Wow, I’d seen mostly negative reviews, so I’m especially surprised to see a book fan liking it. Happy to hear some positive energy about it, though.
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I think Io9 gave it a glowing review as well. Seems to be for those who are into 2 hr 30 minute space operas where the movie only covers half the story though.
It’s 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ll be curious to see how non-book fans react, because there’s pretty minimal exposition and it seems like it would be bewildering to somebody who isn’t familiar with the source material.
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I admit that when I said that, the reviews I had seen were from people seeing it at one or another film festival a month or two ago, not anything current, and I hadn’t checked RT at all. 89% on RT is really encouraging.
I also saw it recently and fully agree. It’s also surprisingly funny at times (the whole “grandpa” thing lol)
I think most of the negative reviews mention how long it is and the abrupt ending. Obviously it’s going to look and sound phenomenal. Not sure how Hans Zimmer can compete with Toto though.
Got bored with white savior stuff an hour in with Dune last night and turned it off but YMMV!
Sounds like it’s true to the source material!
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I remember reading and loving Dune when I was like 12 or so, and then when I tried to read it again a decade or so later I couldn’t make it through the whole book.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
8/10
Shows the possibilities and limitations of a Marvel movie. There’s no way you could get a kung fu movie with heavy Chinese mysticism made on anything more than an indie budget, but also the third act becomes a CGI fest and some of the obvious green screen takes away from the weight and heft of what a real kung fu movie would have.
That being said it is one of the better Marvel movies.
The Last Duel
6/10
Finally my Crusader Kings knowledge works to my advantage. They’re throwing out the names of random French 14th century places and lords and talking about retinues and tax collection and I’m like
The movie bombed in the box office and people are blaming the dour trailers and the counter is that actually it’s funny and has a lot of action and isn’t just a #metoo movie, and it’s not just a #metoo movie, but is heavily blue filtered and dark and there’s not a lot of action, so I’d say the dour part isn’t completely unjustified.
The story telling the same couple of years from three different perspectives. What people think of as the comedy is that three three stories are slanted to making each person look good and just and the others others bad. In some ways it’s obvious but in other ways it’s subtle and the combination of both that creates some, I guess I’d call it, comedic tension, but everything is played completely straight.
I wouldn’t recommend the movie though. It’s too long to really enjoy as entertainment.
Jodie Comer is absolutely beautiful and very expressive.
Matt Damon does a good job acting and rocks a great mullet
but they couldn’t save it.
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Someone in the TV thread recommended the netflix series “the movies that made us” (thanks!), they have an episode on “Halloween” which was pretty cool (and has convinced me back that this is one of the greatest movies ever).
They talk quickly about the shot found (spoiler obv) here. It’s a funny one because i strongly remember how on first watch it really worked on me the way they intended (i.e. your brain tricking you into thinking it’s doing the work that lighting/mask movement is doing) but on rewatch it doesn’t seem to work. Cool trick anyway.
Watched 2nd half of dune tonight out of boredom. The positive reviews and imdb score of 8+ astonish me. Its like… 1/3 of a story. There’s nothing there. And part 2 isn’t even greenlit after filming on this wrapped like 2+ years ago? What in the world?
I don’t know how anyone could enjoy that without being a book reader. But I sure enjoyed it. What a gorgeous film.
I can’t wait to experience Dune for myself, but I really really wish a non-D&D HBO team had gotten hold of it and turned it into a series or at least a mini series. It’s just flat inevitable that they’re gonna miss half the story no matter how long the film is.
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I disagree. GOT is the biggest budget show ever and parts still looked rough. Villanova had Blade Runner 2049 looking gorgeous. The cinematography was something you can’t get out of a TV show.
The sheriff’s office confirms that two individuals were shot on the set of Rust. Halyna Hutchins, 42, director of photography and Joel Souza, 48, director, were shot when a prop firearm was discharged by Alec Baldwin, 68, producer and actor.
Well HBO max is making a Bene Gesserit show so