Movies we are looking forward to seeing

[Túrin Turambar]

According to the early reviews I've read (or seen) the film is based far more heavily on two Martin Scorsese movies, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, than the original comics. But again, I haven't seen the film (nor either of those).

[Frelga]

Has anyone seen Harriet? I've read mixed reviews, with some people complaining about inventions in the story that didn't need any.

[Túrin Turambar]

Christopher Nolan's new film Tenet is now out in theatres, in those places where you can go to the theatre. I've watched a couple of video reviews now where the reviewers have kept referring to it as 'Tenant'. It feels like they're doing it just to annoy me.

The reviews have been mixed, with a lot of complaints that the dialogue is indecipherable. I'm curious to see it now to see if this is the case - some people struggled with the dialogue in Nolan's previous films, but I can't say it's ever bothered me. But we'll see. Eventually.

[Alatar]

The first Dune trailer is out today. Fingers crossed!

[Túrin Turambar]

There's even a trailer for the trailer:

[yovargas]

As someone who thought Arrival and Blade Runner were pretty but dreary and dull, that trailer fully has me expecting a movie that is pretty but dreary and dull.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For a trailer for a trailer that is pretty darn amazing. Using the litany against fear is perfect, and he does feel like Paul Atreides to me. I am trying to damper down expectations but I seem to be failing.

Tolkien, by the way, disliked Dune. He was foolish on this point.

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[Inanna]

Maybe Tolkien, like me, felt that the subsequent books killed the first one.

[Jude]

Did Tolkien live long enough to see the subsequent books?

[elengil]

He might just not have been a fan of Sci-fi? I mean, he didn't seem to be much of a fan of industrialization so...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

He loved Asimov.

ETA: His comments about Dune were definitely specifically about the original book. He wrote in an unpublished letter in 1966, quoted in the recent book Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist, in response to the second person who sent him a copy, "Thank you for sending me a copy of Dune. I received one last year from [Sterling] Lanier and so already know something about the book. It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. Al least I find it so. In fact I dislike DUNE wi1h some intensity and in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment. Would you like me to return the book as I already have one, or to hand it on?"

ETAA: Inanna, assuming you are referring to the other Dune books written by Frank Herbert, I couldn't disagree with you more. In the unlikely event that you are referring to the books co-written by his son, I completely agree.

[Frelga]

I'm with Tolkien on this one. Dune doesn't do it for me.

[Alatar]

Here's the full trailer

[elengil]

Interesting. Not sure I'll watch it... I can't quite put my finger on why.

I did appreciate the touch of Pink Floyd, however. The thumbnail on the video reminded me of Edward Scissorhands.

[Túrin Turambar]

Looks promising. It could end up sinking under its own weight, or it could be great. Among their other problems, the two previous adaptations were hampered by the available technology and couldn't do the world justice - so if nothing else it'll be interesting to see the world of Dune with photorealistic effects.

[Impenitent]

Can it possibly live up to the promise? Dune (the original trilogy) is on my top shelf and the idea of another disappointing adaptation is almost painfull.

Of course I'm going to see it.

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[Frelga]

My sky looks like that today, only darker and less colorful.

Speaking of - what's with the monochromatic films lately? We've had color movies for well over a century, surely everyone heard about it by now. It's almost as bad as the teal and orange plague.

[elengil]

We've had color film for so long it isn't new and shiny anymore. Suddenly lack of color is the new shiny. Or something like that.

[Túrin Turambar]

The colour choices are certainly deliberate and probably appropriate to the source material – I expect the different planets will each have a monochromatic look.

I like Dune a lot, although I don’t blame Tolkien for not liking it. It’s a heavy and humourless book, which is one of the things making it hard to adapt. The critical and commercial failure of the 1984 film probably put studios off big-budget sci-fi and fantasy for fifteen years, until the LotR films reversed it. It’s the subject of one of my favourite Lost in Adaptation episodes (strong language warning – unsurprising if you’re a fan of the book who watches the 1984 film for the first time):



As a side note, one interesting counterfactual is how Tolkien would have reacted to Star Wars had he lived another four years and actually gone to see it, given his lack of interest in cinema and dislike of modern sci-fi.

As for this film, I think we’ll get an idea how well it’s going to work in the first few minutes. If it begins with a tiresome monologue of exposition, I’ll get a sinking feeling.

[elengil]

I saw the 1984 Dune before I read the books. Unsurprising to anyone who knows my love for the Bakshi LOTR, I like that movie, but then I saw both rather young (lower expectations) and without having read the respective books first (no adaptational disappointments) and both are now firmly entrenched in my dearly held nostalgias.

(Shout out to Piter/Wormtongue Brad Dourif)

Okay, I can still appreciate all of the criticisms, however. That was hilarious! (and further shout-out to the shout-out to Equilibrium!)