this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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I just saw the first movie with a friend and the thought went through my mind. I'm not really sure what something being derivative means, so I looked it up and apparently it's more subjective than I realized.

What are your thoughts?

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So, when talking about a film adaptation of a 60 year old book being derivative, remember that even though you are only experiencing it now, Dune has been around for a long time. It has inspired other creators, and their work has inspired yet more creators, and you have likely consumed much of these other inspired works before consuming the originator. The order you experience it in may make it seem derived by the other works you already enjoyed, but the opposite may in fact be true.

That being said, no work is created in a vacuum, and all works are derivative to some degree. Dune is no different. It is inspired by sci-fi pulp fiction and even fantasy works that came before it too.

Furthermore, the film is not an entirely faithful adaptation and brings its own interpretations, additions, and other alterations to the story. Those, likewise, are not always wholly novel ideas and share DNA with other works, novels and film, the creators enjoyed. They did plenty of unique things, particularly with the cinematography and aesthetics of the peoples and environments, but the story structure, superhuman abilities and political intrigue will still share a lot of commonalities with other works.

None of that makes Dune bad or lesser. There is nothing wrong with putting a new twist on a a tried and true formula or story element to make it your own.