Gerri L Gagnon

My first impressions after viewing Dune (2021) ... Wadi Rumm was beautiful as always (merci beaucoup for using actual desert locations), the cinematography and actors were ok, but pacing was WAY TOO SLOW. They could have cut a lot tighter throughout & especially skipped the portentous & pretentious scene announcing the move to Arrakis. (Why not start in media res like book? - We already know the Atreides are being forced to move! And why cut dialog between Paul & GHM about Leto losing two planets that had appeared in trailer? such an easy expository foreshadowing.) I've always loved the books (Dune Messiah still my fav) and eagerly awaited this film, (hated '84 version), but it's not good when I'm sighing watching a film waiting for the next plot point to happen. Also, there was too much emphasis on Chani in Paul's visions. (I'm all for more emphasis on female characters, but she was a blank except for 1 scene, while Jessica's characterization was too hysterical in beginning, decorative in middle, and only cool/decisive in last quarter of film.) Paul says in the book he saw Chani in many visions, but it wasn't some romantic vision of her that enticed him onward; instead, Paul's character journey (beyond heroics of winning back his patrimony) was learning to recognize and accept his "constantly ticking mind"/precognition/position as KH, yet avoid the glimpsed "time"-bomb of his future deification and the consequent jihad - something this film barely touched upon. So, I'm still glad the SyFy channel did the mini-series. No huge budget or real deserts, but they managed: It moves faster, covers all major plot points - keeping scenes from book (banquet scene) & tension in character/story arcs; the cast was good if not movie-star great (William Hurt prob. best known in USA); Vittorio Storaro was DOP(!!); & they eventually did first 3 books. Maybe a smaller budget meant production could concentrate on script, words, characterizations rather than spectacle. Something this latest film forgot, furthering slowing pace. (I hate CGI/FX of explosion after explosion in films, something all guy directors do, never figuring out it's the STORY & CHARACTERS we care about & follow- not endless deafening battles & no tactics. - Amazingly, that's something Game of Thrones figured out, but others seem not to have learned.) Final PS: My best info re DUNE, was learned from reading the letters between Herbert and his editor(s) - A VERY interesting discussion, and most importantly: that absolute prediction "leads ever downward into stagnation."