![Tim Pool has the attention span of a goldfish [579x767 - 252KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/hwe7oy.png){kind=link}
In this case, Dune Part 1 is a film, not a novel.
There’s a massive amount of “telling, not showing” that takes place, and the showing that does occur paints a lifeless universe, as evidenced by Atreides, a planet as empty as the shelves at an American retailer under Joe Biden. It’s sterile and bland in human terms, albeit beautifully designed and realized by its team of technicians.
The opening narration featured a prologue that lacked the capacity to either show or tell, thanks to selecting the character from the film who appeared to know the least to tell the audience. We came to the end of it knowing almost as little as we did at the start. For a world as alien and foreign as Dune, this isn’t workable in cinematic language.
I have no problem with slow, plodding films such as Kubrick’s 2001, and I enjoy reading novels. I do have a problem with film adaptations that pretend they can carry the weight of their source material by simply making themselves as long and dry as possible.
Peter Jackson, when adapting The Lord of the Rings, while not executed exactly perfectly, faced the same struggle as Dune - a deliberately unfilmable piece of writing. He took that challenge and made two decisions: first, using a machete to hack away all but the absolute essential story, as a starting point, and then fleshing back out as the opportunity allowed; second, allowing for supplemental information to be included at the start to immerse the audience in the world of the story.
Dune Part 1 is poorly paced and lacks anything for the audience to sink its teeth into for the majority of its self-important runtime. It’s gorgeous and decently acted, but fails as a film. Perhaps an expanded edition will be offered at some point, but it won’t fill in those massive, barren sets where we see none of the people of this universe outside of the main characters and military personnel.
So you see your post demonstrates that you watched and absorbed the content of the movie and you have an opinion about it you can articulate... but this post was not about Dune but rather about Tim.
Tim said "I got bored and fell asleep" which to me indicates that he was not able to keep up and tuned out. You say "massive amount of 'telling, not showing'" but yet Tim wanted an hour of it to be compressed to 5 min. He is saying "They showed me too much. I wish they had just told me." All of these things indicate to me that Tim is a intellectual midget.
I’m not defending Tim. He may be what you say. However, the film also didn’t give him a fighting chance.
One of my friends, one who’s no slouch when it comes to attention span and being a literary thinker, said he had to sit with a notepad for the first hour to try and keep track of what everybody was talking about because the film was excessively expositional. Lots of names dropped and “explanations” given without decent context or visual cues to assist.
With cinema being a medium for broader consumption, and in the case of scifi epics, one targeted more at entertainment, there is a requirement for brevity and “cutting to the chase.” Five minutes to tell the whole story of the film was hyperbolic, but I won’t say the sentiment was wrong.
By comparison, a film that was heavily inspired by Dune, Star Wars, even without the opening crawl, conveys key essentials of the story’s universe in the first 30 seconds as a tiny spaceship scrambles away from the massive Star Destroyer.
By contrast, Dune talked about the dangers of Arrakis and showed off some costume design work, when it could have just as easily demonstrated the nature of the planet through actual perils experienced by extras or side characters. They talked about how influential yet loyal Leto was, but I never saw him really wield influence or his loyalty in a meaningful way.
When these things happen, audience members like Tim end up frustrated and confused, when they should be enthralled and excited by this massive universe full of intrigue and wonder.
Haha...
Did you see David Lynch's adaptation? Those voice over exposition scenes were desperately needed to set up the universe the film takes place in- and even with that shortcut, most viewers who had not read the novels walked away a little confused.
The SciFi channel did a really, really good adaptation of Dune in a mini-series. The world feels alive and real. I have not seen the new Dune film yet, so I cannot comment- but I have a feeling it will fall short of my expectations.
Are they planning on making more movies? I mean, it's a gold mine, I don't see why they wouldn't continue telling the story of the Atreides family and the struggle for Spice. I've always wanted to see God Emperor of Dune adapted...
It was boring. Halfway through the movie I had to pause and wake myself up. Now it is novel accurate but nothing really happens in the first part of the book to begin with. This director sucks at action sequences though. "My sharp knife is going to slice through all these heavily armoured warriors." Was not portrayed well AT ALL and it makes the action kinda lame. There was absolutely no focus on the sci-fi aspect of the story.
The male lead actor kid was good.
Agree
It's a tweet.
I haven't seen it yet, but I've read the books so not worried about spoilers.
The opening narration featured a prologue that lacked the capacity to either show or tell, thanks to selecting the character from the film who appeared to know the least to tell the audience.
It should be Irulan. Is that not who it is?
There isn’t a planet “Atreides”. Caladan and Arrakis are the two planets shown in the movie. Arrakis is nicknamed “Dune”.
I realized the mistake a while after I’d commented and didn’t bother correcting it. It’s a nice way to see who nitpicks.
In the end it wouldn’t matter if the planet were called “Ligma,” it was still a large, lifeless, empty bunch of sets. Or maybe they’re still under “social distancing” mandates thousands of years from now.
For someone who read the books it made me want to stab you with a soldering iron.
But the point stands, the surface is a barren husk. To anyone who grew up in a desert you see the beauty beneath the surface.
Dune would be better as a tv show. Don’t know why they keep remaking it as a movie. Well done critique
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