I caught Villeneuve's _Dune_ (part 1) on the big screen, and
wish I had waited for streaming so I could turn down the
volume. The sound design and soundtrack are the worst things
about the film -- they drown out the dialogue and seem
exactly the same in every single scene -- but they are
just the first of a litany of poor decisions on the part of
the director and co-writers.

1. The screenplay/adapation is just very poor. Frank Herbert
wrote all his novels like screenplays, with superb openings
and cliff-hangers between every scene. There is very little
suspense in this screenplay, but perhaps that's also an
editing problem. So many scenes are special effect galore,
obviously done with tons of money, but devoid of wit or
dramatic impact.

2. The tension between the Astreides is almost completely
lost in the film. The assassination attempt on Paul early
on is designed to sow discord between the Astreides. Idaho
openly distrusts Lady Jessica and Halleck thinks she is
the traitor till late in the book. For those not familiar
with the book, retaining this element would have given the
film the dramatic tension it lacks.

3. Jessica's role and importance are substantially reduced.
In the book she has the first and last word. In the film
her big opening scene appears much, much later, after a
lot of pointless pagentry scenes. Some of these, like the
greetings of the Emperor's envoys on Caladin, are not even
in the book, they are pure window dressing.

Rebecca Ferguson is quite good, by the way. I wish I could
say the same of the rest of the actors. The actress playing
Liet Kynes is just dreadful -- and this has nothing to do
with their casting a woman in the role. She doesn't have
an ounce of gravita, inner conviction, or long-term vision
needed to inhabit that role. In the book an entire chapter
is devoted to Kyne's internal monologue as he walks to his
death in the desert. Here she is dispatched with a knife,
horror film style, like it is a joke.

Other than Ferguson, the casting is quite poor.

4. The film does end with one of the two key duels in the book
-- where Paul kills Jamis reluctantly. I kind of predicted
this -- the duel is at the exact middle of the book, and
nicely bookends the later, climatic duel. But it removes the
element that makes this scene great and unforgettable, namely,
Jessica's (and Stilgar's) cold shouldering of Paul afterwards.
Jessica does this to teach him a lesson; he should never be
allowed to enjoy besting someone vastly inferior to him in
training, lest he becomes the same monster that the Harkonens
are. I've watched so many martial arts films/TV shows and
none of them has this insight; their "heroes" are stone-cold
killers at their first kill.

The list goes on. I've often said that _Dune_ (and the next
two books) would be much better as stage-plays with minimal
special effects. It is completely to be expected that
Villeneuve goes in the opposite direction, given his recent
track record, but his _Dune_ is a lot more disappointing that
I could have imagined. The one innovation it brings is to use
ancillary characters to voice Paul's visions and premonitions.
Thus Jamis actually "speaks" to Paul, giving him advice, before
they meet in combat. That is a nice touch and the film should
have done that more consistently and frequently.

(for A.)

On Mond
>
> 4. The film does end with one of the two key duels in the book
> -- where Paul kills Jamis reluctantly. I kind of predicted
> this -- the duel is at the exact middle of the book, and
> nicely bookends the later, climatic duel. But it removes the
> element that makes this scene great and unforgettable, namely,
> Jessica's (and Stilgar's) cold shouldering of Paul afterwards.
> Jessica does this to teach him a lesson; he should never be
> allowed to enjoy besting someone vastly inferior to him in
> training, lest he becomes the same monster that the Harkonens
> are. I've watched so many martial arts films/TV shows and
> none of them has this insight; their "heroes" are stone-cold
> killers at their first kill.
>
Incidentally, when Chani gives Paul the knife in the book, she
actually also slips him tips about fighting Jamis -- that the
latter can fight with both hands. This hints at the complex
dynamics within the Fremen tribe, and perhaps Chani's attraction
to Paul right from the beginning, or her hope that he will indeed
be the "Messiah." In the film, she does nothing of the kind;
the filmmakers probably make the change to make Paul more
heroic, but like many of the other small changes, it detracts
from the emotional complexity of the book.

One more poor change in that whole sequence. In the
film, Stilgar asks Paul to hand over his maula pistol and
he obliges. In the book, Stilgar calls for Paul to come
down from his hiding place and Paul does nothing. Jessica
explains that he would only listen to her commands. The
film probably omits this bit to once again diminish Jessica's
authority and importance, but compared with the book, the
characters' motivations become quite juvenile.