Every Star Wars after the first were flat out stupid. I could not escape the ridiculous plots. I have to admit, I've enjoyed the live action Halo series on Showtime though. First two Aliens, first Predator were ok.
The greatest shock was in the Empire Strikes Back - Luke KISSED his Sister! I read the Marvel comics adaptation had their romance for a bit before OOOOPS!
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer
I like my rifles like my women - short, light, fast, brown, and suppressed.
At least at the time of ESB, that fact wasn't known. I seem to recall somewhere that it wasn't even known to Lucas, but only became true for ROJ.
Chris
Given the Jabba the Hutt bikini images, maybe I could understand Luke if he kept it quiet for awhile. Once I saw the Walkers - the stupidest armored vehicle design ever, I lost interest.
Also, the save the day by shooting a magic weapon down the garbage chute - give me a break. Now this is getting into comic book forum battle discussions. I am above that!
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Well, you say that...
Well, considering that the Butlerian Jihad was about 11,000 years prior, and it would take a lot of wordy expostulation about it and the ban on machines to counterfeit the human mind, I can sort of see why. The prequels by Herbert junior covering the Butlerian Jihad et seq. are just awful.He completely skipped the subplot involving the mentat human computers and the Butlerian jihad.
I read the original 'Dune World' serial in Analog while in college, and I have seen the 1984 movie, the 2000 tv show, and the present version. I am looking forward to version 3, part 2. I am NOT looking forward to a part 3 based on a later book. I always say Herbert was going to get around to 'Abbot and Costello Ride the Sandworm."
One low point was when Playboy excerpted 'God Emperor of Dune.' I said how could the book continue after that? Well it couldn't, Playboy had printed the LAST part of the book, with a very conclusive conclusion.
Code Name: JET STREAM
I wonder if the issue of AI came from E.E. Smith and the Lensmen series. The Arisians - the cosmic level intelligences running the Galactic Patrol forbid the development of thinking machines and stopped development of transitors, etc. The Patrol had to use miniature vacuum tubes for their electronic - not conducive to AI. For brain power, they had the super intelligence of Arisia who could predict much and then the genetically selective Lensmen.
As far as your sister, Ahem, there was an indication that the 4th stage brother and 4 sisters might be the start of a new human race. However, Robert Heinlein told Smith that that story line wouldn't fly and the series was squelched. That was strange as later in Heinlein's books, his characters were sleeping with their relatives all the time. Got pretty weird.
Last edited by Glenn E. Meyer; 03-05-2024 at 03:14 PM.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Coming from HBO: Dune, House Whittaker.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
Big, dense books with lots of worldbuilding are notoriously difficult to adapt to screen. This, and Peter Jackson's LOTR are about as good as one can reasonably expect for a film adaptation.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
Saw it today on the IMAX: excellent movie and well worth paying a premium to see on the really big screen. Some observations:
1. We saw five previews--only one appeared to be an original story, (The Fall Guy), the rest were derivative of decades-old intellectual properties (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; Twisters; Godzilla & Kong Something Something; Furiosa a Mad Max Story). None looked interesting.
2. Dune 2 contains very little exposition or world building; aside from the emperor's daughter's voice over which sets out a little about how the last movie ended, and serves to help explain events that happen off-screen in this one. It helps to have seen Dune 1, or to have read the books. I found this lack of exposition to be very refreshing--the movie presents us a world and a story and we can simply view it, without being hit constantly by "and here's the backstory on this character who is about to get his own movie series." It's almost as if the filmmakers have some respect for the intelligence of their audience.
3. The film is beautifully shot. If you appreciate cinematography, or still photography for that matter, it is worth seeing for the visuals alone. The black and white infrared sequence on the Harkonnen home planet was very well done, and the cinematographer's use of wide-aperture lenses gives the movie a much different look than most recent science fiction movies.
4. The story, although it deviates from, compresses, and elides events in the book, still provides a compelling and engaging narrative. The dynamic between Paul and Chani is at the center of the movie, and that makes it feel very human despite the science-fiction / fantasy setting. There is an echo of the end of "The Godfather" at the end of this movie: when Paul turns away from Chani to take the throne, it felt like the scene where Michael closes the door on Kay to take his place as Godfather. Not saying the films are equivalent--they are not--but Dune manages to convey a similar theme despite the science fiction overlay.
5. The action set-pieces, although very well done, were the least interesting part of the movie and I didn't mind that the final attack sequence on the Emperor's ship was truncated with much of the fighting implied rather than shown. The standout big sequence was Paul's first ride on a sandworm which was amazing--and really a necessary part of the movie--but after nearly two decades of movies showing massive battles consisting of CGI extras running toward each other, leaping and punching, I wasn't sad to see those fights cut short here.
All in all, worth seeing even if you're not a fan of Dune already.
Last edited by oregon45; 03-06-2024 at 09:19 PM.
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