Cross Talk

Started well but the characters devolved into mannequins from which the plot is hung, it required greater depth of character development all round to feel emotionally engaged with the key players. While I wasn’t expecting a Kubrickian vast canvas of special effects (the space walk scene was quite good) the final scenes appeared to be filmed in the corner of a hardware store. The heartfelt farewells of the crew on their return to Earth had little impact because we seen little of their interactions throughout. Perhaps a narrative balance between the Polar base and the Aether was not ever realistic in the time frame allotted for the film. A firmer focus on either the Pole or Space might have created greater opportunities for characterisation. Having said that, film such as The Abyss work brilliantly with excellent characters and credible narratives (yep! aliens in the deeps is more credible than this). This adaptation would almost definitely been more successful as a Netflix miniseries. It wanted to be ambitious but lacked execution, a proper plot or any justification for all the weird decisions NASA appear to make by not keeping... Oh why bother, the writers didn’t. Space Odyssey 2001 was written by a celebrated SciFi author- the writing came first: a plot - beginning, middle and end. There’s so much good SciFi out there begging to adapted for the screen why did they mangle this one so badly? Perhaps it is well that the estate of the late great Iain M Banks pulled out of recent talks to adapt one of his novels. A poor adaptation of a Culture series novel could have been dreadful- perhaps hilarious but definitely dreadful. George Clooney understands the American psyche and represents on screen am Americana we want to immerse ourselves in. Science fiction has proved itself an international genre and perhaps this is the reason why Mr Clooney’s forays in this direction are less appealing. Let’s wait until the Cohen brothers give their treatment of Dune perhaps :- D

Phenomenal Dune reflects an awakening in American consciousness that the Earth was a finite resource and humanity on this fragile Eden was interconnected and capable of greatness. The 1960’s Western focus on military triumph, materialism, the extraction of natural resources, emerging hegemonies and oligarchic feuding is echoed in Dune and reflected activities begun in the Middle East post WWII. Dune was an ecological and philosophical response to where Herbert saw global societies were heading; desertification, greed, untrammelled Jihad: Dune has lessons for today’s world orders, and for us all. This is conveyed vividly, even poetically in Villeneuve’s interpretation for 2022, and not a weirding module in sight. Bless the Maker and His water