Populasian: June 2024

Friday, June 21, 2024

Dune: Part Two - 沙丘:第二部

Dune: Part Two (沙丘:第二部) is an 2024 film. The movie stars Timothée Chalamet. The vast supporting cast include Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, and Javier Bardem. Part Two adds the supporting cast of Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux The movie is a sequel to the 2021 Dune version.

After the events of the first film. Paul is now getting acclimated to the Fremen way of life. The visions continue to come. Paul eventually becomes a very good fighter and causing the deployed spice harvesters a lot of pain. Eventually, leadership changes are made and the spice harvesters start up again. Paul is than forced to embrace more responsibility. Will Paul be able to stay true to himself or will strategy win the day?

This was a good sequel to the first as the tone and flow were pretty much the same. The dessert was the dessert, but when they were on other worlds, it was pretty amazing. Maybe they can go through the Dune houses and their history in the future.

As for this movie, if you liked the first and wanted to finish the story, they movie will satisfy that urge. As a whole, both movies were not disjointed and finished a massive storyline. Could it have gone faster? For sure, but was it needed, not really, as the pace made sense. Paul is being presented as having a lot on his mind and movie went into that.

Friday, June 14, 2024

Dune - 沙丘

Dune (沙丘) is an 2021 film. The movie stars Timothée Chalamet. The vast supporting cast include Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem. The movie is not a remake of the 1984 version, but a new interpretation of the novel.

I had watched this back in 2021 when it came out on HBOMax. I didn't particularly remember liking it much than as it was very slow and took itself too seriously. My most recent Dune memory was the Sci-Fi channel broadcast back at the turn of the century. So, I had a vague memory of the general plot. Which made it a little hard to be surprised by things.

I wanted to watch Dune 2 in the theaters so I re-watched the movie. I had gotten digital copy back when it was on sale. I watched it via AppleTV app as I have my digital library connected there. It was in 4K and was very detailed. As I watched it, my kids started watching with me, so instead of telling them the story, I started the movie from the beginning as I was a little over an hour in. But due to watching it together, it took over 1 month to finish it. By that time, it was no longer in IMAX and I gave up going to the theater.

During the second watch, I was able to focus on the film making vs re-discovering the story. This was a beautiful movie. The settings were awesome. Especially the palace settings for the different houses. The dune settings were not as interesting as it was just sand, but the underground cities were pretty interesting, but pale in comparison to the house settings.

Friday, June 7, 2024

Upcoming - 金庸武侠世界 - The Legend Of Heroes

I do not do many upcoming anymore as there is just too much content. It really is a struggle to choose things these days. However, the teaser and recent trailer for 金庸武侠世界 (The Legend Of Heroes) have really gotten me amped up. Even though I have watched and re-watched all the Jin Yong stories over and over again, they never seem to get boring or old. The Condor trilogy is the gold standard of his adaptions. And even in this trilogy, people have their favorites. I am very partial to 倚天屠龍記 (The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber).

I was getting emotional seeing the trailer just now and really really want to watch it. If Viki doesn’t get this within a week of release, I may have to figure out how to order WeTv.

In the 1990s, TVB made pre-quels based on the 5 pillars. Although they were not always good, they were entertaining. 金庸武侠世界 looks to do the same with adding the pre-stories of the 5 pillars of Hwa Shan.