To measure the quality of a film, we should focus more on the quality of the film itself, rather than being influenced by the original book or film critics.
If you use two words to describe the viewing experience of the hit film "Dune", the author thinks it is "suffering". The 3D graphics are not high-quality enough, the tone is too dim, and aside from the lack of excellent graphic performance, the problem of this movie is that it is very confusing.
The original novel "Dune" enjoys a high reputation in the West, and its status in the Western science fiction community is similar to that of "Three-Body" for Chinese science fiction. Therefore, its adaptation to the big screen is something that has excited many fans of the original book, who have also taken advantage of the film's release to promote the grand propositions and meanings expressed in "Dune", such as politics, philosophy and religion. But a novel is a novel and a movie is a movie.
The movie "Dune" hardly needs spoilers: the emperor instigates the two major families to kill each other in order to balance the power of his family, and the last surviving prince embarks on a long road of revenge. This kind of power struggle, the drama of lone revenge, is not new. If you want to see the complexity of politics or the darkness of human nature in "Dune", you may not have any, but only a family feud on the surface.
↑ Dune movie poster.
Therefore, moviegoers will wonder why in the distant future, this backward European medieval imperial power division system was also implemented, which is not in line with people's habitual cognition of the future and the process of historical development. The "clever" point of the film is that there is no mention of this background setting, and the director may also know that someone will write down tens of thousands of words of background introduction and "in-depth analysis", thus creating a pseudo-high sense of "not understanding the subtlety of "Dune", is not enough appreciation level".
As a science fiction film with a unique setting, it is extremely necessary to introduce the background, and the reason is very simple - the audience of the film is not just fans of the original. In dealing with this, the director of "Dune" Villeneuve failed. He didn't explain to viewers who hadn't seen the original: Why did we see a medieval wizarding film?
In fact, except for the aircraft in the film with a slight futuristic sci-fi color, the film stays in the Middle Ages from scenes, systems, technology to fighting. One of the most impressive details is that in order to water the trees in the desert, manual care is needed to take care of irrigation, and it seems that ten thousand years later, humans have not yet systematically solved the automatic watering? In addition, there are no mobile phones, computers, artificial intelligence or mobile Internet in the film. Of course, the answer can be found in the original novel, which is caused by the previous battle with artificial intelligence, but the problem is that the film does not mention this background.
The film does an excellent job of restoring medieval European theology and wizarding remnants, so it is natural to highlight the plot of "you are chosen as the savior" in the fantasy novel. In order to create a sense of mystery of the wizard, the male protagonist repeatedly switches between the confused dreams and whispers, the director also uses a lot of slow motion to slow down the rhythm, trying to show the philosophy of the original, the characters in the play also speak philosophical lines and beautiful literary sentences, but contrary to the situation, this is not appropriate for the plot and scenes.
The success of The Matrix has long proven that commercial fast-paced footage and sci-fi philosophical discussions are not contradictory, but Villeneuve may feel that slowing down the camera, pulling the perspective farther away, and lowering the tone can show a sense of epic and artistic sense that is different from Marvel. Such a problem has actually been criticized in the previous "Blade Runner 2049", it can be said that the slow pace and bland plot restrict the audience from appreciating the excellent philosophical meaning of the novel. Perhaps, it is the characteristics of "niche independence" that gradually push Villeneuve to the "altar", so that in the movie "Dune", Villeneuve continues to "inherit" and even amplify such a technique, but it has received most praise.
This cultural phenomenon of deifying a particular director or masterpiece is confusing. To measure the quality of a film, we should focus more on the quality of the film itself, rather than being influenced by the original book or film critics. You can certainly enjoy this "Dune", which has received a rating of 7.9 on Douban. But if you don't like it, you can also criticize it without following the crowd. Whether it is for oneself or for the creators, this criticism is a valuable soberness.
Red Star News special commentator Yu Feng
Edited by Wang Yaotao
Red Star Review Submission Email: [email protected]
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for the newspaper!) ）
