As many of you might already know, part 2 is out there in cinemas by now.
I watched them "almost together" (with a delay of 1 month). I had not read the books, but I did feel the need to read the Wikipedia article about "Dune" before going to see the movie.
Spoiler rating of my post: "spoilers all over it, beware".
Impressions:
- Wonderful movie. I like it.
- But the wannabe engineer in me hates the dragonfly ornithopters, and predicts frequent mechanical failure in addition to lower efficiency compared to rotary helicopters.
But I get used to things quickly, so after a moment, they no longer bothered me.
- Interestingly, the spacing guild has been written out of movie, I couldn't catch a single glimpse of them. Probably to save time, but I'd have liked to see a rendering of those folks and their way of life. After all, they're the glue that holds the empire together.
- The bad guys are a bit shallow. I'd have liked the bad guys to have more complexity. In the real world, evil people also think they're doing good, or at least doing the necessary evil. The Harkonnens randomly slashing their pilots, concubines and generally people with short-range access to them... bah, I don't buy it.
- The emperor is a bit better in these terms. One can think why he does what he does and guess what rationalizations he is making.
- The Bene Gesserit are well written IMHO. They do both good and evil, and they have credible rationalizations for doing both, and sometimes it's hard to tell which one they're doing currently.
- The Fremen are interesting and enough is shown about the dynamics of their "conversion" to keep the process interesting. To keep one considering what they choose to believe because they desire to reach the outcome of the prophesies, and what is not their choice, but determined by their past and environment. I think it would have been more realistic if Chani hadn't been only person who never bought Paul being a messiah. A faction of the Fremen who realize they are going along with a historic long con (and realizing it will put them on a path to fanaticism - but also bring water and prosperity to their planet) would have been great to watch.
But yep, it would have slowed the story down.
- The film made me remember T.E.Lawrence and re-scan his biography.