Initial Impressions of Dune (2021)

 

I've been excited for the new Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Dune ever since I first heard about it a few years ago. If anyone could do right by one of my favorite novels, I figured it was the director of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. I knew I would be seeing it. What my prescient vision didn't see, however, is what sort of world I would be seeing it in.

But the promise of Dune drew me to a local IMAX theater to behold it on the big screen with big sound, pandemic or not. I wore a mask (of course), silently lamenting the lack of mask discipline of many of my fellow movie-goers while sitting as far from them as possible. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer...

So ... what did I think? As my prophecy could have foretold, I need to think about it some more to give a full review. But here are some initial non-spoiler-y thoughts.

Why I Love Dune

 

I recently re-read Frank Herbert's Dune to get ready for the new Denis Villeneuve film adaptation. I was thinking of a way to review a book I've read several times over 30 years, but I'm not sure that makes much sense. 

I did notice this time that, contrary to my previous review, Paul does question his own actions in the middle of the book, even if Jessica questions them more. But... what do you say about a classic that hasn't already been said?

So instead I thought I might say a bit about why I love Dune so much, why I've returned to this series over the years as one of my all-time favorites (and maybe as a bonus why I'm excited about the new Villeneuve film adaptation).

What would Gene Roddenberry think about William Shatner’s Blue Origin flight?

 

Today William Shatner took a trip on a Blue Origin rocket, and I had some thoughts about it and wrote some of them down in my pandemic journal as I was procrastinating doing the stuff I was supposed to be doing this morning. To be more honest than you're supposed to be at the beginning of a post like this, I have to admit I'm not sure what Gene Roddenberry would think about today's events. I never met him while he was alive, and I'm not as familiar with his biography as I'd like to be, but he did create Star Trek as an unabashed post-scarcity socialist utopia, so that's in the background of my thoughts. This question seemed to me like a catchy way to think about space travel, Star Trek, the Overview Effect, where we are as a global society, and where we're going. So here you have it...