Thirith on 20/10/2021 at 08:32
We saw The Last Duel yesterday, a film that I did enjoy a fair bit, though I think it's somewhat conflicted in terms of its structure and themes. I'll have to think about these things some more, but what I can definitely say is that Scott is still a consummate craftsman, and the people he's working with are equally great at their craft. I can't remember any recent films set in some distant past that look as much like they just sent a camera back in time and filmed what they found. There wasn't a single moment where I thought, "Shame that the CGI doesn't look as good as the physical sets and scenery" - I'm certain that pretty much every single shot had some CGI magic in it, but it all just looks like a coherent, believable 14th century, at least to me. The acting is also very good, once you get over the crimes against hairstyle committed by the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck characters.
Tocky on 2/11/2021 at 01:11
By far the best horror I've watched this season was one called "Spell". Unlike "Get Out" which I found amusing in it's cartoonish over the top characters this black horror was creepy and gripping and I didn't laugh once. No trenchant social critiques to mess up a good story here. It was tense. I'm not even going to give you a hint of plot. It's free on Hulu if you want to see it. Most of the stars I've never seen in anything except Loretta Devine and John Beasley but everyone played their parts well. I guess critics prefer being shown shit they should have figured out a long time ago and give those things more credit than they should but this is classic horror. This is going back to the roots of what scares. I want to give hints but nah, you have to find out. No big plot twists but it didn't need any. The unfolding was well done.
By contrast I recently saw "Beyond the Black Rainbow" which has nothing to do with black people BTW. It was a chopped up mess. Sure you can piece the puzzle together but it's a chore. It really is like a bunch of scenes somebody thought would be cool were taped together like a Frankenstein's monster and expected to dance to Swan Lake. It was okay. I watched it because the person recommending it on NPR also praised "The Lodge" which really is an excellent film. The Lodge had reminded me of "Goodnight Mommy" which is a soul crushing horror and if they thought that was good then surely the rainbow one must be good. Nah. Just odd. The role Michael Rogers played was odd and it was interesting to see him try to make it as odd as possible but it's not scary.
Renault on 3/11/2021 at 03:10
Saw Dune tonight, I thought it was great. I plan on seeing it again soon. Not a common thing for me with any movie (repeat viewing so soon after the 1st time), but as most people have said, seeing it on the big screen is an absolute must.
I've seen it getting "good" to "very good" reviews, but not many in the "excellent" category. I'd be curious to know what the criticisms are (for the record, haven't read the book or seen the version from 1984). Maybe it's because it only covers half of the book? I can't really understand why they didn't just make both parts at the same time, I think it was a pretty safe bet the movie would do well.
zacharias on 3/11/2021 at 06:03
Not at all a safe bet. Blade runner 2049 was brilliant IMO but I think lost the studio 80 million (according to Wikipedia). Then you have Lynch's version (a movie which I love parts of, but frankly it is a bit of a mess overall) which lost money. John Carter etc. Anyone remember Krull? ;)
It's kinda amazing that any of these big production sci-fi movies even get made IMO when you look purely at cost vs risk.
Pyrian on 3/11/2021 at 07:41
Quote Posted by zacharias
Anyone remember Krull? ;)
I remember its media and merchandizing push at the time. It was supposed to be
huge. And then... It wasn't. I finally saw it many years later, and wow, I'd heard it was bad but it was
bad.
demagogue on 3/11/2021 at 09:30
I have a lot of affection for Krull, although I recognize that objectively it's not a movie that's going to have a good ROI.
I think with Dune specifically the risk is that it has a kind of cult following, or it's perceived to, so an adaptation which the fans think doesn't sufficiently align with the source could backfire (like I have a feeling the live action Cowboy Bebop is going to backfire). And the money is being invested early on before they've seen it.
But anyway, they cut it in the middle. So a second movie is kind of inevitable. Why not wait for returns from the first movie to fund the second? I think people raise money for two movies when they may not be 100% sure the 2nd one will get made if they didn't.
Thirith on 3/11/2021 at 09:36
Dune keeps its viewers at arms' length. Its characters are not particularly personable. Its craftsmanship is impeccable, but I can absolutely imagine audiences coming away from this not feeling much of a connection to the characters and world. (That's how I felt to some extent, a reaction that was definitely made stronger by the film feeling more incomplete to me than, say, Fellowship of the Ring or Infinity War, even if seen as Part I.) Honestly, while I hope that Dune does well, I doubt it would be a mega-hit at the box office.
faetal on 3/11/2021 at 13:40
How connected can you plausibly feel to a bunch of planet level nobles, a mystical political cult, a would-be messiah, inhuman warmongers and isolationist desert dwellers?
I think in terms of box office, it is already Villeneuve's biggest success, and the studio have green-lit part 2.
I am probably not being objective though as Dune has been my favourite sci fi novel for around 30 years, so any good handling of the source material is going to be golden in my book (that said, I even loved Lynch's stab at it, weird as it was).
Thirith on 3/11/2021 at 13:50
Quote Posted by faetal
How connected can you plausibly feel to a bunch of planet level nobles, a mystical political cult, a would-be messiah, inhuman warmongers and isolationist desert dwellers?
By and large, I'd say that relatability has much more to do with how a story presents its characters and what it does with them than with whether they're planet-level nobles, would-be messiahs, or government-sponsored assassins, or anthropomorphic trees, for instance.
Which is not to say that one way of doing it is better than the other, or that Villeneuve's approach doesn't fit the source material. But Villeneuve, similarly to Nolan, has a tendency to put his audience at a remove the grander his material is. I felt very close to his main character in
Arrival;
Blade Runner 2049 felt more remote (which, arguably, fits the fact that we're following around a Replicant - but I'd also say that
BR49 felt more remote to me than the original
Blade Runner).
Dune is yet more removed IMO. Again, that's not something I would criticise, but it is something that can keep a film from being a big blockbuster.
Pyrian on 3/11/2021 at 15:54
I feel that Gosling didn't remotely do justice to his character's agonizing arc in BR49.