

[–] Jones70 (6195) 5 years ago

We’ll see!

[–] huwdj (4562) 5 years ago

I loved the books and I thought Lynch's film was a really good attempt and I've always liked it. However I do think you can make a good film with more of the book in it - it would probably be four hours long but I'd watch it.
Sidenote: Dune so influenced the way Science Fiction is written I wonder how many (excuse me) younger readers realize how special it was when first published.

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 5 years ago

I read the book a long time ago, but I think it was pretty close, as I've said. I don't know or recall what more could be there.

Plus, I liked how lynch brought the gothic punk rock styles popular back then into the movie. I don't think the book handled how weird all of these people would be and seem to us.

Imagine seeing a Mentat in action right now. That person would be beyond strange in manner, looks certainly, and how they communicated. A person mutated from spice, what the hell. The original movie gave a sense many of these types of people are creepy and bizarre.

A whole planet of inbred redheads!

If the new movie glosses over that stuff it will be boring.

[–] Ranb (7186) 4 years ago

For someone who did not read the book, it was a strange quirky movie. For anyone who did read the book, it was a very poor adaptation indeed.

[–] Joogle83 (4147) 4 years ago

Denis Topped Blade Runner(1982) with 2049 he can top this one and make it closer and we have a better Cast & Crew as well and it won't be bloated like the 1984 film thank goodness it will be in two parts and MORE FAITHFUL To The BOOK

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 4 years ago

Wow, 2049 was not a very good movie.

I looked great and I enjoyed the main character a lot, but it had ZERO message whereas the first one had an unforgettable message.

[–] Joogle83 (4147) 4 years ago

it had a Message anyone can be hero whether your Human or replicant Dunes from the Book is That even if your from a wealthy family you can fight corruption by Joining the common folk prophecy or not Denis is better than Ridley and David

[–] TheAdlerian (2092) 4 years ago

The message from the first was similar.

What was surprising about it was that the villain wasn't a villain he was a person that wanted to live and was bitter that he was going to die. Instead of acting in a sinister manner in the end he did something good because he didn't want anyone else to die before their time.

You do not see that in movies especially back when Blade Runner came out. It was really something special.

For 2049 we already knew that replicants are the same as humans.

[–] Joogle83 (4147) 4 years ago

Vladimir is more strategist in the book than a mutated floating perv