
When I turned the last page of Dune, I felt a kind of emptiness inside. What’s surprising is that I seemed to be talking about the two together: the book Dune by Frank Herbert, and the film Dune Part 2 by Denis Villeneuve. Possibly this means that it was a good movie and did justice to the much loved science fiction work.
My feelings are not unambiguous. This part contains spoilers. Let’s begin with . . .
The Good
The film is visually stunning! It is one of those films that I would recommend people to watch on the largest screen possible with the very best sound. I felt the seats vibrating a few times. There is so much spectacle here, it’s a bit too much sometimes. And everything is made to such high standards. We see a lot more of it this time, although the absence of sweat remains curious for a hot planet.
The dark shots portraying Giedi Prime the home of the Harkonnens have been some of the best moments in the film. Being comparatively monochrome, the scene in the arena between Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler trying to mimic Stellan Skarsgard\’s Baron Harkonnen as best as he could, only as an Albino version) and the rest of the crowd has been particularly unnerving. Most likely it was filmed through infrared cameras, which was intentional. Greig Fraser certainly does some stunning work in this film. Very interesting indeed.
Tying into that, the visuals are top-notch but different and more developed than the first film’s visuals as the Nun from the Bene Gesserit wear their veils or the masked guards in the arena of Feyd-Rautha. This time the costume and set design don’t just fit the world but create a different world completely, from the desert of Arrakis to the beautiful garden of the Padishah Emperor.
Even some of the fight sequences were well-managed. Fremen’s attacks on Harkonnen spice ships were quite enjoyable. Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and the fight between Feyd-Rautha is rather quick but violent.
But also, it is quite satisfying seeing Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) becoming darker and embracing her role as a Bene Gesserit even if it means putting her child at risk, and an increased role for Chani (Zendaya) although she is depicted rather differently than the book describes, a point we will cover later on.
Javier Bardem as Stilgar most definitely kills it in the comedic moments. Other responses to Paul’s claim that he is the one when it comes to Mahdi, the chosen one, arose within the farem sects. Hardline Fremen think that he is their Mahdi, but moderate or less extreme Fremen do not have such a belief in him. However, when Paul says I am not Mahdi, Stilgar, addressing his comrades in conviction, says about the beholder’s remark: “He’s too modest I to call himself the Mahdi; proof he’s the Mahdi!” It’s a long, very often seriously told story, and therefore it is nice to see how the authors put in a bit of humor.
More events than not, the events from the book were narrated rather accurately with some deviations being necessary or perhaps those that are not as necessary, will become once we get part 3 Dune Messiah. Apart from being an adaptation, even considering its own wits, not as a work of art on its own, it is quite an experience. The film as an adaptation is probably the best that we can imagine while some changes should never have been made in the first place. Proceeding then, let us get on with it…
The Mixed
Chani’s character does get letters and an evolution, but, paid also to paper Paul focuses on getting to know the Fremen and becoming first Muad’dib fully, and embracing the prophecy of Lisan al Gaib/Mahdi or Kwisatz Haderach as the Bene Gesserits refer him. That fêmale-dominant mind-controlling witch tribe has been spreading this prophetic vision for several hundred years, and working for many generations to create the Kwisatz Haderach, finally achieved by, of course, Paul, thanks to Jessica breaking the order not to bear a son.
Regardless, Chani does not take this well, especially when Paul marries Princess Irulan; a scenario book Chani would have no qualms about. It’s not quite how I wanted it, but that’s more or less irrelevant, but it was ugly and in terms of really being able to empathize with what was upsetting her, clumsy in terms of how to engage with it when she would assure Paul she would always be there for him. Another of those little things that made me go “Huh?”. The picture adheres to a lot of the major events that occurred in the novel, however, others lose focus. And this is what most disappoints me. However, let me explain what I mean in a minute.
Certain characters, such as the venomous and multifaceted Count Fenring, are completely absent; his wife, Margot (Léa Seydoux), promotes Feyd-Rautha to get hers without him noticing. (The more I think about the Bene Gesserit the more I see how much they inspired not only the Jedi in Star Wars but also the Aes Sedai in The Wheel of Time and even the witches in The Witcher books, although Herbert’s order is the most dreadful, eerie and sinister of them all).
The timeline also irks me somewhat. I feel that from the established chronology, Paul has only spent a few months here with the Fremen before overthrowing them (certainly less than nine given Alia’s Kubrickian fetal state). So, at the risk of being slightly irreverent, why don’t they just go and conquer the spice and turn their planet into a glorious paradise instead of leaving and launching a jihad – sorry a “holy war” – on the Great Houses?
Thus, Paul and Chani do not have any children and hence, do not lose young Leto II to the Imperial Sardaukar. His recuperation from the Water of Life takes only several weeks instead. In general, the adoption of such a tight timeline is not very appealing to me. More time with the Fremen – beating the “weirding ways” into them and learning their secrets in the process – would fulfill his stated role as their leader. The pace is all out of whack for a film of such length. It’s definitely something that they do try to grapple with, perhaps they shouldn’t have bothered though. The effect is rather interesting, or quite strange depending on how you see it.
I’m still kind of mixed about the fact that Alia stayed in Jessica’s womb for the whole of the movie, but it was convenient for the most part and spared the need to work with a very young child actor who would have been required to perform a very tough role. Still, Paul using the gom jabbar on Baron Harkonnen instead of Alia makes a very different impact altogether, which is why I enjoyed his comeback: “You die like an animal.”
In the same vein, I also have issues with Paul the character, from a certain angle. We get to see very little of his Mentat training and no Mentats at all since Thufir Hawat is in the picture but is inconspicuous, and his prescience, at least, is only one dream repeated over and over again. In my opinion, we should have witnessed how the spice was influencing him, what made him truly special, etc. Only once at the end, quite awkwardly do we understand how his powers have really come into their own—when he employs the Bene Gesserit Voice on the Reverend Mother.
It is also rather a bit of a dilemma for me, particularly with the score by Hans Zimmer. And while it is more than adequate, and the sound and music together provide a consistent rumbling sound throughout the movie, it is also a tad forgettable. No one will be singing the Dune theme song two decades from now. However, I think that is not too much of a problem, but at no point was the music something that excited me, and maybe it was the case of the music, but the fault lay elsewhere, I think with the script. There was no particular feeling that came to me, for all the great acting and the scale of the piece, I was not emotionally convinced. There is a revenge story in this, but it is in many aspects disappointing. And that dullness I have already discussed at length – that is indeed the one that is left in my head after I walked out of the cinema. This film was definitely a spectacle and a visual delight, but rather strangely it lacked emotion.
But, the same is valid for the book, which is peculiar and has many layers but is more plot-centric in nature rather than being character-focused. Which brings us to . . .
The Bad
Herbert’s novel, to my great chagrin, had a very abrupt ending. The abruptness was what I disliked most about the work as a whole. Quite a lot of the big action and the war that’s the center of the narrative, the one that splinters the Fremen and the Harkonnen and Imperial forces goes on in the background. It feels almost as if all the conflicts were quickly resolved whereas even though the good guys win and the bad guys lose, I never quite felt like Duke Leto was truly avenged. It just didn’t work for me and I thought perhaps in this case, in movie form, that would be the exception.
However, the climactic battle of the movie does have the most of gripping disappointment. In contrast to the many elite Sardaukar and Harkonnen forces, the protagonists succeed very quickly, which borders on humor. It is an epic anti climax and maybe that is the intent of this book. Perhaps it was one of those areas in the book that could have been worth changing and improving!
The vast and powerful House Harkonnen and the elite Imperial army descend in warships to quell Paul’s Fremen uprising – a rebellion coordinated by a young teenager with scant experience and crazed fighters who don’t have the technology to stand up to their opponents. Now, that sounds to be a harsh battle!
I should reinforce, the final duel of Paul and Feyd-Rautha was impressive but I don’t like that Feyd-Rautha was treated as an honorable fighter in this situation. I’m just not sure the processes of creation were quite on point in how the character is depicted in the film. He comes off as if he isn’t . . . relevant at all.
Feyd-Rautha, on the other hand, is a man who is strong-willed and has no remorse for his actions. In the book, he attempts to poison Paul and indeed captures the essence of Hamlet but ultimately, he does not succeed.
Here he comments to the Atreides fighting master by stating ‘Well fought, Atreides’ which he had said earlier in the movie to the at the arena he killed. Should we assume that Feyd-Rautha, the master of cannibal-pampered sex whores, is also a person of honor? He could be. Who knows? It is lame that they give him that depth when the Harkonnens are portrayed in every other fashion as the most outlandish, mustache-twirling villains you can imagine.
I admire the manner in which they depict Baron Harkonnen and the Harkonnen people generally, but the number of times that some nameless minion is stabbed in the throat or has his brain bashed for some relatively unimportant (or over no importance at all) starts to make them look like over exaggerated cartoon bad guys instead of a rich and determined old House. Imagine Game Of Thrones where all villains are just Ramsay Snow all the time. The fact that there is no kind of interrelation between Feyd-Rautha and Paul for their ultimate face-off makes everything feel distant. Just like how most of the ending goes, the entire sequence just happens.
However, regarding the casting, I will write a completely different blog since it is one of my biggest complaints regarding both films: There are too many famous people and perhaps the films would have been more interesting if more unknown actors were used. It almost made me chuckle when Paul has his vision of Alia in older age and the character is played by Anya Taylor-Joy who has only a few lines (and hey, we just saw her in the trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga before the movie started and that doesn’t look too good and also we saw Butler in the promo of The Bikeriders which actually seems quite promising—if you cast this many prominent personalities, of course, you will see at least one or two famous faces in the trailers).
However, the primary casting decision that I would like to seek for now is that of Walken Christopher as Shaddam IV. I really like Walken (most recently in Severance). He’s fantastic in so many things. In case this is the only thing he fails at, this is the profession for the character – wrong, wrong, wrong. Every single one of Walken’s performances is stunning, some of his insignificant appearances in Annie Hall, or in Pulp Fiction, or in True Romance and the list is very long- Walken is truly a treasure. His performance in the film is okay, however, he wasn’t a suitable casting choice for Dune. And I do not remember being this disturbed by a casting SNAFU since Nicole Kidman as the Northman which by the way is a film with Anya Taylor-Joy next to a Skarsgard that happens to be an adjacent Hamlet film as well.
The leave-out of the spice melange, the Navigators, and the Spacing Guild can be presumed that it’s the one which will be utilized in the third film which seems certain now, but this felt extremely jarring for me as that is somewhat one of the most important parts of the entire book for it explains why Arrakis and its chief export is so valuable to the whole power tripod of Empire, Great Houses of the Landsraad and the Spacing Guild. Very strange. I was quite sure that even at the end of the movie those Navigators were going to appear. The spectacle of the Fremen jumping into ships and rushing off to war without a second thought was not something I had in mind.
At last, 2 hours and 46 minutes is too much time for a middle part, nothing more than a middle part, in what is a, or be a trilogy in my opinion, so sorry. I realize I have said this several times, but very few films give support for such long durations. Many things in Dune Part 2 were captivating but a lot could be cut out, just like other sections. It’s not a very long book and here we have two whole movies to tell it in. Time is money.
In general, while it’s not flawless, this was as faithful an adaptation of Dune as one could wish for. Dune has foiled more than one attempt in the past. Villeneuve remains one of the more interesting directors in contemporary cinema, and together with his entire crew, they managed to adapt this space opera. Or spice opera, as it is usually called.
But then come the uncomfortable sensations again, that it did not bring that feeling of conclusion, that it was all too quick, yet I’d still suggest you go watch it in the cinema. The film is monumental and expands on everything from the first part. It’s impressive to be honest. Watching the whole film without any words would not be disappointing because of how beautiful it is. It is better than Part 1 for many reasons: the visuals, although the story is not as amazing, but still captivating, and my issues are not significant at all. The only thing I would really add is:
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