I saw Villeneuve's Dune. So what can I say as an avid old dunophile, dunofan and, not afraid of the word, dunovologist (hello dunaforum nulls!)? I liked it. I think this is the closest to a realistically achievable ideal adaptation of the first half of the first novel of the series. There are a lot of shoals, missed important (in my opinion) scenes, a strange montage and breakdown of the narrative, but there is no fashionable now cut, plus or minus successful caste, hellishly beautiful everything and, most importantly, very close (and moments verbatim) following the original text.
Minus (in addition to the above mentioned and relevant for connoisseurs of the novel), as I think, one - unprepared viewer half of what is happening on the screen simply will not understand. As an independent work in isolation from the source, the film does not work very well - too many characters, too little exposure, the motivation of half of the characters is unclear, there is no meaning behind beautiful but unexplained images (such as visions of jihad, the meaning of Jamis for Paul, the role of a planetary scientist, the relationship within Bene Gesserit, etc., there is so much).
Yeah, and the Russian translation is bad. Confusing “dreams” and “dreams” in rather obvious contexts is evidence of unfitness.
Bottom Line: I really hope that the film will raise enough money to allow Villeneuve to shoot the second part. About the film adaptation of subsequent novels and think scary.
