Of all the movies that have been announced or launched recently, the only one in which I believe I have a proper emotional investment is Dune. I am not a Dune cultist, I have not read all of the books in the series, and I can’t draw you the molecule of the drug Melange like some people I know can, but I always liked Herbert’s novel, and I believe it’s one of the best in the genre.
I did not care much for the Lynch film, I thought the TV series was OK, and I really hope the new movie is as good as promised.

I am also a little worried about what the movie will cause – I’ve seen it happen with other properties. I’ve seen the knuckleheads that started cheering for the “mindless violence, vulgarity and raw sex” in Robert E. Howard after watching Milius’ Conan. I’ve been fending back the dread hordes of the Tolkienoids eager to explain to me a book I had read when they were still in kindergarten. They go hand-in-hand with the guys that will spend half an hour on Youtube to explain Cthulhu and the Lovecraft Mythos to me.

New converts are always insufferable.
No really – look at Sain Paul.
Just sayin’.

But there is another phenomenon that is really strange, and yet I’m seeing it emerge stronger every day as the launch date of the movie draws nearer: it’s the “true fans” hoping to see the movie fail.
It will be no good, they say, because, apparently, Denis Villeneuve did not “get” the novel. They did get the novel, and had they been given the budget, they would have made a perfect movie.
But anyone else?
You’ve got to be kidding.
They will ruin it, they say.
They will put in some politically correct SJW thing and they will break it.
The actors – that we have yet to see acting – are wrong. Too young, too old, too tall, to short, wrong gender, wrong color, wrong voice…
The script – that none of us had read – is bad. Too thin, too thick, too political, not political enough, the wrong kind of political anyway…
The music? Ah, do not get them started on the music!

And so they are all there, poised like vultures, waiting for the trailer to drop (it’s been leaked, it can be seen around, but they’ll wait for the official launch), and then they’ll dissect it one second at a time, making a list of all that’s wrong.

Their voices will mingle with those of the people that will announce to the world that Villeneuve’s Dune is the greatest movie ever made, should be shown in school, should become a religion, and then they’ll cosplay it, wrote filk about it, and explain the beginning, middle and end of it to anyone who’s interested, and a lot that are not.

Both will do everything they can to spoil the fun of those that would just like to watch a good science fiction movie.

They’ll do it, because they are True Fans.