I've watched this a couple of times now, once in an imax theatre which had better picture, and once in a smaller theatre which had better sound ..
the imax viewing was a rumble festival with way too much bass, but on the smaller theatre viewing I was more impressed with the sound design .. there are some very nice details like the eye lid blinking style sound of the telescope, the retracting sound of the thumper, and some really nice interior ambiences in the tent and also inside some of the vehicles. So some real subtleties which were hidden in the imax viewing, and totally covered with music in the first movie
the music has been massively dialled back, thankfully, from the first movie .. there are less of those vocal sections which I found really irritating in the first one, and other subtle synth layers can be more easily heard. I hope they revisit the soundtrack in the first movie later and dial it back in a similar way eg. Scenes like House Atreides leaving their home planet, and performances like the death of Liet Kynes would be way more powerful if left primarily to sound, with more dialled back and lower music. The music really ate up those scenes and performances
the visuals of course are amazing, especially the sand worms are incredible, and the imploding Harkonnen fireworks are a great creative touch
some slight negatives.. I found the importance of the spice goes missing, and this would only require a couple of additional scenes or sentences to rectify. Without it space travel ceases, but the audience is not reminded of this very huge detail. Blink and you will miss it in the first movie. Also the Fremen have some very sophisticated weapons and tech that goes unexplained, like huge triangular blasts and so on
some of the casting choices are slightly questionable .. I really love Christopher Walken but I was not buying him as the Emperor. He has become so well known as a funny talking new york tough guy, I quite expected him to pull out a revolver or something like that at some point, or come out with some witty lengthy dialogue before shooting the Baron in the knee caps. I fear the inevitable extra cast members that we will get in the third movie for the other houses as more and more A list actors inevitably will want to have their names on the franchise
Like with Star Wars ESB I'm expecting this to be the best of the three movies and I am hoping when Dune is completed, that Denis Villeneuve will have the opportunity to direct a third Blade Runner movie ..
the imax viewing was a rumble festival with way too much bass, but on the smaller theatre viewing I was more impressed with the sound design .. there are some very nice details like the eye lid blinking style sound of the telescope, the retracting sound of the thumper, and some really nice interior ambiences in the tent and also inside some of the vehicles. So some real subtleties which were hidden in the imax viewing, and totally covered with music in the first movie
the music has been massively dialled back, thankfully, from the first movie .. there are less of those vocal sections which I found really irritating in the first one, and other subtle synth layers can be more easily heard. I hope they revisit the soundtrack in the first movie later and dial it back in a similar way eg. Scenes like House Atreides leaving their home planet, and performances like the death of Liet Kynes would be way more powerful if left primarily to sound, with more dialled back and lower music. The music really ate up those scenes and performances
the visuals of course are amazing, especially the sand worms are incredible, and the imploding Harkonnen fireworks are a great creative touch
some slight negatives.. I found the importance of the spice goes missing, and this would only require a couple of additional scenes or sentences to rectify. Without it space travel ceases, but the audience is not reminded of this very huge detail. Blink and you will miss it in the first movie. Also the Fremen have some very sophisticated weapons and tech that goes unexplained, like huge triangular blasts and so on
some of the casting choices are slightly questionable .. I really love Christopher Walken but I was not buying him as the Emperor. He has become so well known as a funny talking new york tough guy, I quite expected him to pull out a revolver or something like that at some point, or come out with some witty lengthy dialogue before shooting the Baron in the knee caps. I fear the inevitable extra cast members that we will get in the third movie for the other houses as more and more A list actors inevitably will want to have their names on the franchise
Like with Star Wars ESB I'm expecting this to be the best of the three movies and I am hoping when Dune is completed, that Denis Villeneuve will have the opportunity to direct a third Blade Runner movie ..