I’ve always said “A tray uh dees.” Like “I got Atreides canapes here, want some?”
Agreed. Slavish devotion to the books is not always desirable. Rule of cool wins, especially in cases like this one. Villeneuve’s version was definitely more exciting. I just find it funny that the famously deviant Lynch movie was more book-accurate in this case.
That said, improvements in SFX technology in the past 40 years have an effect as well. Lynch had some great set and costume design, but the SFX was pretty weak, even for the time.
“Atreides” means “descendants of Atreus”. Should have four syllables.
The consensus among my schoolmates was that “Gesserit” was a play on “Jesuit”, so it should have a palatal “G”, and the “T” should be pronounced.
I always pronounced the noun “Arrakis” with stress on the middle syllable, but the adjective “Arrakeen” with stress on the first syllable. Question: how many people pronounce the "E"s as one syllable, and how many pronounce them as two syllables?
I’ll take tree a dees can-APES, please.
Despite me starting this pronounceofest, I forgot I also pronounce the family name with four syllables, as you do. Been a while since I read the book.
I enjoyed the way Chani’s story was fleshed out to make her more than just Paul’s consort, and I thought her agnosticism about the Lisan al-Gaib made her an interesting foil for him. But it did create a plot hole I haven’t seen addressed yet: she’s a desert Fremen warrior from Sietch Tabr, who’s never been offworld, possibly never even been to Arakeen; how does she know about the Bene Gesserit and their Missionaria Protectiva?
In the book, Chani did knife-fights to the death with challengers to Muad’Dib. Just so he wouldn’t be bothered.
As long as we are bringing Monty Python into it this bit from “Life of Brian” kinda sums up Dune 2:
30 seconds
Stilgar literally makes that exact joke. “The Mahdi is too humble to say he is the Mahdi!”
I didn’t care for Stilgar in this film. He seemed buffoonish. I can’t place that entirely on the actor, since he was obviously intended to be the comic relief at parts. He’s supposed to be a fearsome and respected warrior that’s slowly being radicalized. Instead he’s viewed as a joke by fellow Fremen. I’m not sure that Bardem helped, though. Just not as lean and wiry as I’d expect a Fremen to be. Everett McGill pulled this off better, IMO.
It isn’t addressed in-movie, but my internal excuse is that (also not mentioned in-movie) is that she’s Liet Kynes daughter, and Pardot Kynes granddaughter. So she’s the child/grandchild of two prior generations of Imperial Planetologists on planet. With Liet being the Judge of the Change when House Atreides takes over, it would be very likely that she’s had a LOT more education about the Imperium than 99.9% of the Fremen.
Of course, there’s no strong indication of that that in the books, but it’s not unreasonable to know that the BG are dangerous manipulators. But the whole Missonaria Protectiva is a pretty deep cut and EXTREMELY unlikely to be known to even her unless she was told it by the Fremen Reverend Mothers - not entirely out of the question as she’s the Grandaughter of the Prophet.
I don’t think I realized - or perhaps had forgotten - that she was Liet Kynes’ daughter; it’s been a while since I reread the book. That makes it plausible that she knows of the Bene Gesserit and what they do. But I have to assume that the Missionaria Protectiva is a pretty closely-held secret among the BG - it wouldn’t work if it were widely known. Yes, the Reverend Mothers of the Fremen might know, but why would they undercut the faith that protects them? Still feels like a plot hole, to me.
Still, I’m okay with it, since Chani the skeptic, who loves the man but not the Mahdi, is more interesting a character.
Was it just me, or did they never actually refer to Shaddam and Irulan by name in the movie?
Agree 100% with the above. And I also agree with the very minor likelyhood of the Reverend Mothers of the Fremen sharing freely - I just wanted to point out it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. But speaking to ONLY what is revealed in the movie there’s a whole (IMHO underdeveloped) subplot about her having a role in the prophecy, and if she was more compliant when she was younger, she may have been much deeper into the Reverend Mother’s good graces and planning.
That actually works - I could see Chani as a formerly-devout Zensunni who suffered a crisis of faith and is now a bit bitter. Fits well with her character in the movie, as played by Zendaya.
Sting’s full screen presence was huge. Too huge. It detracted from what served the character. The quieter pure psychopath interpretation worked better for me as well.
It’s not only rule of cool. A movie adapts the material staying true to the intent as works in the different form. This movie I think made many significant changes from the book that allowed it to be truer to it within the context of being a different medium.
As a general statement, sure. In this specific instance, I’d say it’s more rule of cool–although I suppose they avoided some need for exposition by not using that characteristic (rolling the worm, that is).
Keeping the worm mostly below the sand and mounting it from up top made more sense for me logistically. For the worm to move at great speed, more of it would have to be in contact with the sand. Also, big-assed worms crusing on top of the sand with riders on top would be more easily seen by any stray Harkonnen patrols.
How do we think sandworms are supposed to move? They don’t flex their bodies like snakes. They could ripple their scales in a way that they act like legs, but we don’t see this. They could be covered with cilia that transport sand grains backwards, but we don’t see this either, and both of these techniques wouldn’t propel the worm fast enough. Maybe the worm ingests sand and shoots it out its worm asshole at high speed.
I figured its segments flexed, propelling it along. It made sense in my (admittedly very faulty) head.
Actually, it seems they would move like a snake (or most snakes).
YouTuber and science educator Kyle Hill had an episode about this some years ago. While dealing with a fictional sand worm he notes research done on actual under-sand moving creatures that have been studied here on earth and they move like a snake. They also move more quickly than you might expect.
Of course, Dune’s worms being sci-fi and all there are no firm answers but it seems that what they do in the books is at least somewhat plausible.
12.5 minutes:
I’m surprised to see very little hate for Chalomet’s performance. For me, he almost singlehandedly ruined the movie.
Paul’s entire community (minus a person or two) was just brutally murdered, and a society of psycho women threatened to murder him unless he submitted to torture, and he’s on the run from the murderers, in a society of people who keep talking about killing him and dessicating his body so they can get at his precious bodily fluids, and oh by the way he’s having nightmarish prophetic visions about the billions of people who will die if he makes a wrong move.
This teenager’s got issues.
Now, I know that Paul’s supposed to be really good at suppressing his emotions. But Chalomet didn’t portray someone suppressing emotions. He portrayed someone with barely any emotions at all, beyond the occasional smirk and the even more occasional full-throated hollerin. My wife told me his name was pronounced like Chardonnay, and I said, “That fits, because he’s white, sweet, and wooden.”
A good actor would have shown us a teenager tormented by the horrors he’s experienced. A great one would have shown us a teenager using all his training to suppress indication of that horrors. Chalomet? I never once forgot he was an actor reading lines.
This is primarily his story, and his character struggle and arc is at the heart of the story. To have Paul portrayed by an actor so unskilled at emoting cut the heart right out of the story.
The visuals were incredible. All the other actors did a good-to-great job (although wtf Christopher Walken, you were badly miscast). The action choreography was excellent.
I just didn’t care about what happened, because Timmy stank.