Dune

[Sigma]

Would anyone care to praise and/or bash the Lynch movie?

I hated it, but that's a very complicated issue, because there was much brilliance therein, too, so long post I sorta need something to bounce off and get motivated to get into.

I have very mixed feelings about the Dune movies. It does so much right (the costumes, Baron Harkonnen, casting Sting as Feyd-Rautha) but at the same time there are so many details that are either utterly baffling (such as the weirding-modules, Thufir's cat) or rub me the wrong way (Kyle Mclaughlin, the whispery inner monologs) that I can't really say that it is good. What I can say is that it has vision, which is not something you can say about the SyFy miniseries, which is content to translate the letter of the book while lacking any and all soul. I kind of love it in spite of itself, but I really feel like David Lynch is absolutely the wrong person to direct a film like Dune.

[Valka]

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[Unorthodox]

There was a dog?  I gotta rewatch now. 

[Sigma]

I praise the music. It was incredible - wide, sweeping, majestic... and the Prophecy theme was so relaxing! I remember sitting in the theatre, and during those scenes, you could have heard a pin drop.

I praise Irulan's dresses. They were grandiose and gaudy... and absolutely perfect for the Byzantine effect Lynch was going for with the Corrinos. Irulan never had to do any physical labor in her whole life, and so she didn't need any kind of practical clothing. And when she was present in court, part of her function was to be on display.

I do NOT praise that damn annoying little pug dog! Sure, it was cute to bring the family pet to Arrakis... it was sorta nice that Gurney saved it from the Harkonnens. But to keep it alive after that? The Fremen would have taken its water long before the end of the movie, yet there it was, at the end.

However... if not for that damn annoying little pug dog, I wouldn't have been inspired to do a lol series called (tentatively) Sandpugs of Dune. 

God, all of the costuming in Dune is freaking amazing, especially if you learn the backstory behind some of it, like how the Harkonnen uniforms were made out of old body bags. The stillsuits alone deserved an academy award for art design.

[Valka]

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[Buster's Uncle]

Explicitly described in the book as dun-colored to blend in with the sand.  One gathers the Fremen preferred lurking even before the offworlders came.

I mean, black?  Black desert wear?  Looked good, but geeYAH, so stupid.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, black. 

It's actually cooler than white, provided there's a slight breeze.  There's a reason the nomadic tribes like the Bedouin and Tuaregs regularly wear black robes in the desert. 

Granted, that's loose fitting breathable fabric, not skin tight rubber...

You HAVE to change it from camo/blend in to the background because it's a MOVIE.  It HAS to look good.  Black beats most other options there as a result. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah, looked good had to win in a movie - and the stillsuits were beautiful, even when it wasn't Fransesca Annis wearing them.  Homina hom.

[Valka]

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[Unorthodox]

Don't need stealth, we have sound weapons.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Not the way they thought, though.  They were the baddest mothers of all and knew it, but they fought smart instead of hard when they could, and always made with the sneaky at every opportunity.

The desert and Shai Hulud are hard masters, and the sirocco teaches wisdom.  The coriolis storm harvests the fools who do not learn.

[Valka]

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[Unorthodox]

But it's the movie.  It's a separate entity. 

The movie needs VISUAL.  Camoflauging everyone into the background is much less dramatic and would make for a tricky directing job at the very least, most likely come off crappy as all get out.  So, they took the stealthy silent space ninjas and turned them into screaming crazed space vikings.  May as well give them a weapon to go with the screaming.  Sound weapons arent vibrating the ground, so the graboids won't notice anyway. 

[Valka]

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[Sigma]

Desert-colored stillsuits were used in the miniseries and worked quite well. They were also more accurate from a technical point of view. The idea is not to waste the moisture in your breath, and in the Lynch movie, they wasted that moisture practically every damn time they opened their mouths (which should have been masked).

"Accurate from a technical point of view" defines both the miniseries' strengths and weaknesses. It better grasps some of the technical aspects that make the book compelling, but completely fumbles at being interesting to watch. Like Uno said, films need to be visual to work, and if the visuals aren't 100% accurate to the source material but make for a more interesting product then the choice is obvious. Artistry should always [Sleezebag] pedantry.