Everyone kept telling me that this was the WRONG version, so I've tracked down a copy of Lynch's original. So instead of watching the last 1h15m of the Smithee version, I'm going to watch 2h15m of the Lynch version. Yay?
Ah, now that's more like it.
(By the way, for everyone complaining about "A Alan Smithee Film", it's very clear that they just replaced Lynch's name in this frame and didn't bother to replace the preposition because that would change the centering.
One obvious advantage of this version: more doggos!
There's significantly less voiceovers in this version, but it still lets you hear the character's thoughts instead of, I don't know, letting them speak? That's the usual way of conveying information, isn't it?
I must have missed the part in the book where the stillsuit works even if your head is uncovered.
Ah, as the prophecies foretold.
Everyone talks about the pug, but what about cat?!
The pug is back! The pug lives!
OK, so that was Dune! My verdict: the first 2/3, before the Harkonnen attack and Leto's death, are actually quite solid. A lot of weird stylistic choices, but that's Lynch for you, and the worldbuilding and character work are pretty compelling.
But then you get the final part of the film - which is, you know, what the story is actually about - and it's an unholy mess. Partly because there's no time for it, but mainly because the film completely misunderstands the story it's trying to tell.
Dune is NOT a chosen one story. Or rather, it's an anti-chosen one story. It's about how the chosen one is a cultural fabrication created for political purposes, which Paul and Jessica plug into, in the pursuit of their own survival, or revenge, and ultimately, of conquest.
The film's choice of an ending encapsulates how much it misses the point of the story. It's not just that it's dumb for Paul to make it rain. But leaving out his political marriage to Irulan cuts away the book's deliberately wrongfooting conclusion.
I don't know if a Hollywood adaptation can ever truly face up to what the novel is saying - the 2000 miniseries got close, but then veered off into woowoo mysticism (which, to be fair, is also a big part of this story). I'm curious to see where Villeneuve ends up.
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