Pun Salad

Everybody seems to love this movie except me. Weird. It was free-to-me on Hulu.

I've had a long relationship with Dune, going back to 1965 when I read the second part of the novel-to-be in Analog magazine, with that classic John Schoenherr artwork on the cover. (I wasn't reading Analog when it published the first part in 1964.) I devoured the book when it came out. It was a thrilling tale of adventure, betrayal, and revenge. And big ass worms. What can I say, I was 13.

I recently reread Frank Herbert's six Dune novels (My takes here, here, here, here, here, and here.) To put it mildly, I found my interest waning as the series unfolded. And that seems to have carried over to this movie.

It's long. When Paul and Jessica escape the Harkkonens, only to find themselves lost in the desert, I hit the pause button on the remote. Sheesh, still nearly an hour left? Fortunately, Hulu lets you resume the movie days later. And I finally got through it, but not without napping a bit. Missed Paul's crysknife fight with Jamis. Oh well.

It's moody, pretentious, and arty. (Or, if you're a fan, "visually stunning".) The ornithopters are cool, though.