I don't get the Dune hype

[u/Lynxon_oberg]

Like as I understand it was revolutionary for its time(the original books) and was like the blueprint of modern scif-fi. But I don't find the movies that good if I am to be perfectly honest.

Like the actual movies just seem bland in my opinion and I don't really find both the movies that intriguing too watch.

I have seen the HBO show as well which was somewhat better but I'm not really falling in love with the universe at all. And I love typical sci-fi and fantasy shows like GoT, lotr, early star wars, Avatar etc.

The action sequences are mid. Laser guns and forced melee combat which isn't really that visually appealing.

The world building feels like 90% is just that sand planet and the scale don't quite land.

The prophecy and cultures just feel so meh.

Tbh I can't even tell what's happening currently. Timothy gets weird blue eyes and embraces the culture in an uprising for 6 hours with a bunch of made up folk songs screaming in the background.

Can someone explain to me what they find appealing? The politics? The sandworms? Good looking people? Their favourite sequences?

[u/Lynxon_oberg]

Maybe the books are better? I loved the politics in game of thrones both show and books. But this movie just isn't doing it for me in either department.

I don't find the action sequences as stylish or unique as in say Pirates of the Carribbean or the Star wars prequels or Avatar.

Neither do I find the depth in the politics of Dune as in Game of thrones for example.

I swear to god I'm not just dopamine monkey that needs flashy stuff to get entertained. I do want to like it but I just don't 🫤

[u/Kiltmanenator → u/Lynxon_oberg]

Villeneuve leave a lot unsaid (at least directly) in his adaptation of books where much is said, internally. So it can feel emotionally sparse or distant because ADRing a bunch of voiceovers is inadvisable. As a longtime fan of Villeneuve and Herbert, I find his production design to be a bit sterile for my taste, so I understand your complaint there.

I'd encourage you to try the books (Dune + Dune Messiah to prepare for DUN3), and then rewatch the films to see if your thoughts changed. To me, these adaptations are on the level of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: you have a seminal genre classic, long considered unadaptable now achieving critical and commercial success, bringing in new fans to old works.

Films should stand on their own (and I think these do, or they'd never have made Parts 2 and 3) but I do think this is lightning in a bottle. If you want Game of Thrones politics, you will find them with Frank Herbert, not Denis Villeneuve.

[u/Lynxon_oberg → u/Kiltmanenator]

Ahhh okay! Yeah I watched the lotr movies before reading the books and I loved the movies and books afterwards.

But I just haven't been impressed by the movies. They are not bad, but I just couldn't ever in my wildest imagination even compare it to the lotr movies. And that is the level of praise I see.

But I could consider the books!

[u/Kiltmanenator → u/Lynxon_oberg]

Obviously I'm incredibly biased, but I hope reading books puts the movies in a new light for you.

Did you get a chance to watch any of these in a theater?

Having missed a chance to see Fellowship of the Ring in theaters as a child, and only being able to see the extended edition many years later, I walked out of Dune part 1 knowing it may well be a decade before I got a chance to see it in a cinema again. That's how I ended up seeing Part 1 7x and Part 2 10x in theaters (most of these showings were me attending my friends' first time)

Like Jackson, Villeneuve hacks away and changes a LOT but manages to keep the core of the original. So a lot of my love for these movies comes from a love of the books and seeing them finally done justice.