psychegram
The Living Force
I've seen it twice. Will probably go see it again. Loved every moment of it. Visually stunning, casting was well-chosen, dialogue is good, and importantly it's fairly true to the novel, which I've read several times since I was a teenager.
The pacing is slow, especially in the beginning, but that's honestly refreshing after the exhuasting hyperkinetic action sequences that comprise so much of modern film-making, especially scifi and fantasy. This is very much Villeneuve's style - if you watch The Arrival (which I didn't like, although that was more because I disliked the characters; objectively, it was a good movie) or Bladerunner 2049 (one of the best movies of the past decade), he favours long, moody shots and carefully constructed, deeply psychological character development, with action sequences limited to short, shocking bursts. While his world-building is masterful, the real focus is on the inner lives and struggles of the characters.
The second time I watched it, it occurred to me that I was identifying quite a bit with Paul; and I imagine many others are, as well. Those of us refusing the needle are facing the very real prospect of being cast out into society; we've had our world shattered over the last two years; many have lost friends and family over the political differences that have been cultivated by the legacy media and big tech algorithmic nudge manipulations. At a metaphorical level, this feels a lot like what Paul goes through in the third act of the film, as a sudden sneak attack annihilates his House and he finds himself cast out in the unforgiving wilderness of the desert, making alliances out of necessity with a people he knows little about. Then there are his precognitive apprehensions of what lies in wait which torture him through the first half of the movie; again, there's a parallel with the way so many of us, myself included, have sensed all of this coming through the preceding years, although never being fully sure it would truly manifest and, in the end, not being able to stop it.
It's interesting how Paul's visions are handled. They aren't always true; several times, he sees things that, when they manifest, don't happen exactly as presented in his visions. For example, he sees himself being killed in a knife fight in the desert, but when the fight actually happens, he prevails. At a certain level this is metaphor (his vision was true in the sense that, when he kills his opponent, the old Paul dies). Another interpretation is that he isn't seeing the future, but a possible future; in the context of the novels, this is how his precognitive abilities actually work. In other words, 'the future is open'.
The pacing is slow, especially in the beginning, but that's honestly refreshing after the exhuasting hyperkinetic action sequences that comprise so much of modern film-making, especially scifi and fantasy. This is very much Villeneuve's style - if you watch The Arrival (which I didn't like, although that was more because I disliked the characters; objectively, it was a good movie) or Bladerunner 2049 (one of the best movies of the past decade), he favours long, moody shots and carefully constructed, deeply psychological character development, with action sequences limited to short, shocking bursts. While his world-building is masterful, the real focus is on the inner lives and struggles of the characters.
The second time I watched it, it occurred to me that I was identifying quite a bit with Paul; and I imagine many others are, as well. Those of us refusing the needle are facing the very real prospect of being cast out into society; we've had our world shattered over the last two years; many have lost friends and family over the political differences that have been cultivated by the legacy media and big tech algorithmic nudge manipulations. At a metaphorical level, this feels a lot like what Paul goes through in the third act of the film, as a sudden sneak attack annihilates his House and he finds himself cast out in the unforgiving wilderness of the desert, making alliances out of necessity with a people he knows little about. Then there are his precognitive apprehensions of what lies in wait which torture him through the first half of the movie; again, there's a parallel with the way so many of us, myself included, have sensed all of this coming through the preceding years, although never being fully sure it would truly manifest and, in the end, not being able to stop it.
It's interesting how Paul's visions are handled. They aren't always true; several times, he sees things that, when they manifest, don't happen exactly as presented in his visions. For example, he sees himself being killed in a knife fight in the desert, but when the fight actually happens, he prevails. At a certain level this is metaphor (his vision was true in the sense that, when he kills his opponent, the old Paul dies). Another interpretation is that he isn't seeing the future, but a possible future; in the context of the novels, this is how his precognitive abilities actually work. In other words, 'the future is open'.
