Merkel

I find it frankly insulting how the acting winners can speak for as long as they like whereas the winners from all the so-called "technical categories" are silenced mid speech by music

http://variety.com/2017/film/in-contention/playback-podcast-denis-villeneuve-arrival-1201982092/ At the 45 minute mark, he talks about Dune, calling it "the movie of his life" and a childhood dream. Before that he talks about Blade Runner

Fantastic. Now please keep Brian Herbert as way from the project as possible. He's a no talent hack

For sure, skip the prequels, but everything written by Frank Herbert is worthwhile. God Emperor of Dune is fantastic

You only get the tiniest glimpse of the Dune universe in Dune 2. It was fascinating enough back in the day to make me want to learn more about it, but once I read the book, my mind was blown. I entered that world totally and I've never quite left it since

I think you could do it in two movies and slip the story when Paul and Jessica are found by the Fremen after escaping the Harkonnen

Rosamund Pike or Cate Blanchett for Lady Jessica

Well, the book did become immensly popular. There's a great deal of appeal in this story without having to dumb it down. The universe the book creates is so credible and fascinating, that alone can intrigue a wider audience

Dune is my all time favorite book. And if Deakins is on board for this...

Brian Herbert's books are below prequel-bad. They are absolutely atrocious

on the left: Nolan, Cameron, Fincher and Kubrick on the right: Spielberg, Tarantino, Coppola

So, apparently, this has been a dream project for Villeneuve in quite a while. He said this in September: So, the project clearly interests him

Looks terrific

Until the whole trilogy plays out, we really don't know much about Rey's Force abilities. We don't know if she had previous training or not. We don't if she is roughly as strong with the Force as Luke was at the same point, or if she is some sort of supreme Force manifestation the likes of which we have never seen before. Plus, Kylo Ren, besides being severely injured (and the movie did emphasize this quite a bit) and in a state of emotional turmoil, did not want to kill Rey but rather make her join his cause and receive training

In Star Wars, moments that define characters and make you care for them are very hard to pull off. They have to be telegraphed, almost. Conveyed with a very small amount of elements. Star Wars is not a TV series, with endless dialogue scenes. That is why Poe's introduction in TFA is so well handled. The whole "So who talks first? I talk first, you talk first?" thing is a prime example of what I am reffering to. It immediatly creates an empathy for the character, a sense of what this guy is about. Had any of the Rogue One characters have moments like this, and they would've felt much more alive, instead of being mere gears in the plot progression. Story is always more important than plot

It made me not mind Luke's absence. Besides, it was a great idea to let both Luke and Han shine, without one overwhelming the other, and specially both of them overwhelming the new characters. Making Luke the McGuffin of it all was great. And I adore the ending, in all its mythic, dialogue free, music driven grandeur

TFA made me care more about the new characters than the returning trio. That's an incredibly difficult thing to pull off. It recycled plot, but did not recycle story. It left several relationships and conflicts on the table that I can't wait to see explored. In a way, I think we can only fully judge TFA after the new trilogy is done, depending on how well VIII and IX handle the seeds laid by this movie

5/10 from me too. I thought the movie was frankly dull for the most part. The characters don't go anywhere. Somehow it didn't quite feel like Star Wars. Even the little things, like the planets' names appearing on screen (and there are a bunch of them), didn't feel Star Wars. It felt like a Tom Clancy type of thing It's too cliché laden. The necklace given by the mother. The death scene speech. The hero that appears dead and reappears out of nowhere to save the other hero. I think Giacchino managed to ruin every time he reprised one of Williams' original themes (except perhaps the Imperial Motif and the Death Star motif). I know these are all scattered thoughs without eloquency, but I've just come out of the movie and I'm sadly dissapointed I'm not sure if this is the worst of the decent Star Wars movies, or the best of the bad Star Wars movies

You can listen to the full score here: http://www.paramountguilds.com/silence/score/

The Japanese characters do speak English with a Japanese accent. I do expect several sections of the movie to be spoken in Japanese, though. The role of the interpreter was set to be played by Ken Watanabe at first, so the role should be reasonably substancial

All the non Asian characters you see in the trailer are Portuguese (Garfield, Driver, Hinds and Neeson)

It's not that at all. The book is a profound reflection on the nature of faith, written by a Japonese Catholic. It's extremely moving

I was quite taken with this shot

It takes place in Japan for the most part (and in Macao, then a Portuguese holding) and the three main characters are Portuguese

I think they're going for English with a Portuguese accent, but I must say it sounds much more like a Spanish accent. And none of the three actors was able to correctly pronounce Ferreira. His name was not Ferrera