Why are Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies loved by audience and critics? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 8 months ago by wolf@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When watching movies, I always try to differentiate between my personal enjoyment and the inherent merits of the movies. There are a lot of bad movies, which I totally and thoroughly enjoy watching, and some really great movies, which I don't enjoy that much, but still can respect/appreciate.

With this prelude, I totally do not get the positive reactions to Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies. At the time I am writing this question, part two has 94% critique and 95% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, 9.0 at IMDB.

In my opinion, Dune 1 and Dune 2 have obviously high production values and good special effects. What I do not like is the acting, the pacing, the total flat/simple characters and the whole narration, which is for me a trivial love story between Chani and Paul, plus becoming a leader and get some revenge. I could simply replace the 'Dune' theme with a standard war theme and a few tribes, and I would have exactly the same movie. Also the battle scenes at the end of part 2, they are for me totally cookie cutter war movie/battle aesthetics. (Total waste: There are big Sandworms after all, and combat with personal shields etc.).

My question is, especially if you very much enjoyed watching the Dune movies:

Why did you personally enjoy the movie?
Do you think this movies have some inherent merits?
How do you like the acting/plot/pacing?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Talaraine@kbin.social 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah I loved the effects and the cinematography, I mean that's what makes new movies fantastic... it's a showcase of how real we can get things to look.

But the books were filled from cover to cover with worldbuilding that's a whole lot more than vistas. There's reasons and motivations that lead you to where the story begins and a failure to grasp at least some of those (Butlerian Jihad, Bene Gesserit, Guild Navigators and ofc the SPICE) leaves you with what @reddig33 said.

But the new movies seem very sterile, slow, and dull.

They are rote action movies that fail to evoke any real emotion, and that's a shame.

this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024

64 points (84.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26673 readers

1389 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.