Review: Dune - Part 2 (2024)
(image is fan poster made by Beenum Editz on Reddit)
Dune: Part 2 is visually impressive but is nearly derailed by script and casting choices.
TL;DR review - This is more teen romance than epic science fiction, it looks good but the writers tossed out much of the book and seems to have forgotten most of what happened in Part 1. Zendaya’s portrayal of Chani nearly ruins the movie.
Once again, I am going to try to review this movie as a movie and not as a book adaptation. I may need to address one or two things but this isn’t going to be a side by side comparison of book vs movie. I’m also not going to go overmuch into comparing Dune Part 2 by Denis Villeneuve to the 1984 Dune film by David Lynch. I feel I demonstrated in my Dune Part 1 review that the 1984 version is better, more interesting and truer to the spirit of the novel. I didn’t see anything in Dune 2 to make me change my mind. This time, I’m going to just focus on the new version and see what worked, what didn’t and see if Denis stuck the landing.
That said, famously, Dune (1984) and the novel both begin with a discussion about how important beginnings are. That said, endings are perhaps even more important. A story’s ending is what lingers, it is the last impression you take away from a movie. Endings matter. And Dune Part 2 has one of the worst endings I’ve seen. Is it enough to destroy the movie altogether? Not…quite. If a audience member merely dismisses Chani and Zendaya’s portrayal of her as irrelevant (which it effectively is), then Dune 2 does indeed complete the story begin so leisurely in Dune Part 1. Let’s talk about the movie in general and then I’ll get into specifics of what worked, what didn’t, what was left out and what should have been left out.
Plot
Dune Part 2 picks up immediately after the end of Dune Part 2, in fact I would not be shocked if the footage from the opening actually was filmed at the time. Paul and Jessica’s behavior dovetails nicely with last scene of Part 1 and Jamis’ corpse still lies in its shroud as a reminder to the audience. (Jamis and the consequences of killing him are handled…oddly in Part 2 but I’ll talk about how Dune Part 2 works as a sequel later).
A squad of Harkonnens arrive, looking for…someone. There’s debate about if they’re looking for Paul and Jessica or if they’re just hunting Fremen. At this point in the story, it seems far more likely the former is true but the movie seems to want to side with the Fremen’s interpretation. Which doesn’t make sense as the Harkonnens would still be in the consolidation phase of their invasion, they wouldn’t bother hunting desert rats yet. But the opening scene is quite wonderful. The ships and suits and the killing of the Harkonnens is evocative and interesting (if bloodless, this is a PG-13 story, indeed almost a children’s story). After the Harkonnens are killed, Paul and Jessica are taken to the seitch of Stilgar.
Stilgar seems less of a leader, indeed his role is greatly reduced in power and prestige for some reason compared to the first film. Paul and Jessica are largely rejected by the Fremen although there doesn’t seem to be any real threat or danger to them. Its odd. The death of Jamis is mourned but critically, Paul does not take responsibility for Jamis’ wife and child, which in the novel was yet another way Paul was forced to ‘grow up’ at speed. The early part of the film is filled with religious debate over Paul. Stilgar, in this film, is immediately and completely convinced of Paul’s destiny. It is not a conviction he develops, he doesn’t start out as a leader and ersatz father figure to Paul and then later falls to worshiping him. No, Stilgar is all in on worshiping Paul as a messianic figure. It’s a change both from the book and from Part 1.
The first half of the movie is very much a boy’s adventure tale. Indeed Paul seems to be having the time of his life, running around the desert (We’re told how dangerous and hard life is but we never see it. Denis seems more interested in showing how beautiful it is instead), trying to flirt with the girl of his dreams. This is also the only part of the movie where Zendaya acts believably or appealingly. I am prepared to believe Zendata knows all about boys and dating and her early scenes with Paul where she’s taking him under her wing and speaking up for him are her best scenes. Paul seems to have forgotten revenge or the death of his father (though we do see a prophetic dream of Leto’s skull being enshrined and worshiped. As a fan of the book, I appreciated that but…it’s never brought up again or paid off). We do have fights against the Harkonnens but it’s all played as a lark, not as part of a war. It isn’t even a Fremen desire to drive the Harkonnens off world but seems to be more of the tit-for-tat fighting the Fremen have always done. This is not a war movie (yet) it is just an extended Boy Scout camping expedition.
Jessica, in fact, is the driving force to push Paul into a position of power. Which is odd because she explicitly rejects revenge (which ought to be Paul’s motivation) in a scene that feels like it was filmed during Part 1. But when Jessica is forced to take the Water of Life and become a Reverend Mother (while pregnant), she transforms as well into a bitter, scheming, manipulator. She will MAKE Paul the Lisan Al-Gaib, immediately babbling to Paul that HE must take the Water of Life too….which again feels odd as every other male who has tried the same procedure has died. But then this version of Jessica is not very motherly and Paul treats her more like a friend and companion than as a mother himself.
This meandering first 2/3rds of the movie is actually my favorite part. The depictions of Fremen life is interesting to me and its clear a lot of time and effort went into making and filming it. But very little of plot significance happens. We have a few scenes of the Harkonnens, with Rabban being a terrible leader and the Baron Harkonnen…not doing much of anything. (He is not the master plotter and schemer of the book. He’s not even enjoying his victory over the hereditary enemy of his family) We DO get Feyd-Rautha introduced. I do need to pause a moment here to remark that the screenwriter of Dune Part 2 (Jon Spaihts) is the same screenwriter for Prometheus. Which explains why there are so many bald, waxy, pale people in Dune Part 2. It appears to be a fetish with Jon Spaihts. We also get to see the Emperor, Shaddam IV and his daughter, Princess Irulan. They don’t do much or anything either. We do get Lady Fenring but significantly, not her loving husband Count Fenring, who was a critical wild card in the book and nearly derailed all of Paul’s plans. But here, all we get is a pretty girl seducing Feyd (in a very PG-13 manner) and getting his seed in her belly.
There is no plot happening at this point. Spice production is being curtailed as Paul’s raids go on. And the Baron is quite upset at that and he makes threats to Rabban (which he doesn’t follow up on) but critically, we never see the Spacing Guild. This is a far bigger omission in the story as the Spacing Guild has an absolute monopoly on space travel. Indeed it is the Spacing Guild that pushed around the Emperor, it was the Spacing Guild that the Harkonnens had to bribe to invade Arrakis in the first place. It’s an alteration in the story that guts the plot and the conflicts that should be driving it.
We do have one last character who returns to Part 2, late in the film. Gurney Halleck is acting as a spice pirate and is captured by Paul and his Fremen raiders. Gurney is the last link to the Atredies life that Paul seems to have abandoned. It would have been good to see them talking but we mostly hear about them talking, which is an odd choice. Gurney also has the location of the House Atredies atomics, which he shows to Paul. We do not however get any of the emotional weight that atomic weapons has, how forbidden they are. Instead its treated as ‘cool, I have nukes now’. Baffling writing choices abound in Dune 2.
However the pace picks up at last when Feyd is declared ruler of Arrakis and he…magically seems to know where all the secret Fremen hideouts are. Despite us being shown just how secretive, elusive and mistrustful the Fremen are. Anyway, Feyd bombs the northern Fremen to near destruction and they all flee to the Southern Hemisphere. This is important to Paul as he has had precognitive dreams of a future where war sweeps the galaxy IF he goes south. (the visuals of his visions are strangely lackluster and vague, a rare miss by the director, visually) We are also now entering the portion of the story where Chani goes from supporting Paul to nagging him, opposing him, and scowling at him. Oh, so much scowling. It’s damn near the only facial expression Zendaya seems to have, it certainly is the one she uses the most. However, Paul is basically forced into traveling South in the end, unable or unwilling to fight his fate.
It is only when Paul decides to embrace his destiny that the movie and Paul start to have agency and direction. Paul takes the Water of Life (unlike the 1984 movie, not a lot is made of the failure of the precogniton he’d been relying on in his battle with the Harkonnens. It’s mentioned but in a blink and you’ll miss it manner rather than the dramatic apotheosis of Lynch’s version). After drinking the forbidden liquid, he lies in suspended animation. He appears dead, in fact, which ties into the myths and legends around him. It takes Chani who, sulking and raging, revives Paul with poor grace or gratitude. In fact, Chani shows no concern for Paul, rather raging at Jessica and even after he revives, she doesn’t seem happy about it. (Chani is a sulky teenager and those are always fun to see on screen and real life.) However the Water of Life did in fact change Paul. It not only unlocked vast mental power (which we don’t see in use but we see the effects of it.) but it motivates Paul to take control of the Fremen and use them to attack the Harkonnens and the Emperor himself.
Paul sends a missive off world, declaring himself to the Emperor, setting in motion the final plot movements. A massive attack by the Fremen (apparently without bothering to recapture the North) is put in motion as an assault by sandworms in the middle of a sandstorm (sandstorm not pictured) cripples the Emperor’s troops and the Harkonnens. Paul kills the Baron Harkonnen, then has a duel with Feyd…not on personal grounds but as the Emperor’s proxy. Because apparently Wakanda rules are in effect here? Again, poor writing but the fight ends the way it was always going to, despite bad camera work and Feyd dies. The Emperor kneels to Paul and kisses his ring and Paul marries Princess Irulan and Chani pouts and storms out and that’s the last image of the movie…Chani scowling at the camera.
What worked
Before I go into the problems and mistakes, I want to take some time to give credit where credit is due.
Denis Villeneuve and Greig Fraser (the Cinematographer), The art, set and costume design team have created masterpieces. This is a sumptuous movie to look at, full of interesting, functional technological gadgets, wild designs, and natural beauty in abundance. I’m sure the look of the film will distract and delight many.
I also have to give credit to Timothee Chalamet, he caries this movie on his shoulders. And he proved to me that he can act. He is charming and gentle, pouring out love unconditionally to ungrateful, scowling child, a feat of true acting prowess. I thought his version of Paul was greatly inferior to the 1984 version but he won me over in Part 2 here.
Javier Bardem’s Stilgar is derailed badly but the actor is very good with what he is given. Josh Brolin is also the only other actor with any charisma and his few scenes have real spark. I particularly liked him manhandling Chani as he seems to be the only person not willing to put up with her sulky bullshit.
The scene where Paul addresses the Southern Fremen and claims the role of Lisan Al Gaib is wonderfully well done. Probably the best performance I’ve seen in the whole film duology.
I think that’s it for good stuff but for once, the quantity of what worked does not equal the quality and impact. Visually this is going to win a lot of fans, as will Timothee Chalamet.
What didn’t work
I’m going to be careful as I can to not just go into a constant whining fit here and try to make my objections factual and not just emotional. I don’t ever want to be Chani.
But let’s start with her: Chani doesn’t work. Zendaya doesn’t work as Chani. She is a turd in the punchbowl. Her scowling and petulant behavior makes it impossible to feel any sympathy for her. Her lack of overt affection or concern for Paul as a man makes the romance impossible to be believed in. When Paul announces he will marry Princess Irulan, the reaction of the audience is going to be ‘oh no’, it’s going to be ‘well, he dodged a bullet’. The movie tries very, very hard to make the story about Chani, not about Paul. I know why they did this (as does The Critical Drinker, I suspect) but it doesn’t work. For all the liberties taken with the story of Dune, Chani actually has very little to do. Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve do their best to take the focus off Paul and put it on Chani but they can’t make up enough for her to do. She doesn’t matter except as far as she matters to Paul. In a way, that’s the salvation of the film. If you ignore Chani, she can’t ruin anything.
Next has to be the writing. It appears that Jon Spaihts tossed out most of the latter half of the book in an effort to write his own story with his own scenes. And it mostly doesn’t work. Jon Spaihts is a hack fraud screenwriter. He is not Frank Herbert. He creates no quotable dialog. His story changes remove the motivations and drama that was there. He took one element from Dune (the false messiah) and made that his focus rather than power and revenge, love and family.
How it works as a Sequel. This is one of the strangest parts of Dune Part 2. Because it feels more like a standalone movie. We have very few characters returning from the first film and apart from Paul and Jessica, none of the returning characters DO much. This movie is very much in the hands of the new cast and they drive the action and provide the motivations. You never get the feeling of Paul being motivated by revenge or grief of his father’s death, you never feel the weight of the death of his friends and mentors. It’s never a personal film, for anyone. It’s just…stuff that happens.
Removing the Spacing Guild. The true powers behind the throne, one of them at least along with the Bene Gesserit, they are utterly dependant on the Spice. And so is all of galactic civilization. No spice, no space travel. Threats to spice production should have brought about immediate pressure. The Guild in fact is a secret ally to the Fremen. Another missed opportunity.
Removing the Mentats and Thufur Hawat in particular. Mentats are a critical part of the plot and story as well. Paul received mentat training, which along with Jessica’s training is what allowed him to be the Quizach Haderach at all. Mentats may appear in the film, in the background, but they are removed from the plot and universe. As Thfur’s abduction by the Harkonnens was a major source of drama, literally removing this character from the story cuts out much of the drama that drove the second half of the story. I guess all that was cut so we could get more desert Boy Scouts camping.
Altering the motivation for the Atreides destruction. Previously, the Harkonnens and the Atredies were hereditary enemies. The Emperor allowed and aided the Harkonnens because he feared Duke Leto’s popularity and because he feared the army he had created. He didn’t think Leto was weak. Neither did the Bene Gesserit. In fact the statement in the movie that the Atreides bloodline was to be wiped out is so anathema to the whole purpose of the Bene Gesserit, I can only think that the screenwriters didn’t read or drastically perverted the book to provide their own motivations.
Casting Christopher Walken as the Emperor and then wasting him. I think Walken has 3 paragraphs of dialog in the whole movie. In the last scene, rather than any regal dress, he seems to be wearing a dressing gown. This has to be a deliberate choice but I’m baffled by it. This Emperor does nothing, moves nothing.
Stilgar’s derailment. This is a waste of a good actor and a wasted opportunity to show how worship twists a healthy relationship into something lesser. By starting the movie with Stilgar believing in Paul to be the fulfillment of prophesy, it leaves him with nowhere to go. Further, the movie mocks him for his faith, which diminishes him as a character and makes him more of a joke than a strong leader. And it ties into my next complaint…
Dislike of religion and prophesy. This is hammered home over and over again about how faith in Paul is false faith, that the prophecies he is fulfilling were planted by the Bene Gesserits. Which is all true…until it’s not. Because Paul IS fulfilling prophesies without trying to. The movie seems to hate people having faith. And yet…the people who have faith in Paul are the ones who are rewarded. Their faith is justified because Paul is in fact the fulfillment of prophesy, regardless of who created it and why. He may have stumbled into it, but too much happens that lines up for it to have been pure fiction, just taking the movie at its own word here and not adding any extra metaphysics. This isn’t just a rich noble boy falling into a role and taking it on like an actor. This is a mentat-trained, Bene Gesserit trained, Quidditch Haderach candidate who comes to them. That was no one’s plot or ploy.
But the biggest failure I think is in how they treated Paul. Paul is unique in the universe. He actually IS the destined chosen one…only he arrived a generation too early, uncontrolled. He has the ability to see the future even before he takes the water of life. After, he has access to the memories of a thousand generations of his male ancestors. He also (supposedly) has access to all the Bene Gesserit powers, including truthtelling, telepathy, and of course The Voice. But we don’t get to see he use these powers except for once brief moment in the big moment where he claims the title of Lisan Al Gaib. I guess he does use The Voice once afterwards too. But by putting the focus on others, Chani in particular, rather than on Paul…we are robbed of the opportunity to see what makes Paul special. Instead as the film goes on, we see Paul increasingly from the outside rather than staying with him and seeing Dune and his destiny from his point of view.
Summary
I won’t go into what I would have done differently too much. I think different casting and choosing different drama threads would go a long way. The editing is also too leisurely. I actually happened to like the Boy Scout Camping adventure but it can’t be denied that focusing on that means that screen time isn’t dedicated to plot and drama.
It also feels very much like a standalone movie, which is odd for something that literally has ‘Part 2’ in its title but this feels very disconnected from Dune Part 1.
So many characters are short changed or altered to be unrecognizable. Lady Jessica in particularly isn’t the book character but she does serve her purpose and serves the movie’s needs.
So, the movie was wrapped up, and there are plot threads to tie into a sequel. It did not end as epically as the 1984 film, it isn’t as memorable in characters, antagonists, or dialog. My only hope is that it will motivate people to seek out the book and dive into the riches there.
(image is fan poster made by Beenum Editz on Reddit)
Dune: Part 2 is visually impressive but is nearly derailed by script and casting choices.
TL;DR review - This is more teen romance than epic science fiction, it looks good but the writers tossed out much of the book and seems to have forgotten most of what happened in Part 1. Zendaya’s portrayal of Chani nearly ruins the movie.
Once again, I am going to try to review this movie as a movie and not as a book adaptation. I may need to address one or two things but this isn’t going to be a side by side comparison of book vs movie. I’m also not going to go overmuch into comparing Dune Part 2 by Denis Villeneuve to the 1984 Dune film by David Lynch. I feel I demonstrated in my Dune Part 1 review that the 1984 version is better, more interesting and truer to the spirit of the novel. I didn’t see anything in Dune 2 to make me change my mind. This time, I’m going to just focus on the new version and see what worked, what didn’t and see if Denis stuck the landing.
That said, famously, Dune (1984) and the novel both begin with a discussion about how important beginnings are. That said, endings are perhaps even more important. A story’s ending is what lingers, it is the last impression you take away from a movie. Endings matter. And Dune Part 2 has one of the worst endings I’ve seen. Is it enough to destroy the movie altogether? Not…quite. If a audience member merely dismisses Chani and Zendaya’s portrayal of her as irrelevant (which it effectively is), then Dune 2 does indeed complete the story begin so leisurely in Dune Part 1. Let’s talk about the movie in general and then I’ll get into specifics of what worked, what didn’t, what was left out and what should have been left out.
Plot
Dune Part 2 picks up immediately after the end of Dune Part 2, in fact I would not be shocked if the footage from the opening actually was filmed at the time. Paul and Jessica’s behavior dovetails nicely with last scene of Part 1 and Jamis’ corpse still lies in its shroud as a reminder to the audience. (Jamis and the consequences of killing him are handled…oddly in Part 2 but I’ll talk about how Dune Part 2 works as a sequel later).
A squad of Harkonnens arrive, looking for…someone. There’s debate about if they’re looking for Paul and Jessica or if they’re just hunting Fremen. At this point in the story, it seems far more likely the former is true but the movie seems to want to side with the Fremen’s interpretation. Which doesn’t make sense as the Harkonnens would still be in the consolidation phase of their invasion, they wouldn’t bother hunting desert rats yet. But the opening scene is quite wonderful. The ships and suits and the killing of the Harkonnens is evocative and interesting (if bloodless, this is a PG-13 story, indeed almost a children’s story). After the Harkonnens are killed, Paul and Jessica are taken to the seitch of Stilgar.
Stilgar seems less of a leader, indeed his role is greatly reduced in power and prestige for some reason compared to the first film. Paul and Jessica are largely rejected by the Fremen although there doesn’t seem to be any real threat or danger to them. Its odd. The death of Jamis is mourned but critically, Paul does not take responsibility for Jamis’ wife and child, which in the novel was yet another way Paul was forced to ‘grow up’ at speed. The early part of the film is filled with religious debate over Paul. Stilgar, in this film, is immediately and completely convinced of Paul’s destiny. It is not a conviction he develops, he doesn’t start out as a leader and ersatz father figure to Paul and then later falls to worshiping him. No, Stilgar is all in on worshiping Paul as a messianic figure. It’s a change both from the book and from Part 1.
The first half of the movie is very much a boy’s adventure tale. Indeed Paul seems to be having the time of his life, running around the desert (We’re told how dangerous and hard life is but we never see it. Denis seems more interested in showing how beautiful it is instead), trying to flirt with the girl of his dreams. This is also the only part of the movie where Zendaya acts believably or appealingly. I am prepared to believe Zendata knows all about boys and dating and her early scenes with Paul where she’s taking him under her wing and speaking up for him are her best scenes. Paul seems to have forgotten revenge or the death of his father (though we do see a prophetic dream of Leto’s skull being enshrined and worshiped. As a fan of the book, I appreciated that but…it’s never brought up again or paid off). We do have fights against the Harkonnens but it’s all played as a lark, not as part of a war. It isn’t even a Fremen desire to drive the Harkonnens off world but seems to be more of the tit-for-tat fighting the Fremen have always done. This is not a war movie (yet) it is just an extended Boy Scout camping expedition.
Jessica, in fact, is the driving force to push Paul into a position of power. Which is odd because she explicitly rejects revenge (which ought to be Paul’s motivation) in a scene that feels like it was filmed during Part 1. But when Jessica is forced to take the Water of Life and become a Reverend Mother (while pregnant), she transforms as well into a bitter, scheming, manipulator. She will MAKE Paul the Lisan Al-Gaib, immediately babbling to Paul that HE must take the Water of Life too….which again feels odd as every other male who has tried the same procedure has died. But then this version of Jessica is not very motherly and Paul treats her more like a friend and companion than as a mother himself.
This meandering first 2/3rds of the movie is actually my favorite part. The depictions of Fremen life is interesting to me and its clear a lot of time and effort went into making and filming it. But very little of plot significance happens. We have a few scenes of the Harkonnens, with Rabban being a terrible leader and the Baron Harkonnen…not doing much of anything. (He is not the master plotter and schemer of the book. He’s not even enjoying his victory over the hereditary enemy of his family) We DO get Feyd-Rautha introduced. I do need to pause a moment here to remark that the screenwriter of Dune Part 2 (Jon Spaihts) is the same screenwriter for Prometheus. Which explains why there are so many bald, waxy, pale people in Dune Part 2. It appears to be a fetish with Jon Spaihts. We also get to see the Emperor, Shaddam IV and his daughter, Princess Irulan. They don’t do much or anything either. We do get Lady Fenring but significantly, not her loving husband Count Fenring, who was a critical wild card in the book and nearly derailed all of Paul’s plans. But here, all we get is a pretty girl seducing Feyd (in a very PG-13 manner) and getting his seed in her belly.
There is no plot happening at this point. Spice production is being curtailed as Paul’s raids go on. And the Baron is quite upset at that and he makes threats to Rabban (which he doesn’t follow up on) but critically, we never see the Spacing Guild. This is a far bigger omission in the story as the Spacing Guild has an absolute monopoly on space travel. Indeed it is the Spacing Guild that pushed around the Emperor, it was the Spacing Guild that the Harkonnens had to bribe to invade Arrakis in the first place. It’s an alteration in the story that guts the plot and the conflicts that should be driving it.
We do have one last character who returns to Part 2, late in the film. Gurney Halleck is acting as a spice pirate and is captured by Paul and his Fremen raiders. Gurney is the last link to the Atredies life that Paul seems to have abandoned. It would have been good to see them talking but we mostly hear about them talking, which is an odd choice. Gurney also has the location of the House Atredies atomics, which he shows to Paul. We do not however get any of the emotional weight that atomic weapons has, how forbidden they are. Instead its treated as ‘cool, I have nukes now’. Baffling writing choices abound in Dune 2.
However the pace picks up at last when Feyd is declared ruler of Arrakis and he…magically seems to know where all the secret Fremen hideouts are. Despite us being shown just how secretive, elusive and mistrustful the Fremen are. Anyway, Feyd bombs the northern Fremen to near destruction and they all flee to the Southern Hemisphere. This is important to Paul as he has had precognitive dreams of a future where war sweeps the galaxy IF he goes south. (the visuals of his visions are strangely lackluster and vague, a rare miss by the director, visually) We are also now entering the portion of the story where Chani goes from supporting Paul to nagging him, opposing him, and scowling at him. Oh, so much scowling. It’s damn near the only facial expression Zendaya seems to have, it certainly is the one she uses the most. However, Paul is basically forced into traveling South in the end, unable or unwilling to fight his fate.
It is only when Paul decides to embrace his destiny that the movie and Paul start to have agency and direction. Paul takes the Water of Life (unlike the 1984 movie, not a lot is made of the failure of the precogniton he’d been relying on in his battle with the Harkonnens. It’s mentioned but in a blink and you’ll miss it manner rather than the dramatic apotheosis of Lynch’s version). After drinking the forbidden liquid, he lies in suspended animation. He appears dead, in fact, which ties into the myths and legends around him. It takes Chani who, sulking and raging, revives Paul with poor grace or gratitude. In fact, Chani shows no concern for Paul, rather raging at Jessica and even after he revives, she doesn’t seem happy about it. (Chani is a sulky teenager and those are always fun to see on screen and real life.) However the Water of Life did in fact change Paul. It not only unlocked vast mental power (which we don’t see in use but we see the effects of it.) but it motivates Paul to take control of the Fremen and use them to attack the Harkonnens and the Emperor himself.
Paul sends a missive off world, declaring himself to the Emperor, setting in motion the final plot movements. A massive attack by the Fremen (apparently without bothering to recapture the North) is put in motion as an assault by sandworms in the middle of a sandstorm (sandstorm not pictured) cripples the Emperor’s troops and the Harkonnens. Paul kills the Baron Harkonnen, then has a duel with Feyd…not on personal grounds but as the Emperor’s proxy. Because apparently Wakanda rules are in effect here? Again, poor writing but the fight ends the way it was always going to, despite bad camera work and Feyd dies. The Emperor kneels to Paul and kisses his ring and Paul marries Princess Irulan and Chani pouts and storms out and that’s the last image of the movie…Chani scowling at the camera.
What worked
Before I go into the problems and mistakes, I want to take some time to give credit where credit is due.
Denis Villeneuve and Greig Fraser (the Cinematographer), The art, set and costume design team have created masterpieces. This is a sumptuous movie to look at, full of interesting, functional technological gadgets, wild designs, and natural beauty in abundance. I’m sure the look of the film will distract and delight many.
I also have to give credit to Timothee Chalamet, he caries this movie on his shoulders. And he proved to me that he can act. He is charming and gentle, pouring out love unconditionally to ungrateful, scowling child, a feat of true acting prowess. I thought his version of Paul was greatly inferior to the 1984 version but he won me over in Part 2 here.
Javier Bardem’s Stilgar is derailed badly but the actor is very good with what he is given. Josh Brolin is also the only other actor with any charisma and his few scenes have real spark. I particularly liked him manhandling Chani as he seems to be the only person not willing to put up with her sulky bullshit.
The scene where Paul addresses the Southern Fremen and claims the role of Lisan Al Gaib is wonderfully well done. Probably the best performance I’ve seen in the whole film duology.
I think that’s it for good stuff but for once, the quantity of what worked does not equal the quality and impact. Visually this is going to win a lot of fans, as will Timothee Chalamet.
What didn’t work
I’m going to be careful as I can to not just go into a constant whining fit here and try to make my objections factual and not just emotional. I don’t ever want to be Chani.
But let’s start with her: Chani doesn’t work. Zendaya doesn’t work as Chani. She is a turd in the punchbowl. Her scowling and petulant behavior makes it impossible to feel any sympathy for her. Her lack of overt affection or concern for Paul as a man makes the romance impossible to be believed in. When Paul announces he will marry Princess Irulan, the reaction of the audience is going to be ‘oh no’, it’s going to be ‘well, he dodged a bullet’. The movie tries very, very hard to make the story about Chani, not about Paul. I know why they did this (as does The Critical Drinker, I suspect) but it doesn’t work. For all the liberties taken with the story of Dune, Chani actually has very little to do. Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve do their best to take the focus off Paul and put it on Chani but they can’t make up enough for her to do. She doesn’t matter except as far as she matters to Paul. In a way, that’s the salvation of the film. If you ignore Chani, she can’t ruin anything.
Next has to be the writing. It appears that Jon Spaihts tossed out most of the latter half of the book in an effort to write his own story with his own scenes. And it mostly doesn’t work. Jon Spaihts is a hack fraud screenwriter. He is not Frank Herbert. He creates no quotable dialog. His story changes remove the motivations and drama that was there. He took one element from Dune (the false messiah) and made that his focus rather than power and revenge, love and family.
How it works as a Sequel. This is one of the strangest parts of Dune Part 2. Because it feels more like a standalone movie. We have very few characters returning from the first film and apart from Paul and Jessica, none of the returning characters DO much. This movie is very much in the hands of the new cast and they drive the action and provide the motivations. You never get the feeling of Paul being motivated by revenge or grief of his father’s death, you never feel the weight of the death of his friends and mentors. It’s never a personal film, for anyone. It’s just…stuff that happens.
Removing the Spacing Guild. The true powers behind the throne, one of them at least along with the Bene Gesserit, they are utterly dependant on the Spice. And so is all of galactic civilization. No spice, no space travel. Threats to spice production should have brought about immediate pressure. The Guild in fact is a secret ally to the Fremen. Another missed opportunity.
Removing the Mentats and Thufur Hawat in particular. Mentats are a critical part of the plot and story as well. Paul received mentat training, which along with Jessica’s training is what allowed him to be the Quizach Haderach at all. Mentats may appear in the film, in the background, but they are removed from the plot and universe. As Thfur’s abduction by the Harkonnens was a major source of drama, literally removing this character from the story cuts out much of the drama that drove the second half of the story. I guess all that was cut so we could get more desert Boy Scouts camping.
Altering the motivation for the Atreides destruction. Previously, the Harkonnens and the Atredies were hereditary enemies. The Emperor allowed and aided the Harkonnens because he feared Duke Leto’s popularity and because he feared the army he had created. He didn’t think Leto was weak. Neither did the Bene Gesserit. In fact the statement in the movie that the Atreides bloodline was to be wiped out is so anathema to the whole purpose of the Bene Gesserit, I can only think that the screenwriters didn’t read or drastically perverted the book to provide their own motivations.
Casting Christopher Walken as the Emperor and then wasting him. I think Walken has 3 paragraphs of dialog in the whole movie. In the last scene, rather than any regal dress, he seems to be wearing a dressing gown. This has to be a deliberate choice but I’m baffled by it. This Emperor does nothing, moves nothing.
Stilgar’s derailment. This is a waste of a good actor and a wasted opportunity to show how worship twists a healthy relationship into something lesser. By starting the movie with Stilgar believing in Paul to be the fulfillment of prophesy, it leaves him with nowhere to go. Further, the movie mocks him for his faith, which diminishes him as a character and makes him more of a joke than a strong leader. And it ties into my next complaint…
Dislike of religion and prophesy. This is hammered home over and over again about how faith in Paul is false faith, that the prophecies he is fulfilling were planted by the Bene Gesserits. Which is all true…until it’s not. Because Paul IS fulfilling prophesies without trying to. The movie seems to hate people having faith. And yet…the people who have faith in Paul are the ones who are rewarded. Their faith is justified because Paul is in fact the fulfillment of prophesy, regardless of who created it and why. He may have stumbled into it, but too much happens that lines up for it to have been pure fiction, just taking the movie at its own word here and not adding any extra metaphysics. This isn’t just a rich noble boy falling into a role and taking it on like an actor. This is a mentat-trained, Bene Gesserit trained, Quidditch Haderach candidate who comes to them. That was no one’s plot or ploy.
But the biggest failure I think is in how they treated Paul. Paul is unique in the universe. He actually IS the destined chosen one…only he arrived a generation too early, uncontrolled. He has the ability to see the future even before he takes the water of life. After, he has access to the memories of a thousand generations of his male ancestors. He also (supposedly) has access to all the Bene Gesserit powers, including truthtelling, telepathy, and of course The Voice. But we don’t get to see he use these powers except for once brief moment in the big moment where he claims the title of Lisan Al Gaib. I guess he does use The Voice once afterwards too. But by putting the focus on others, Chani in particular, rather than on Paul…we are robbed of the opportunity to see what makes Paul special. Instead as the film goes on, we see Paul increasingly from the outside rather than staying with him and seeing Dune and his destiny from his point of view.
Summary
I won’t go into what I would have done differently too much. I think different casting and choosing different drama threads would go a long way. The editing is also too leisurely. I actually happened to like the Boy Scout Camping adventure but it can’t be denied that focusing on that means that screen time isn’t dedicated to plot and drama.
It also feels very much like a standalone movie, which is odd for something that literally has ‘Part 2’ in its title but this feels very disconnected from Dune Part 1.
So many characters are short changed or altered to be unrecognizable. Lady Jessica in particularly isn’t the book character but she does serve her purpose and serves the movie’s needs.
So, the movie was wrapped up, and there are plot threads to tie into a sequel. It did not end as epically as the 1984 film, it isn’t as memorable in characters, antagonists, or dialog. My only hope is that it will motivate people to seek out the book and dive into the riches there.
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