Dune was boring

This is how I skip jury duty: I can spot guilty people just like that!

(Kidding, I went to jury duty)

Anyway - I love both recent Dune films. The best sci-fi films since Blade Runner 2049.

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I skipped jury duty by standing up in court and saying I already felt negatively just looking at the man on trial.


I was told to immediately leave the courtroom


And I loved the first Dune, have not yet seen this one though.


And for context, absolutely hated Lynch's version.

I think even Lynch hated Lynch's version.

He definitely hated it more than me. I at least found it a weird and colossal failure worth gawking at. He seems to only see it as how badly the industry duped him. Which they probably did

I'm not so sure they did. The underlying IP was definitely a popular piece of sci-fi, however it is questionable if the vfx technology that was available at the time really could have enabled any filmmaker to make a film that would be satisfying to the average filmgoer.

Personally, I enjoy Lynch's version more because of what I find lacking in the more recent adaptation.

Having said all of that... I still think this is the kind of material that definitely should be made as a mini-series. Any movie version will simply have to leave out a ton of material.

It's pretty established that Lynch didn't get directors cut of the film, and that they ultimately made huge changes to his initial plan.


In fairness to the studio's, i don't believe they agreed to give him that director's cut. At least not officially. But as often happens when the money starts trying to court the talent, there is frequently a lot of talk about trusting the vision of the director, and that they are on board with whatever they might do....until they do the first screening and it doesn't go well. Or a meddling executive decides unilaterally that they need to step in and steer the ship themselves. Which is what I mean by sorta duped. There's lots of empty promises by studios that get gobbled up by new and naive directors coming up through the system.

At least it taught Lynch the valuable lesson to never do anything for anyone unless you have complete control. Because all too often, financiers don't know their place and think they have some kind of understanding about art and they most often very much do not. They mix up the belief that being good at business means they know what makes a good movie, or even what audiences want.

They don't.

Never trust the money. Money is stupid. Money is brainless.

I think a lot of that stuff is covered in the documentaries that come with the latest blu-ray collector's edition.

And to be more precise, it wasn't one of the traditional studios that may have "misled" Lynch - it was Raffaella de Laurentiis, who was still a bit wet behind the ears as a movie producer in the early 80s.

If Lynch could've had the runtime that he wanted for Dune, say 3 or 4 hours long, it would've been able to flesh out and give soul to all the various scenes. As it is, it had to be paired down to around 2 hours and much of the character's motives and backstories and world building had to be left out. With that said I like Lynch's Dune but only the theatrical cut not the longer extended version that actually cuts out some of the scenes from the original theatrical release.

*seethes*
*hops up n down, twirlies a lil dagger, smiles, n shouts, "I WILL kill HIM!"*

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"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

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Agreed, and I think that version could easily have become the definitive screen adaptation of the first novel.

Unfortunately, Lynch in the early 80s didn't even remotely have that kind of clout.

And the lesson he learned from this movie was to just avoid big-budget movies altogether after this.

Does this mean the book is NOT boring?

It means STING!!!!
Sting is AWESOME!!!!!
Not as awesome as Bowie, but he had Labyrinth.

I think even with an extended run time in order to flesh things out better, Dune probably would have still not worked. Having it make sense wasn't its biggest issue. It was trying to shoehorn Lynch's ungainly, typically baffling style into a big budget spectacle expected to hit its profit margins. I don't think those two things go together. At least you can't tailor his style towards that. At best this clash of intentions can make a fascinating disaster of a film. Which is what it is.

Not when he's dreaming of blue turtles.


Or playing a lute.


Sting is, in fact, frequently un-awesome.


He doesn't always wear a codpiece, you know?

I still have yet to see Dune Part 2, which will probably help make a complete picture… whether that will enforce my opinion of the first film or not.

But yeah, I thought the first film was a really solid and passionated piece of work, but failed to truly engage me character and story-wise.

The world building, the look, the feel, the sound. All that was pretty top notch stuff. But the way the story was presented and the characters within just didn’t grab me. It felt shallow, uninviting and stretched out…

But again, a truly well crafted piece of work in several areas. And I hope the sequel will bring more of what I was missing in the first film.

I doesn't do anything to or for them. It's just my snooze factor being expressed. People can like or dislike what they want. Dune movies have done nothing for me.

I can appreciate the technical elements of the films, which are indeed first rate, while also finding the finished product to be beyond tedious. So, for me, I guess even a behind-the-scenes "making of" probably has more entertainment value.

What I'm trying to say is, you're definitely not alone!

I wasn't lost in the nuance of you repeatedly saying you were bored. Which is the reason my post wasn't asking if you were bored. But please tell me about how you were bored all over again. Fascinating stuff.


My point was about how limited boredom is as a criticism. If the problem the person had with a film is they weren't able to engage with it, what can they possibly say about it that's of any interest to anyone. They were just bored. Okay. So what?

Boredom in a movie is multi-faceted for me. I liked the boredom in the ultimate of boring movies, My Dinner With Andre....not so much in Dune 1 or 2. That's a completely subjective response....it just didn't hit my buttons.

Yes, for sure, boredom is limited as a criticism, but it's also an important one because one of the important tasks of a film maker for me is to NOT put me in the position of whether I am bored enough to ditch the price of a ticket and walk out. If I am in that position and I do walk out, I'm going to tell other people that and maybe post it on MoFo or social media. Movie studios want butts in the seats and and people who buy, stream or rent. Boredom doesn't help with that unless the boredom is so intense that it becomes a cult, like My Dinner With Andre.

The reality of the business and what's fascinating about movies, is the fact that a good movie has to be both Art (note the capital A) and entertainment and they're going to spend millions making it, so it's a big gamble too...art, entertainment and gambling all at once. In my local world, I do lots of things in the non-movie Art world, but those don't require me to spend a couple of hours in a seat in a Friday night out kind of event and won't require an artist to spend millions on crew and actors.

So, once all over again....a movie should NOT bore me unless it raises boredom to a cult (Andre again). If it does, it's not doing the job that I think I pay them for. I actually DO go to movies for entertainment, pacing, terse dialog and sometimes music, action, violence and danger. It's my alt-life. I don't like running from tornadoes (I have actually done that), but I do like watching Twister where other people run from tornadoes. Same thing with war, disaster, and crime.

I think when it comes to Dune, it is helpful to know which version(s) people prefer, and what they like about them.

My own preference is as follows:

1. Lynch movie
2. The 2000 miniseries
3. Any other version I haven't seen yet
4. The DV movies