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"No way this is where they end it."

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In the theater I saw it at, apparently there were some guys who had the same thought, especially when one of them hollered out, WHAT THE F***? I don't recall any humor in the movie itself, but that for me was the most amusing thing I heard all day yesterday. It was as if they didn't pay attention to the two little words that appeared before the title, PART ONE.

I would just say that I think anyone writing that it ended prematurely is wrong.
I'm sure they have their reasons for thinking that, but they lack knowledge.

I know its a spoiler thread, but I think we still want to avoid posting book spoilers, right?

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ships/vehicles that truly impressed me with their uniqueness

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Had the same thought.

But upon thinking about it, Dune had some ship design that was essentially a ball. There have been a couple of such ships in previous movies - the little white ball where Drax saw the "one-inch" man riding in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and those Trade Federation battleships had some kind of ball attached to them in Star Wars (Ep. I and II).

The 'thopters were awesome. Helicopter-like, but also reminding me of a dragonfly. There was a ship design in Star Wars Ep. III that featured similar propulsion technology. And sticking with Star Wars, I had a vibe of the TIE Bomber seen in Ep. V when watching those Harkonnen twin-pod fighter/bomber ships that flew low over the city during the attack.

I don't point this out to slam your point, in fact I agree with it. Dune was a visual spectacle with a design that is unrivaled for a true science fiction film (which Star Wars and Guardians are not IMO).

But you can't deny that it was an incredibly untraditional third act climax for a blockbuster. Especially considering everything that came before (the scale, action, effects, etc). Whatever happens in the book should be irrelevant to the argument as it pertains to non-book-reader's reaction to the movie. Again, I'm not saying it was bad at all. I just totally expected Paul to join the Fremen and fight alongside them in a big, climactic battle, after proving himself worthy. Basically, the Avatar structure, where Jake proves himself by riding the main dragon thing, then joins the Na'vi in a third-act showdown. The entire movie felt like it was leading to its own showdown of that sort, but ended just *before* that moment.

Right. I get all of that. But none of it changes the gut reaction non-book-readers are having/will have, in the moment, while watching the movie. It being part of a broader story or whatever doesn't excuse it from not having a traditional third act climax. Nearly every movie that's the first of a franchise manages to have a traditional third act climax, so that's what's going to be expected here as well.

Again, I'm not saying what they went with is bad or wrong. Far from it. All I'm saying is, because it's untraditional, certain audience members are going to have a negative reaction to its untraditional nature, whether or not the filmmakers chose the "right" place to stop in the books.

TCTTS said:

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It being part of a broader story or whatever doesn't excuse it from not having a traditional third act climax. .

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I mean…it kinda does. The alternative is to change the story entirely to appease how people traditionally believe movies should be made. It's literally called Dune Part 1. To assume this would follow the traditional flow of a Hollywood blockbuster is just kind of silly. It's like expecting individual episodes of a miniseries to have a traditional 3rd act.

The counter examples to this are Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Harry Potter, and Twilight. I think I'm fine with Villeneuve's decision. It was a great movie and have full confidence that the final product will be phenomenal.

Eventual rewatch, I don't see how you can't be wanting to see that again in theaters

Bunbury said:

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But you can't deny that it was an incredibly untraditional third act climax for a blockbuster. Especially considering everything that came before (the scale, action, effects, etc). Whatever happens in the book should be irrelevant to the argument as it pertains to non-book-reader's reaction to the movie. Again, I'm not saying it was bad at all. I just totally expected Paul to join the Fremen and fight alongside them in a big, climactic battle, after proving himself worthy. Basically, the Avatar structure, where Jake proves himself by riding the main dragon thing, then joins the Na'vi in a third-act showdown. The entire movie felt like it was leading to its own showdown of that sort, but ended just *before* that moment.

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It felt very similar to Fellowship of the Ring, if you were familiar with the books it probably felt like a satisfying 'end' to that portion, but as a movie in general, yes it's not a traditional ending. There's probably a world where they could have made this a single 190 minute movie or so, but I think *if* they are able to get Part 2 made, doing 2-parts will be the best version of Dune possible when all is said and done.

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Not quite. The best version of Dune possible is a novel published in 1963.

Dune has made $130 million world wide so far. That seems like a pretty good start, with China and the U.S. opening this weekend.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1160419/

Everyone in this movie eventually dies in one of the books. Only one keeps coming back and back and back....

The sandworms?

TCTTS said:

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But you can't deny that it was an incredibly untraditional third act climax for a blockbuster. Especially considering everything that came before (the scale, action, effects, etc). Whatever happens in the book should be irrelevant to the argument as it pertains to non-book-reader's reaction to the movie. Again, I'm not saying it was bad at all. I just totally expected Paul to join the Fremen and fight alongside them in a big, climactic battle, after proving himself worthy. Basically, the Avatar structure, where Jake proves himself by riding the main dragon thing, then joins the Na'vi in a third-act showdown. The entire movie felt like it was leading to its own showdown of that sort, but ended just *before* that moment.

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I think you are probably including everything you saw in trailers and marketing for the movie when you talk about the expectations for the third act.

If you were going strictly off of only what you saw in the movie, I don't believe there would have been any reason to expect him to join them and participate in a large battle like that.
He doesn't even have that vision of himself, with the blue spice eyes, fighting alongside fremen until near the very end of the movie, right?

I'm not dismissing your point, I just think from strictly going off of what happens in the movie it's not accurate. It definitely ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, but it is also after a pretty major resolution.

Disclaimer: obviously these are just opinions, not starting an argument.

PatAg said:

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How they presented the missiles/war heads slowly penetrating the ships shields on the ground and then doing the explosion was pretty mind-blowing.

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I'll clarify: it was ****ing sick. The large action scenes were a cornucopia of goodness.

PatAg said:

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TCTTS said:

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But you can't deny that it was an incredibly untraditional third act climax for a blockbuster. Especially considering everything that came before (the scale, action, effects, etc). Whatever happens in the book should be irrelevant to the argument as it pertains to non-book-reader's reaction to the movie. Again, I'm not saying it was bad at all. I just totally expected Paul to join the Fremen and fight alongside them in a big, climactic battle, after proving himself worthy. Basically, the Avatar structure, where Jake proves himself by riding the main dragon thing, then joins the Na'vi in a third-act showdown. The entire movie felt like it was leading to its own showdown of that sort, but ended just *before* that moment.

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I think you are probably including everything you saw in trailers and marketing for the movie when you talk about the expectations for the third act.

If you were going strictly off of only what you saw in the movie, I don't believe there would have been any reason to expect him to join them and participate in a large battle like that.
He doesn't even have that vision of himself, with the blue spice eyes, fighting alongside fremen until near the very end of the movie, right?

I'm not dismissing your point, I just think from strictly going off of what happens in the movie it's not accurate. It definitely ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, but it is also after a pretty major resolution.

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For me, it was a combination of expectations created by the marketing AND the exceptions that nearly every other "part one" of a franchise set prior. Each of these first franchise movies featured "traditional," relatively large-scale, third act climaxes...

- Batman Begins
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Hunger Games
- The Matrix
- Pirates of the Carribbean
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Star Trek (2009)
- Star Wars: A New Hope

... plus a many, many more, i.e. almost every relevant first franchise movie in existence. And whether those were planned franchised from the jump is irrelevant to the average movie goer. Because I'm talking about the expectations of the average movie goer who isn't aware of what was planned as a franchise from the beginning or not, what franchise movies shot back-to-back, all at once, etc.

Again, I'm not saying what Villeneuve chose to do in this instance was bad or wrong. He made the right decision, considering the story he had to work with. I'm not critiquing the movie itself, or even the third act. I was merely pushing back on these two sentences from an earlier post of yours...

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I would just say that I think anyone writing that it ended prematurely is wrong. I'm sure they have their reasons for thinking that, but they lack knowledge.

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My point is that people expecting a traditional third act aren't "wrong," even if this is part one of a bigger story, if only due to a long precedent of traditional third acts in franchise firsts. In other words, it's perfectly valid for anyone going into this to be somewhat let down by a brief knife fight in a canyon, witnessed by only a dozen characters or so, as the third act climax to a movie that, up until that point, featured some of the biggest sets, scale, scope, and action of any blockbuster we've ever seen.

I would say, without revealing too much, there is a revelation at the end of the movie that people who haven't read the book might not have fully understood. You could definitely say that's on DV for not explaining better, but I think once you see the full story, you will come back to that last act and scene and find it more impactful.

Is it worse than the fade to black at the end of No Country for Old Men?