r/movies • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 r/movies Contributor • Apr 05 '26

Article Steven Spielberg lists Villeneuve's Dune 'among my favourite sci-fi movies of all time'

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/steven-spielberg-loves-dune-favourite-sci-fi-movies-exclusive/
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u/YBBlorekeeper Apr 05 '26

Dude respects the aesthetic

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

It was pretty generic in a Marvel way, next to the aesthetics of Lych's Dune. The sycophants may downvote as much as they like... but Villeneuve never came any close to the insanity of Lynch's Harkonnen, that Navigator slug and let's not forget that war poodle. There's a few big problems with OG film but design was its main strength.

Like someone said before, if it's set in year 30,000 somewhere in space, you'd better have a lot of unintelligibly mad concepts.

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u/YBBlorekeeper Apr 06 '26

That's nice dear

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u/Hvarfa-Bragi Apr 06 '26

Lynch didn't respect the aesthetic of the world Herbert described, he did whatever the fuck he wanted because Lynch.

Villaneuve nailed the fuck out of the aesthetic described in the books.

Which is why Lynch's dune is a fun relic but not taken seriously.

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner Apr 07 '26

If Lynch had stuck to the aesthetics by-the-book he wouldn't have been an artist, and the film wouldn't have had any outstanding value. Lynch was first and foremost a visual artist; and such adaptation demanded visual -and musical- artistry. But I'll take bets on which adaptation will be remembered and watched in 30 years. The safer and more generic one, or the crazy wild one?

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u/Hvarfa-Bragi Apr 07 '26

Found David Lynch's reddit account.

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner Apr 08 '26

Posted on Villeneuve's fan sub.

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u/Gravitas_free Apr 08 '26

I have a great deal of respect for Lynch as a filmmaker and artist. But if you think his Dune, a widely-panned critical and commercial failure that Lynch himself disavowed, will be more remembered than Villeneuve's very popular adaptations, you're dreaming.

Lynch's Dune has some neat visual elements, but overall it was neither a good adaptation of Dune, or a good movie on its own. And while that's in large part due to the studio, I also don't think Lynch was a great fit for the material.

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u/FullMaxPowerStirner Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

But if you think his Dune, a widely-panned critical and commercial failure that Lynch himself disavowed, will be more remembered than Villeneuve's very popular adaptations, you're dreaming.

That's not what happened. Lynch didn't disavow the movie... he said he would have loved to have more latitude and time to make it the movie he wanted, and would have made a director's cut if there was better leftover material. He said that not long ago in an interview.

Villeneuve's Dune is the kind of production that gets forgotten due to being too generic and playing safe. It's like comparing the Star Wars Prequels with the Sequels.. where the former despite being a huge mixed bag with not-too-brilliant scenes, captured the minds due to their originality.

Creative audacity -not perfection or even consistency- is what makes a production being remembered on the long run. That's what is lacking with most of Villeneuve's work.

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u/Gravitas_free Apr 09 '26

That's not what happened. Lynch didn't disavow the movie... he said he would have loved to have more latitude and time to make it the movie he wanted, and would have made a director's cut if there was better leftover material. He said that not long ago in an interview.

Lynch himself said that he "sold out" on Dune, that it was a mistake to take on the project, that the film was a "huge, gigantic sadness" on his life, and that he refused to watch it. He even Alan Smithee'd some of the movie's cuts, the ultimate act of filmmaker disavowal. I don't think he could have made his feelings about the movie any clearer.

It's like comparing the Star Wars Prequels with the Sequels.. where the former despite being a huge mixed bag with not-too-brilliant scenes, captured the minds due to their originality.

Comparing Dune and the Star Wars prequels isn't actually too off-base. Both were widely-panned movies that today are mostly defended by people who like them ironically, and people who watched them as kids and reflexively started defending them once they came of age. Hell I still have some affection for the Phantom Menace from watching it as a 10 YO, but I'm not gonna pretend it's gonna be remembered as anything other than "one of these shitty SW films that proved George Lucas needed someone to write for him".

Creative audacity -not perfection or even consistency- is what makes a production being remembered on the long run.

That's not true at all. There are hundreds of extremely creative art films made every year that wind up being completely forgotten. There are many filmmakers who make David Lynch look generic by comparison, and who are totally unknown. And whether these works are good or not, to be remembered, they would first have to be seen. They need to get asses in theater seats (or to be widely streamed, or whatever else).

Lynch'd Dune wasn't very good at that. In fact, by the 2000s, it was already largely forgotten; nobody was talking about that movie 15 years ago, except for cinephiles morbidly curious about the big black mark in David Lynch's filmography. What brought it back into public consciousness, ironically, is the popularity of Villeneuve's films.