I watched Dune last weekend. I have never read the novel by Frank Herbert or seen the 1984 David Lynch film. I have to say it’s pretty bold to release a movie in 2021 with such a dense plot and not have a traditional climax to the film. Denis Villenueve did an excellent job creating this world. The cinematographer did an even better job capturing the grand scope of this desert planet. It’s certainly a very beautiful movie visually, and I enjoyed the fresh science fiction design of the vehicles, costumes, weapons, and creatures. It is half of a story, and I hope the second part completes the narrative of what this first film established. It was brought to my attention that this story is comparable to Star Wars: A New Hope with Paul (Chalamet) being a young man unaware of his role in grand scheme of things similar to Luke. I responded by saying that it is similar but without an exciting ending with the Death Star exploding. This was more like Luke kills Chewbacca at Mos Eisley cantina and then Han lets him join his journey…credits. What I'm saying is that the film lacked a conclusion. It reminded me of The Lord of Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and how it ended with the journey beginning. And, that is my main issue with this film. My main criticism is Warner Brothers not backing Villenueve from the start. The studio executives should have let the man adapt the book and split the film into two parts from the get-go instead releasing half the story without knowing if part two would happen or not. Warner Brothers made a financial decision that seems wrong in my opinion. Right now, the hype for part 2 is the highest it could possibly be. Now, we have to wait for Dune 2: Spice World to start filming which is rumored to begin in July of 2022. I'm glad that Chalamet, Ferguson, Bardem, and Zendaya were all available. I'm concerned that COVID protocols will slow the development of this new film, and they'll miss their expected release date of October of 2023. Now, had Warner Brothers banked on their director, they could have cut costs by filming both movies back-to-back and released them a year apart. Similar to Kill Bill, The Matrix 2 & 3, Avengers 3 & 4, Harry Potter 7, The Hunger Games 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, and The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit trilogies. Now, we have to wait until the end of 2023 at the earliest to see the next installment of a movie that was clearly designed to be filmed in multiple parts. The title card says "Dune: Part 1" at the beginning of the film. Warner Brothers whiffs once again. I'm regretting watching this movie at home on HBO Max. It should be seen in theaters. It is stunningly beautiful. I would give this one 4 1/2 stars on the Slacker scale with the caveat that the sequel could either drop it to 4 stars or bump it to 5.
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Professor Procrastination/Legit Idjit/Perfect Slacker
is a self-proclaimed, semi-professional procrastinator that doubles as an pop-culture guru. Is he completely renarded? Perhaps. Is renarded a word that he invented on urban dictionary? It is. He is also the Legit Idjit on Facebook and a Perfect Slacker on reddit and Twitter. Categories
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