Dune trailer

[Taiso]

I don't think this will be a kids' film. This will be a film that shows the legit cred of some of our finest young actors and actresses working today.

Chalamet is just about PERFECT for this role IMO. He can command a screen when he needs to but is also vulnerable enough that you believe he has to wake up and stop being hoodwinked by the power elite. That is Paul Atredies book version to a T.

I'm also interested to see what Zendayah brings to the table as Chani. I am legitimately excited to see if there is any chemistry between the two. If they have it, their performances will lift this film big time.

I also think Oacar Isaac as Leto is a compelling choice. This guy is a legit great actor that never really got to be Han Solo 2.0 in the Disney trilogy due to the awful, shitty woke political messaging in that craptastic series of films. Dude has gravitas when you let him actually act.

Star Wars movies have always shackled the acting and tamped it down in favor of spectacle, but an occasional spirited performance could overcome those films: Ford in Empire, McDiarmid in all of them, Lee in the prequels and Macgregor in prequel parts 2 and 3.

Villeneuve is a marvelous director. The only guy I think might have been better is Alfonso Cuaron.

 

[evil wasabi]

To me it is Villeneuve's films set in the real world that stand out by far, namely Prisoners and Sicario.

Really? Agree to disagree.

I think Chalamet is a brilliant young actor, but somehow I think he might be misstepping with these roles, too much exposition too fast, not much need for range, here he is a slightly taller Frodo in King Henry garb. Maybe it's just me.

Just you. Chalamet will nail this role. He has good range already. Even in a shit movie (hot summer nights) he does well.

I think Villaneuve's credit is that he doesn't give us a franchise of films. 2049 was a one off, and I think that's extremely rare with guys like Snyder and Nolan more focused on franchise branding than the art of film.

 

[fake]

I dunno if I'd throw Nolan into that group. He only did one series, right?

 

[SouthtownKid]

I also think Oacar Isaac as Leto is a compelling choice.

Yeah, he's a standout among an already great cast. And Bardem as Stilgar is also inspired casting.

 

[smokehouse]

Yeah, he's a standout among an already great cast. And Bardem as Stilgar is also inspired casting.

The cast is really stacked with some tom tier talent...and a few that are ok.

I have some serious hope for this...and I'll admit that I love the first film, flawed as it may be. Hell, I even have the horribly CG'd mini series on tha DVD.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Villeneuve knows how to pick them, a great actor's director to boot. He brings it out in them

I'd rather be conservative and hesitant with the promise this film evokes. I had very high hopes for what was The King. Director, theme, actors, everything was layed down for The Mission level antics. It didn't pan out. At all.

Chalamet along with Miles Teller and a few others (Daniel Radcliffe surprisingly enough) are the young actors I am betting the house on, they bring it, smash it.


Personally I see Vilkeneuve as primarily an aestheticist and then everything else, somewhere between or amongst Refn and Aronofsky. Maybe not though, he is in his own league, can perfectly marry those amazing landscape shots with microcosm particulars.


@Wasabi, to me the two films I mention have all the content he works with in his science fiction-fantasy films but is skilfull enough to have them take place in something which resembles our reality. I think they are amazing for very separate reasons. Prisoners is engrossing, Sicario is enthralling. I see a Ridley Scott connection here too in that you could probably watch The Councellor followed by Sicario and it kind of would be an alright night.

 

[famicommander]

@Wasabi, to me the two films I mention have all the content he works with in his science fiction-fantasy films but is skilfull enough to have them take place in something which resembles our reality. I think they are amazing for very separate reasons. Prisoners is engrossing, Sicario is enthralling. I see a Ridley Scott connection here too in that you could probably watch The Councellor followed by Sicario and it kind of would be an alright night.

Having watched all five of his English films in the last couple weeks, I will agree that Prisoners and Sicario are both fantastic. I just happen to place Blade Runner 2049 and especially Arrival ahead of them.

I can't stress enough how much I like Arrival.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Yeah, Arrival was great. Not only for what it was, but for how easy it is to imagine what a chunk of generic shit it would have been under almost any other current director, with the exception of maybe Alex Garland.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Yeah, Arrival was great. Not only for what it was, but for how easy it is to imagine what a chunk of generic shit it would have been under almost any other current director, with the exception of maybe Alex Garland.

Garland is indeed the bee's knees.



Sidequest: Sicario 2, which is by some other director and is a lot more of a straight up action thriller movie is really watchable. I wasn't expecting that, when I heard it was coming out I dismissed it as most probably crap

 

[famicommander]

Yeah, Arrival was great. Not only for what it was, but for how easy it is to imagine what a chunk of generic shit it would have been under almost any other current director, with the exception of maybe Alex Garland.

Is Annihilation good? I enjoyed Ex Machina but Annihilation flew under my radar and I've never seen it.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Is Annihilation good? I enjoyed Ex Machina but Annihilation flew under my radar and I've never seen it.

It's fantastic, well worth a watch. Garland used a real interesting method of adapting the source novel. Which was to write a new script based on his fading memory of having read the novel, rather than rereading it and directly adapting the actual novel. The book is good, too, by the way.

Going back to Dune, Ex Machina and Annihilation are where I know Oscar Isaac from, much more than Star Wars, which frankly, I forgot he was even in.

 

[fake]

Is Annihilation good? I enjoyed Ex Machina but Annihilation flew under my radar and I've never seen it.

Best movie in years, IMO.

 

[Taiso]

+1 for Annihilation. Dark horse of a film and quite good. Me and my wife still talk about the flick.

 

[famicommander]

I ordered the 4K Blu Ray for Annihilation on Amazon. We'll see how it stacks up to Ex Machina, Arrival, and BR2049 tomorrow.

 

[fake]

The whole trilogy of the books is worth reading, too. I burned through them in a few months.

 

[famicommander]

The whole trilogy of the books is worth reading, too. I burned through them in a few months.

I'm probably going to be reading Dune books for the foreseeable future. At least the Herbert originals, and if I'm still interested maybe the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson prequels and sequels.

 

[famicommander]

 

[GohanX]

The original series of books goes off the rails after a while. It's like you can see Frank Herbert's mind deteriorate in real time.

 

[fake]

The original series of books goes off the rails after a while. It's like you can see Frank Herbert's mind deteriorate in real time.

Yeah, I stopped after the third book. It's a good ending point IMO.

 

[famicommander]

Yeah, I stopped after the third book. It's a good ending point IMO.

I've been told 5 and 6 are much better than 4, but most people quit after 4. Guess I'll find out.

 

[famicommander]

Watched Annihilation. As y'all said, it's really good. It's similar to Arrival in a lot of ways, both superficially and thematically, but it sort of reaches the opposite conclusion. They're both about a college professor who ends up helping the military in a first contact situation. But while the aliens in Arrival are ultimately benevolent and bringing a gift, the aliens in Annihilation are essentially cancerous. Arrival is about a woman who saves mankind by becoming a better version of herself, Annihilation is about a woman who saves mankind by teaching the aliens how to self-destruct like a human. And in both movies the protagonist destroys their relationship. In Arrival she does it because she already loves the child she knows will be terminally ill and decides not to tell the father, who would've chosen not to have the doomed child. In Annihilation she has an affair, which is why she believes her husband signed up for a suicide mission to begin with. One wrecks her relationship out of a selfless love, the other out of selfishness and self-loathing.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Watched Annihilation. As y'all said, it's really good. It's similar to Arrival in a lot of ways, both superficially and thematically, but it sort of reaches the opposite conclusion. They're both about a college professor who ends up helping the military in a first contact situation. But while the aliens in Arrival are ultimately benevolent and bringing a gift, the aliens in Annihilation are essentially cancerous. Arrival is about a woman who saves mankind by becoming a better version of herself, Annihilation is about a woman who saves mankind by teaching the aliens how to self-destruct like a human. And in both movies the protagonist destroys their relationship. In Arrival she does it because she already loves the child she knows will be terminally ill and decides not to tell the father, who would've chosen not to have the doomed child. In Annihilation she has an affair, which is why she believes her husband signed up for a suicide mission to begin with. One wrecks her relationship out of a selfless love, the other out of selfishness and self-loathing.

Good observations.

 

[Late]

The original series of books goes off the rails after a while. It's like you can see Frank Herbert's mind deteriorate in real time.

Yeah, Dune and Dune Messiah are great, God Emperor... was only interesting because Leto II kept grinding the Bene Gesserits' face into the dust.

 

[famicommander]

Well, my copy of the first Dune novel just arrived.

Let's do this

 

[SouthtownKid]

Well, my copy of the first Dune novel just arrived.

Let's do this

Which cover?