Finally a Reason Again to Look Forward to Cinema: “Fear is the Mind Killer”

Thanks to marvels of ever cheaper and better quality (home) projectors my trips to the movies have been limited in recent years. That’s not to say that I don’t like watching movies, au contraire.

But I’m not necessarily among that kind who enjoy the smell of buttered popcorn, the crunching of crisps at the other side, and someone with really long legs banging their knees against your seat. Sure, there’s “luxury” cinemas with large almost home comfort chairs areas and whatnots but my visits to them have been limited in recent years.

Before times were different because some things just need to be seen on a screen as big as possible. James Bond is none of those but any Michael Bay Transformer movie definitely belongs in that category. It’s probably also the only worthy category that franchise belongs in.

When all you had was a 50” TV when watching the final screen of the first episode of V (2009 - TV series), that felt lacking and made you pine for a big Home Screen.

Together with that came the luxury of being able to replace those trips to the movies with a nice bottle of wine, your preferred chips and not a “Must Do” selection for the evening, and no other weird unknown smells in your nose either. Prices of 1080p projectors have become ever since 2008/09 and the same is happening with 4K projectors again.

While a nice 120” screen at home is nothing to scoff about, especially not when combined with a decent sound installation which can make that “theater” of yours rumble when those “The Fast and The Furious” souped up Japanese twin turbos pass, the issue hasn’t really changed and... some things need to be seen in big size. There’s basically no screen big enough at times.

Come to mind are definitely Dr. Strange, of which I embedded the trailer just to rest my case, and probably also for better mindfrak joys Inception. Saw what I did there.

Maybe that trailer was all you needed to see of Dr. Strange. But I’ll take any excuse to see another Tilda Swindon performance. Otherwise, there’s always the Honest Trailer edition.

It seems finally there’s something which makes me eager to go to the movies again though. But I say this very carefully because there’s some things in life one shouldn’t mess with and make a movie out. This is one of them.

While things went surprisingly well with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, that’s usually not how things go when it comes to movies made out of excellent existing material. MARVEL’s Dr. Strange was one of those prime examples of “fail”. The reimagined TV series V was another great example. Although it gave the Internet’s conspiracy theorists a reminder about the lizards. And starred Morena Baccarin.

The movie I’m starting to get cautiously excited about already notched up a fail in Hollywood. When trying to convert seminal novels like Frank Herbert’s epic to live action, things can and generally go but haywire. No matter how many excellent actors you bring to the game.

The trailer for Dune (2020) seems very promising though. I think the three or four months wait for the streaming release may be too long for me. Who am I kidding here, of course, I will be at the gates on release day. Not every year is Dune turned into a movie.

Trailer and Warner Bros. be damned. Obviously, since more than a decade trailers serve the fans exactly what they expect and the official first trailer for Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune is no exception to that practice.

The spice must flow.

While the internet is busy vivisecting the trailer — and it’s packed with details — I think it’s time to find that paperback again and reread Frank Herbert’s epic book. With a slated release date of December 18, 2020 there may be just enough time to find to reread Dune.

Of course, this is 2020 and things may get delayed.

Are you as excited about the upcoming Dune as I am started to become or should Villeneuve have stayed away from this project? Will you just wait for the Honest Trailer?

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Meanwhile I leave you with the newly released most recent of the Gorillaz. Featuring Robert Smith and which has a really cool and trippy video. An absolute must see.