version

Well-known member
Apparently this Villeneuve film's only the first half of the book and there's a planned follow up to cover the second.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I mean it's pretty terrible. I wasn't really impressed with the visuals but the terrible acting is there in spades.

I do concede it has a a kind of deranged loopiness and I always want to support people taking big, ambitious swings with original material
I wish it was more loopy. Their take on Cloud Atlas was properly mad.
 

version

Well-known member
I got the book of Cloud Atlas recently. Someone on my street left a bunch of books out in a crate for people to take.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
@version I don't think it was very exciting. Just one of millions of bald/shaved yellow people in one seen I think.
Edit - I must be drunk if I spell scene like that
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I think you're right about JV, he doesn't seem to have much spark but his things look good
well his visual style is more taut, functional, sleek which can veer into tasteful car ad territory it's true

that's why I think he does better with a more or less straightforward thriller like Sicario where it's all about execution (no pun intended)

if you can leave aside that movie's fairly ridiculous depiction of the drug war on both sides of the border
 

borzoi

Well-known member
Apparently this Villeneuve film's only the first half of the book and there's a planned follow up to cover the second.

that makes sense bc there's a big setpiece battle at the end of the book that's basically done with in a paragraph.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I got the book of Cloud Atlas recently. Someone on my street left a bunch of books out in a crate for people to take.
I like it. It's kinda like a poor man's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller.. which swapped the brainy stuff for fun.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I watched one of Villeneuve's earlier French Canadian films a while back - Polytechnique

a fictionalized version of a mass shooting at a college in Montreal in the 80s by a proto-incel who was "fighting feminism"

it's...I mean basically a less good version of Gus Van Sant's Columbine analog Elephant crossed with the visual style of Pi but less dynamic

or in other words, alright. not really enjoyable but given the subject material that's probably an unreasonable expectation.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
They're doing a new Dune series too -- Dune: The Sisterhood,

"TV series set in the 'Dune' universe which centers on the lives of the Bene Gesserit."
right, a prequel I believe

that could potentially - big potentially - be good. the Bene Gesserit are super weird and interesting.

female Jesuits with self-developed superpowers whose deal is basically

1) run a super-secret breeding program for 100s of generations
2) produce the superhuman messiah
3) ???
4) profit (or, rule the universe as the eminence behind the throne, which they already kind of are)
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I just hope Frank Herbert's lame son is involved with all of this as minimally as possible

he and another hack co-wrote like a million awful prequels (and even worse, 2 sequels to original series based on Frank Herbert's notes)
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
well his visual style is more taut, functional, sleek which can veer into tasteful car ad territory it's true

that's why I think he does better with a more or less straightforward thriller like Sicario where it's all about execution (no pun intended)

if you can leave aside that movie's fairly ridiculous depiction of the drug war on both sides of the border
I forgot he did Sicario... I hated that on first viewing but caught it on telly the other day and had to admit that there were moments of genuine tension despite the slight story and "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" ending. Which I didn't enjoy much in BMTHOAG
 

version

Well-known member
I just hope Frank Herbert's lame son is involved with all of this as minimally as possible

he and another hack co-wrote like a million awful prequels (and even worse, 2 sequels to original series based on Frank Herbert's notes)
It's sad what having a famous artist in the family does to everyone else. So many instances of relatives playing hardball with academics, bickering amongst themselves over rights and royalties. Joyce's grandson was apparently a complete nightmare to deal with.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
So, who's actually read Dune? I haven't.
bro I mean, you have to

the once and future king of all space operas

it's just such a rich and fully realized, while at the same time deeply strange world (which Lynch managed to communicate some of)

the thing is you really need to read the first three books

the first one is the best but it's also the most straightforward coming of age/hero's journey

then the next two are a refutation of the idea of heroes and messiahs, which is what he intended - among other things - to do
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
the second book in particular, without spoiling it, is particularly sad

the emptiness of victory, how our past decisions ensnare us, loneliness, sic transit gloria mundi
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I think the film might add in some of the second book based on the line "I see a jihad coming"

which he does foresee in the first book but doesn't come to pass - and then only off the page - in the second book
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Is Villeneuve any good? I know the stuff he's done, but I've never seen any of it.
I think Prisoners is a solid suspense film. Not saying there haven't been better ones since, but none come to mind now.

2049 I thought did well at what it was going for, a visual-forward sci-fi pseudo-epic. Grade A cyberpunk porn. Unless anyone thinks it was aiming higher than that. I also generally think Gosling is a reliable leading man, for whatever thats worth. Then again, I don't have an eye for acting.

I remember being unimpressed with Arrival, but maybe a closer watching could elevate it - not sure.

Sicario was well made, in my opinion. Didn't see the sequel, nor will I, unless someone here really sells it.

Pretty sure all those were Villenueve. Not sure which ones he wrote, if any. I'd say Prisoners would be the top pick, if you had to watch one. Need a bit of a stomach for that one, though.
 
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