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Craig's avatar

I'm yet to see Dune and oddly don't feel particularly compelled to. I've always meant to read the novel before watching the Lynch film and have so far done neither. While that is clearly an issue, I've also fallen out of love with Villeneuve's work a bit. I re-watched both Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 in recent months and, while they are spectacular in some respects, they are also a little clunky. For all they look incredible, they are both surprisingly quite weighed down with clunky exposition that prevents them from being masterpieces. On first viewing, I thought BR2049 enriched the original Blade Runner, but second time around I was left feeling a little flat. All of the rich religious subtext I'd gotten excited about in the cinema just didn't seem all that interesting. Arrival bowled me over emotionally the first time I saw it, but much of its cleverness was down to the way the narrative unfolds. Its remarkable that Villeneuve made a film about language so visually arresting and Amy Adams is phenomenal in it, but there's just something lacking. Its hard to put a finger on what exactly. Something about your Dune review kind of nailed it for me even though I've not seen that specific film. It makes me wonder whether Prisoners was his best film all along. All of this has made me really want to finally grab a copy of the novel anyway, so that's something!

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KY's avatar

Hey that first Dharmanaut guided meditation is a gem, thanks for making that available.

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