"Oh, that's my Halo UNSC M6 blaster, two collectable Star Trek mugs that my friend Colin gave me, a Warhammer 40K Primaris Space Marine toy, and the skull of the last person who made fun of me for owning them."
(Seriously, though, I am a bit defensively self-conscious about my background during work-from-home Zoom meetings.)
- Sid
Earth is in danger, and you have answered the call for help – a decision generations to come will be thankful for.
Keep this document close to hand. This is your access token, and if it were to fall into the wrong hands, the consequences could be grave.
Prepare yourself. We will be heading into uncharted territory and there is no telling what we will encounter. But rest assured – we will protect humanity no matter what it takes.
We will be in touch.I just booked two tickets for the 12:45 session of Doctor Who: Time Fracture on February 23, 2022 at Unit HQ in London, England.
- Sid
Oh my god - we're in the extremely early stages of planning a trip to England at the end of February.
None of this is a done deal - Karli needs to get approval from her manager for the time off, we have to do a lot of research in terms of requirements by both countries for COVID-19 testing, look at the accommodation scene in London, pick flights and, not the least of issues, make sure that there are tickets available for the Doctor Who Time Fracture immersive experience, which according to their web site has experienced some issues with flooding and has been shut down for a few weeks while they did repairs.
And, let's be realistic, a renewed wave of COVID-19 in either country could completely eliminate any opportunity for travel, either because it's unsafe to enter the UK, or because Canada has been locked out due to rising cases. On the other hand, three months could see a global reduction in new cases, and a subsequent relaxing of the precautionary measures in place at the borders.
Over the years, I've had some unfortunate life experiences that taught me the sad lesson that it's not always wise to invest emotionally in future happiness. Regardless, I'm letting myself get a little excited that my deferred 60th birthday celebration may actually happen after all. Fingers crossed, everyone!
- Sid
Seriously, though, I did think that the dragonfly-inspired thopters in Dune were cool - not only that, but it was a plausible approach to a non rotating-prop aircraft, full points to the designers.
- Sid
Last night we headed down to the Silver City in Richmond and caught the last evening showing of Denis Villeneuve's Dune in IMAX before the big movie machine switched the screen over to The Eternals, the latest Marvel would-be blockbuster.
It was an interesting comparative experience, because Karli came to the movie with no knowledge other than a brief introduction to the Dune universe that I'd given her a couple of weeks previously, whereas I've read all the Frank Herbert* novels in the series and am on my third copy of Dune, having worn out two copies over the years since I first read the book sometime in the mid-70s.
As a result, my experience of the movie was comparative and anticipatory, whereas Karli judged it completely on its own merits.
For readers who haven't seen the movie, here's the same basic background that I provided to Karli - I don't think it's possible to discuss the film without having some kind of reference point.
The most precious commodity in the universe is spice, which is mined on the desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. House Harkonnen, one of the many royal houses in the Empire, has been in control of Dune for 80 years and has reaped incredible profits from its oppressive control over spice production. The Emperor has decided to transfer control of Arrakis to House Atreides - apparently a gift from the Empire, but Duke Leto Atreides suspects that it's a trap. However, the Duke cannot refuse the Emperor, so House Atreides reluctantly relocates to Arrakis, where the Atreides forces hope to forge an alliance with the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis, and escape whatever ambush awaits them.
The Duke is accompanied by his Bene Gesserit concubine, the Lady Jessica, and their son, Paul. The Bene Gesserit are a powerful religious order not unlike the nuns of the Catholic Church, and Jessica has trained her son in the manipulative, mystical and militant skills of her order. Paul's frequent prophetic visions lead his mother to hope that he could be the Kwisatz Haderach, who will have the ability to bridge space and time with their powers.**
I have to admit to some issues with Villeneuve's treatment of the story. I was astonished by the degree to which explanation and backstory were stripped away from the storyline, to the point where I'm not even
sure that the names of some of the supporting characters, such as Piter
de Vries, the Baron Harkonnen's twisted Mentat, were ever spoken aloud -
not to mention explaining what a Mentat even is, or that the Atreides
Master of Assassins, Thufir Hawat, is also a Mentat. However, I'm also sympathetic with the challenges of balancing explanatory narrative with the natural flow of a story, and Karli didn't seem to see any of these omissions as barriers to following the plot,
There were also a couple of alterations in sequence from the novel, alterations that seemed to serve no purpose. Most notably, Paul's testing by the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior is the first scene in the novel, whereas Villeneuve pushes their interaction to a later moment in the narrative. Villeneuve also choses to transfer the repetition of the Bene Gesserit mantra against fear in that scene from Paul to his mother.
One of the problems with adapting Herbert is that as a writer he relies heavily on internal monologues to reveal what his characters are thinking as opposed to what they're saying, an approach which doesn't lend itself to film, although it might have been interesting to see how the story played out with the addition of some of those unvoiced revelations. As an example, the scene where the Fremen housekeeper, the Shadout Mapes, presents the Lady Jessica with a knife made from the tooth of a sandworm loses its significance when Jessica's unspoken speculations on the significance of the word "Maker" and the Shadout's unexpectedly extreme reaction to it are lost.
The question is, did I enjoy the movie, in spite of my issues with the adaptation?
It's a challenging question, to be honest. I
appreciated the film's scale and scope, the cast delivers excellent
performances, the epic nature of the story is well represented, and the
visual presentation of the film is undeniably monumental, but I found that
it lacked the depth of the novel. To be fair, that's the great
challenge of adapting any novel, let alone something like Dune: finding a way to transfer a complex, layered written narrative to a visual medium. To Villeneuve's credit, I was able to lose myself in his interpretation of the story, in spite of its variations from the source material, and I look forward to the sequel - which has reportedly been greenlit by Warner Brothers for a 2023 release.
As per Karli's useful format, some other thoughts:
Karli refers to Paul Atreides as "the chosen one" whereas I would never have described his role in that way. It's interesting that there have been enough science fiction "Chosen Ones" over the years, ranging from Neo in The Matrix to several Star Wars Force practitioners, that the idea feels like a cliché. That being said, there's an element of White Saviour to the story which is is more evident in a visual adaptation of the novel.
I found the soundtrack overpowering at points in the movie where I would have preferred silence and the sound of the wind on sand. (And when you're watching in IMAX, an overpowering soundtrack is OVERPOWERING.)
Villeneuve seems to have a minor landing gear fetish, there seemed to be a lot of lovingly detailed shots of landing gear unfolding and planting itself on the ground. That being said, I quite liked his version of the loosely described thopters from the book.
As far as I know, the last time Jason Momoa shaved his beard for a role was his 2011 appearance as Conan the Barbarian - let's hope it works out better for him this time.
Sorry, Karli, but Rebecca Ferguson just didn't work for me, although the vision of her as an illustrated Fremen madonna was intriguing.
Why does everyone want the Baron Harkonnen to fly around? In the book, he's an obese man who uses suspensor technology to take some of the weight off his feet, he's not Superman.
Although, as Karli says, never trust a villain. Especially a weird gross floating one - it's good advice.
- Sid
* I tried a couple of the prequel novels by Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, and no offense, but they're not up to the standard set by Frank Herbert in the other books.
** I'm quite proud of this as an outline, because it appears to be quite informative but actually leaves out so much important information - much as the movie does, come to think of it.
I went to see Dune with Sid yesterday. I’ve never read the book or seen the 1984 movie, so I was going in with a clean slate. Almost. Sid, as he does, has explained parts of the book in great depth to me. Usually in those situations I retain some of the information, but science fiction isn’t one of my natural languages, so a lot of it just goes through my head and doesn’t stick.
Luckily, he had talked about Dune quite recently, and knowing the movie was coming and that I’d likely go see it with him, more details than usual stuck with me. It was quite helpful to have some of that background information planted in my brain, and it made it easier for me to keep up with plot points that might have otherwise tripped me up. Spice, okay, yep, got it. Bene Gesserit, check. Chosen one, yep, understood. Weird gross floating guy, wait, what? Sid didn’t tell me about him!
My overall opinion of Dune is that I quite liked it. I found it to be interesting and a compelling story. Visually, it’s a stunning film. The soundtrack was deep and booming and reminiscent of Arrival, one of Denis Villeneuve’s other otherworldly films.
I appreciated the casting. The acting was phenomenal across the board and I bought in for the whole experience. The one moment that took me out of the film and reminded me that I was watching a movie was the floating Harkonnen fighters floating to the ground during the battle scene. In a movie that is so CGI heavy, that was the one instance I thought “Well, that looks fake.” It’s a petty complaint though.
I thought that Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica was brilliant. I have many questions about her character and what the ultimate end for her and Paul might be. Sid is not revealing any spoilers and it’s likely that I won’t know until I see the sequel in 2024 (just guessing). I imagine that the conversation Duke Leto and Jessica had about her protecting Paul was some heavy foreshadowing.
Other thoughts:
I hear people don’t like the character name Duncan Idaho, but I love it! It’s just fun to say.
I figured out about 45 minutes into the movie why it’s called Dune and felt sheepish that I hadn’t realized it earlier.
I appreciated that Duncan Idaho learned the Fremen ways and culture in such short time.
I liked that the Atreides group were basically all good people.
Never trust a villain. Especially a weird gross floating one.
I was surprised by the duel at the end and its outcome. I thought that Paul's visions/dreams were leading us in another direction.
The Bene Gesserit: I am fascinated by them. Are they taking new recruits?
- Karli
P.S. Interestingly, the font used for DUNE actually isn't a font, it's derived from Canadian aboriginal symbols.
- Sid
Oh well, I may not be able to unpack all my books, but at least I can get the band back together.
- Sid
The little conversations
If I tried my very best
You know I never could say anything
In twenty words or less.
Concrete Blonde, Little Conversations
I do feel badly for those little people in the distance, I think this will not go well for them.
- Sid
P.S. Here's the full size version.
It's been a dark time for the Rebellion, as per the opening narrative crawl for The Empire Strikes Back. To our complete surprise, a couple of weeks after our 12 month lease came to an end, the property agent announced that the owners of our rental condo had decided to sell, and that we were being evicted.
The next couple of months were a whirlwind of apartment hunting and packing, with our move taking place just four days after we got back from our scheduled Ucluelet vacation.
We've ended up back in Kitsilano, in a slightly older ground-level unit. It's not quite as nice as the condo we were pushed out of*, not to mention being a bit storage challenged, but it's a great location with a huge kitchen, and we're getting nicely settled in.
Sadly, the move was almost as much of a comedy act as our last one. In a strange coincidence, once again our promised three movers was only two for half the move, which added in some time, and they somehow managed to destroy one of my bookshelves to the point where they threw it away and took $50 off the bill. Unfortunately, they also threw away the shelves from ANOTHER bookshelf, thereby leaving me down by two units.
This means that the second bedroom is still mostly full of books in boxes, and thanks to the current supply chain issues, stock shortages at IKEA mean that those books are going to stay in those boxes for the foreseeable future, which is something of a nuisance.
Funny, I don't remember them ever talking about having this sort of problem when the Rebellion moved to Hoth...
- Sid
* Odd how the title crawl for The Empire Strikes Back still works here: we were driven from our hidden base, so to speak.
