Book vs. Movie: Dune (1984)

Hello, my darling readers!
To kick off a month full of book vs. movie and TV show reviews we’re going to talk about Dune. Well, first we talk about the 1984 adaptation before we move on the new adaptation later this week!

The Plot (as found on Rotten Tomatoes):

In the year 10191, a spice called melange is the most valuable substance known in the universe, and its only source is the desert planet Arrakis. A royal decree awards Arrakis to Duke Leto Atreides and ousts his bitter enemies, the Harkonnens. However, when the Harkonnens violently seize back their fiefdom, it is up to Paul (Kyle MacLachlan), Leto’s son, to lead the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis, in a battle for control of the planet and its spice. Based on Frank Herbert’s epic novel.

Dune on RT

Book vs. Movie:

I am a bit torn on the book. First of all, it took me a month to read. If I really like a book, I usually gobble it up within a few days at the most. The thing is, I wanted to like Dune but I just had a hard time getting into it. I already identified one problem that definitely contributed to that. See, I read this on my e-reader. However, the novel comes with a rather substantial appendix. An appendix that is necessary, considering how many new terms the author came up with. But going through the story on an e-reader meant that I didn’t flick back and forth as that’s just annoying, so the appendix was pretty much lost on me, which also means that I was a bit lost reading the book. That means, if you want to read Dune, get yourself an actual copy instead of a digital version, it’ll make the reading experience a lot more enjoyable.

The story is split in three parts with the first essentially being a very long prologue. Herbert spends a decent amount on the world-building and situating the reader in the story. Although it was necessary, I still wanted it to be shorter so we could get on with the story. Considering that technically I desperately needed all the explanation I could get since I didn’t check out the appendix, this is a bit of contradiction, but here we are.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Herbert’s story. I enjoyed his world and his characters but I just wanted him to get on with everything a bit faster. That’s true for the entire book and not just the first part.

Dune (1984)

Hello, hello!
Continuing with my David Lynch review series, today we are going to talk about the movie of his that I was probably the most curious about: Dune! I finished the book before tackling the film but definitely wanted to check out this version before the new adaptation. So, here we go!

The Plot (as found on Rotten Tomatoes):

In the year 10191, a spice called melange is the most valuable substance known in the universe, and its only source is the desert planet Arrakis. A royal decree awards Arrakis to Duke Leto Atreides and ousts his bitter enemies, the Harkonnens. However, when the Harkonnens violently seize back their fiefdom, it is up to Paul (Kyle MacLachlan), Leto’s son, to lead the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis, in a battle for control of the planet and its spice. Based on Frank Herbert’s epic novel.

Dune on RT

The Rating:

Jesus Christ this was bad. My expectations weren’t too high, to begin with but this really was something else. I think I spent the first ten minutes of the movie just laughing my ass off. The set design, the costumes, the writing, the *acting choices*. I just can’t. Honestly, if I were to make a bad sci-fi parody movie, this is what it would look like.

I don’t even know how they managed to get some bits of the film to look this tacky. Some of the special effects looked like they came straight out of one of the first Doctor Who episodes which aired twenty years earlier. I don’t know how much budget they had for Dune, but I would have expected it to look slightly better than a TV production that is two decades older.

American Horror Story: 1984 – A Review

Hello, my darling readers!
I know it’s been a while since the ninth season of American Horror Story has aired. In fact, the latest season is just around the corner. 1984 left me a bit underwhelmed so I forgot about writing this review, but I’m catching up now. So, here we go!

The Plot:

As you probably guess from the title, this season the show is set in the 80s and focus on your regular slasher movie tropes: a killer at a camp and motely crew of counselors left to deal with that…

The Rating:

I was initially pretty excited about this season but something just didn’t feel right. 1984 failed to fully convince me, although I still can’t fully put my finger on where the problem lies.

1984 tried to do a lot of different things at once and I’m not sure all of those combinations worked. No spoilers here but let me just says things didn’t come together as seamlessly as I would have hoped.

Time to Talk about Books: 1984

Finally a book review =) I’ve been busy for most of the summer so I didn’t have much time to read. But recently I finally finished George Orwell’s classic novel about a dystopia.

 

 

The Plot:

Big Brother is watching you. The people live under constant surveillance. They don’t have a moment to themselves, spies and microphones are everywhere. Who dares not to obey disappears. The story follows the thoughts of Winston Smith a man who works for the party. We perceive this dystopian society through his eyes and find out about the almighty party.