4th July, 2024: an announcement!
Finally … I have an evening, free!
One where I can watch a movie!
Frankly?
I’m looking forward to seeing Dune: Part Two, tonight.
Hopefully?
I’ll have my review up by tomorrow: or by Saturday, at the latest.
Dune: Part Two is a long film, after all!
5th July, 2024: Dune: Part Two.
Part 1: A Summary.
After we’re shown the opening credits?
We see Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) dictating an entry into her diary: reminding us of the Harkonnen invasion of the planet Dune in the first film, and of the apparent destruction of Dune’s ruling Atreides family.
And tells us that Irulan has told her father — the Padishah Emperor Shaddam 4th (Christopher Walken) — of her personal belief that Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) survived the battle, and is leading a guerrilla war against the Harkonnen occupiers.
The scene shifts again.
To show us Paul Atreides talking to his as yet unborn sister, Alia: telling her their father had been killed, and that “fixing things” would be difficult.
Then shows us that this has been a dream, of sorts: that Paul, along side Chani, Stilgar, Lady Jessica, (Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Rebecca Ferguson) and a small band of Fremen, encountering a troop of Harkonnen soldiers.
Encountering them, defeating them … then making sure they drain the corpses of water, before feeding the remains to the worms.
At Arrakeen, the capital of Arrakis?
We see that Rabban (Dave Bautista) is once more in charge of the Harkonnen fief: making sure his workforce defeats the Fremen, and gets more Spice off planet … on pain of death.
~≈🪱≈~
Meanwhile?
And once the bodies have been buried?
Stilgar leads his people — and Paul and Jessica — to Sietch Tabr: where, as Paul is facing a mixed welcome from the Fremen, Stilgar decides to have a private conversation with Jessica, to explain something of his people’s beliefs to her.
Stilgar explains many Fremen will feel the pair are long foretold figures from Fremen religious tradition: Paul fits the description of an off-world prophet known as the Lisan al-Gaib, and Jessica fits the description of the Prophet’s mysterious Bene Gesserit mother.
There’s just one thing Jessica needs to do, to start the protective ball rolling.
She needs to meet the tribe’s own dying Reverend Mother … and take a very unimportant test …
~≈🪱≈~
Part 2: Thoughts.
Now … what did I make of Dune: Part Two?
What did I think of the casting? The story? Differences between the film and the book?
The sheer bloody length of Dune: Part Two?
Let’s start with that last point, shall we?
The film’s length.
The first Villeneuve-directed Dune movie came in at two hundred and fifty-five minutes: two hours and thirty-five minutes.
Something that — at the time — struck me as intimidatingly long.
After all, I’m diabetic: so frequently press the ‘Pause’ button to visit the toilet.
That’s at home.
You can imagine what I’m like, watching a film this long at the cinema.
However, Dune: Part One was well paced: well enough paced that — along side being careful with how much I drank — I managed to watch a riveting movie with few interruptions.
So, when Dune: Part Two became available on demand, I was looking forward to watching it.
But not surprised to see that it was roughly eleven minutes longer than the first one!
Was that a worry for me?
Yes, of course it was.
Diabetic, remember?
I shouldn’t’ve worried.
Villeneuve has managed to pace Dune: Part Two in much the same way as Part One: in a way that means viewers like me barely notice the length of the film.
That pacing, combined with the pause button, was a good thing.
~≈🪱≈~
Part 3: About the Cast.
The cast … ?
The cast are possibly another thing to focus on.
Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem return as Paul, Chani, Jessica and Stilgar: along side Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista as Gurney Halleck, Vladimir Harkonnen, and the Beast Rabban, respectively.
And, again: put in the very good performances I’ve come to expect from the original movie.
Some of the minor roles were almost as impressive.
Léa Seydoux impressed me, as Margot Fenring.
Granted her role is incredibly minor: but it helps establish what the Bene Gesserit are doing, and lays groundwork for any future entries in the franchise.
Just as impressive?
Was Souheila Yacoub as Shishakli, a Fremen warrior who’s a friend of Chani’s.
Frankly? I think they’ve combined a couple of characters from the original novel — a woman called Harah, and a minor male character called Shishakli — but Yacoub’s take on the combined character is both feisty and well played.
Walken as the Padishah Emperor, as Shaddam 4th? Was possibly my only disappointment.
He plays the character very well: you don’t hire Walken and expect a bad performance, after all.
But I felt was hiring him was possibly a wasted opportunity: the character of the Emperor is relatively minor, after all.
The film has, effectively, used a hammer to crack a nut.
Quite who else could’ve played the part?
I don’t know: there’s few actors with Walken’s gravity.
So? Villeneuve has hired a sledgehammer, when maybe a spoon could’ve done.
By contrast, Florence Pugh as Irulan?
Was everything I think we could ask of Irulan: or, at least this screen version of Irulan.
The character doesn’t appear much in the original novel: the character’s books are quoted in the chapter headings of Dune, but it’s only in the last few pages of the book that she puts in a brief appearance.
As presented in the book? She has very little to do, compared to Pugh’s version.
Pugh does a lot of heavy lifting with the very good material given her: and still fills the narrator role she has in the novel.
Also worth mentioning … ?
Is Austin Butler’s version of Feyd Rautha.
Butler’s simultaneously restrained, and violent, performance as the Baron’s heir is both riveting and was far more watchable than earlier versions.
And worryingly realistic: reminiscent of customers I’d know at some of the pubs I’d worked in.
Would he win an Oscar? I don’t know.
But he plays the character extremely well, and has an unnerving voice!
~≈🪱≈~
6th July, 2024.
Part 4: More Thoughts.
OK … so what about the story? Is Dune: Part Two a good translation of the second half of the Frank Herbert novel?
Are there any differences between this film, and the latter half of Herbert’s novel?
Yes: inevitably there are differences.
As I mentioned in my review of the first film, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) has been calmed down quite a bit.
In the original novel?
The character is something we’ve learnt to despise.
An aggressive paedophile in a position of authority, an unassailable position of authority.
Something that the first film, in 2021, didn’t mention.
Understandably, I think. It wasn’t especially needed for, or relevant to, the story.
And — mishandled? — could easily offend the LGBTQI⁺ section of the market: much as the David Lynch version of the character did.
In Dune: Part Two, the Baron is still not the monster the book tells us he is.
Not the same type of monster, at any rate.
At about forty-eight minutes into the film, we see that Rabban has been summoned to the Baron’s quarters: and is waiting outside the door, before being called in.
There’s screaming coming from behind that door: that ends with the thud of bodies hitting the floor.
Female bodies: ones that Rabban spots when he’s finally summoned into the Baron’s quarters.
Yes: this scene reminds us that the Baron is a monster.
But, in replacing paedophilia with heterosexual violence, I wonder if the film’s telling us one type of abuse is unacceptable: and another is.
It’s a conundrum, I think.
Another change?
Is to Alia.
The character of Alia — at the end of the novel — is four years old.
But one who is mentally an adult, as a result of Jessica’s use of the Water of Life.
That works well enough for the novel.
But … ?
It’s changed for the film, where were we see Jessica talking to her unborn daughter, and passing messages from Alia to Paul.
We only get to see an adult Alia in the film: during one of Paul’s dream sequences.
Why this was changed?
I don’t know.
But … ?
I’d imagine not having a child actor as a main character made things a lot easier for director, cast and crew.
A third change … ?
Is to Chani.
Zendaya plays the part well: with both depth and spirit.
But also with far more scepticism about Paul’s decision to take on the mantle of the Fremen messiah than her written equivalent.
The pair are as supportive and loving as they are in the book, but this film version of Chani is sceptical.
Something she herself puts down to her (northern) tribe putting far more salt on traditional Fremen beliefs than Stilgar’s southern one.
I don’t know if it’s a consistently handled change — Zendaya’s version of the character seems far more publicly sceptical than she is in private — but I feel it’s a good one: it gives Chani more agency, more independence, than she has in the book.
There’s other minor changes through the film: an altered line, here, a dropped scene, there.
Paul’s confrontation with a kidnapped Thufir Hawat, for example, has gone: as has any reference to the son Paul and Chani have had.
Like I say, I can understand all this: and generally approve of the changes.
As they make for a shorter, and more coherent, film.
About my only complaint?
Is about Chani: at least, Chani’s last scene, at the end of the film.
Herbert’s original novel ends after the duel between Paul and Feyd: the one that sees Paul effectively become the new Emperor, and accepting a marriage of convenience to Irulan.
With the book’s last lines being words of re-assusrance: Jessica telling Chani that Paul’s political marriage is a sham, that she (Jessica) and Chani will be remember as the real wives of their respective dukes.
Which isn’t what happens in this film: instead, we see Paul reassuring a distraught Chani of his love her, before ordering the jihad that establishes his rule, and arranging the sham marriage to Irulan.
Right in front of the love of his life
As a result, the last shot of the film is of Chani, summoning a sand worm, ready to head who knows where …
I can understand why Villeneuve’s made this decision: it’s to help set up a potential third Dune movie, one built on Dune Messiah, the second of Herbert’s Dune novels.
I understand the scene, I can appreciate why it’s there, I can approve of most of the changes made to the story in its adaptation to the screen …
I’m just not totally pleased about this one particular scene.
~≈🪱≈~
Part 5: Last Words.
With all that said?
Is Dune: Part Two a good film?
Do it, and its predecessor, make for a good retelling of Frank Herbert’s original story?
Yes: Dune: Part Two is very good, very good indeed.
Even with my complaints about Chani’s last scene, this makes for a good film, in and of itself.
And relatively watchable: even if you’ve not seen part one.
Combined with the first film?
Dune — both parts — make for a very good retelling of Herbert’s novel.
And — despite their lengths — well worth watching.
Should I encourage you to see them?
Absolutely.
Dune: Part One.★★★★Dune: Part Two.★★★★
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