Bad Geek Confessions: Dune

I finally got around to seeing the new Dune film on blu-ray because I am a casual fan of the franchise.

This is what makes me a bad geek.

I am a Whovian, a Trekkie and a First Generation Star Wars Fan.  

This is the holy trinity of obsessive, gate keeping, and easily offendable sci-fi fan bases.

They are nothing compared to Dune fans.

This is a group who, when the SON of the original author tried to expand the universe by writing new books with others, they BOMBARDED Amazon with huge amounts of negative reviews...

When the books were ANNOUNCED and well before anything was known about the content.

Yes the above three have done that before shows and movies have premiered, but at least they had casting decisions to be thick-headedly angry about.

I do own the Frank Herbert penned books and have read them several times. I have Dune discs and a t-shirt, but I'm nowhere near as obsessive as this crowd tends to be.

Therefore instead of trying to objectively look at the new film and compare it to the novels like a "true fan" would, I will instead do what I do best, list out my my personal experiences with the franchise.

I picked up the six original books in the same used book store I first found The Godfather in.  The place was on the corner, a couple of doors down from Aquilonia, the comic book store we visited weekly in college.

Then I did what no human should ever do. I read them all in a row.

For a couple of weeks, I was thirsty all the time, and had constant nightmares about being lost in the desert.

I discovered what many had before me. The books were extremely deep, detailed and filled with many interesting views and ideas. They also had a story that easily caught the reader's attention, filled with romance, intrigue, and action on large and small scales.

I have re-read them several times. I have also been smart enough to read them one at a time, with other books between when I do that.

I saw the 1984 David Lynch film on cable before going to college, but didn't understand much of it. I do not own this one, which is why I have used a photo of my Dune shirt. I do know the material well enough to be aware the quote on the front of the shirt comes more from that film than the source material. 

I find this film to be a lot like the view master, or film strip version of stories I saw in grammar school. They look cool and it's nice to see a visual representation of  some of the stuff from the novels. However, there's no way to really comprehend what's going on without reading the source material first. From a messianic coincidence point of view, the movies Dune and The Passion of the Christ are the two worst offenders of this type in cinematic history.

I had heard about the SyFy channel Dune miniseries, but missed most of it. When the sequel came on, I stumbled upon a marathon session of both series one Sunday night. While setting up the VCR (Yes, I am that much of a fossil) I got caught up in it and watched the whole thing.

 I was far less then productive the next day at work. I have since purchased them and watched them at a more sane pace...usually when the rest of my family is in Colorado as they care as much about Maud Dib and his galactic conquest as my sister does about "Frodo and his stupid ring."  It is up to my brother in law Dave and I to maintain the family's focus on fantastical world renowned epics.

The two miniseries did a really good job of having the "meat" of the story and characters of the first three books, but the budget limitations did show from time to time. I'm pretty sure I caught moments where the huge, beautiful background painting was flapping in the breeze. 

Still Dune has a lot of intellectual content and the miniseries did pretty well on bringing that into live action.

Now, that The Lord of the Rings and those that followed in its footsteps have retaught audiences patience, we can have the best of several worlds.

Dune 2021 has an enormous, and impressive cast, fantastic, largely practical effects...

yet only covers half(ish) of the book.

I was truly impressed, in this day of Tick Tock attention spans that the movie took its time.  There were slow pans to show its gorgeous scenery. There were also moments to  allow long dialogues full of philosophical and expositional content. However, due to the pacing choice, most of the exposition came in the "show don't tell" variety.  

I do know there are differences from the novel, and I think I noticed some. However, I haven't read it in a bit, meaning I can't comment on them. (I know..."Bad Dune fan, no Spice for you.")  The film itself flowed together well, meaning there were no changes jarring enough to take me out of my enjoyment of the picture.

It teased the sandworms, and gave one an impressive reveal, but saved the truly cool moments with them for Part II. If I was in charge, I would have titled this film, Dune 1/2. 

It should be obvious why I don't work in marketing...

apart from having a soul, I mean.

The follow up will have more action, (not that this one was lacking) but also have room for the intellectual stuff and a similar pace as well. With the next two books being shorter, they should be able to work them into a film a piece.

I'm really hoping the franchise holds up until we get to God Emperor of Dune, just to see how they show a giant human/ sandworm hybrid interacting with Hollywood's finest on the big screen.  It might seem obvious that book is my favorite of the sequels as its the only one I needed to replace from the original college set. Then again, I have read them all exactly the same number of times. It was just more beat up when I got it. In any case, I still want to see that adaptation the most though.

If the more intense fans of the novel don't burn down the studio first, that is